Internet of Drones (IoD): Threats, Vulnerability, and Security Perspectives

The development of the Internet of Drones (IoD) becomes vital because of a proliferation of drone-based civilian or military applications. The IoD based technological revolution upgrades the current Internet environment into a more pervasive and ubiquitous world. IoD is capable of enhancing the state-of-the-art for drones while leveraging services from the existing cellular networks. Irrespective to a vast domain and range of applications, IoD is vulnerable to malicious attacks over open-air radio space. Due to increasing threats and attacks, there has been a lot of attention on deploying security measures for IoD networks. In this paper, critical threats and vulnerabilities of IoD are presented. Moreover, taxonomy is created to classify attacks based on the threats and vulnerabilities associated with the networking of drone and their incorporation in the existing cellular setups. In addition, this article summarizes the challenges and research directions to be followed for the security of IoD.Comment: 13 pages, 3 Figures, 1 Table, The 3rd International Symposium on Mobile Internet Security (MobiSec'18), Auguest 29-September 1, 2018, Cebu, Philippines, Article No. 37, pp. 1-1

A Survey on the Security and the Evolution of Osmotic and Catalytic Computing for 5G Networks

The 5G networks have the capability to provide high compatibility for the new applications, industries, and business models. These networks can tremendously improve the quality of life by enabling various use cases that require high data-rate, low latency, and continuous connectivity for applications pertaining to eHealth, automatic vehicles, smart cities, smart grid, and the Internet of Things (IoT). However, these applications need secure servicing as well as resource policing for effective network formations. There have been a lot of studies, which emphasized the security aspects of 5G networks while focusing only on the adaptability features of these networks. However, there is a gap in the literature which particularly needs to follow recent computing paradigms as alternative mechanisms for the enhancement of security. To cover this, a detailed description of the security for the 5G networks is presented in this article along with the discussions on the evolution of osmotic and catalytic computing-based security modules. The taxonomy on the basis of security requirements is presented, which also includes the comparison of the existing state-of-the-art solutions. This article also provides a security model, "CATMOSIS", which idealizes the incorporation of security features on the basis of catalytic and osmotic computing in the 5G networks. Finally, various security challenges and open issues are discussed to emphasize the works to follow in this direction of research.Comment: 34 pages, 7 tables, 7 figures, Published In 5G Enabled Secure Wireless Networks, pp. 69-102. Springer, Cham, 201

Cellular, Wide-Area, and Non-Terrestrial IoT: A Survey on 5G Advances and the Road Towards 6G

The next wave of wireless technologies is proliferating in connecting things among themselves as well as to humans. In the era of the Internet of things (IoT), billions of sensors, machines, vehicles, drones, and robots will be connected, making the world around us smarter. The IoT will encompass devices that must wirelessly communicate a diverse set of data gathered from the environment for myriad new applications. The ultimate goal is to extract insights from this data and develop solutions that improve quality of life and generate new revenue. Providing large-scale, long-lasting, reliable, and near real-time connectivity is the major challenge in enabling a smart connected world. This paper provides a comprehensive survey on existing and emerging communication solutions for serving IoT applications in the context of cellular, wide-area, as well as non-terrestrial networks. Specifically, wireless technology enhancements for providing IoT access in fifth-generation (5G) and beyond cellular networks, and communication networks over the unlicensed spectrum are presented. Aligned with the main key performance indicators of 5G and beyond 5G networks, we investigate solutions and standards that enable energy efficiency, reliability, low latency, and scalability (connection density) of current and future IoT networks. The solutions include grant-free access and channel coding for short-packet communications, non-orthogonal multiple access, and on-device intelligence. Further, a vision of new paradigm shifts in communication networks in the 2030s is provided, and the integration of the associated new technologies like artificial intelligence, non-terrestrial networks, and new spectra is elaborated. Finally, future research directions toward beyond 5G IoT networks are pointed out.Comment: Submitted for review to IEEE CS&

Cybersecurity of Industrial Cyber-Physical Systems: A Review

Industrial cyber-physical systems (ICPSs) manage critical infrastructures by controlling the processes based on the "physics" data gathered by edge sensor networks. Recent innovations in ubiquitous computing and communication technologies have prompted the rapid integration of highly interconnected systems to ICPSs. Hence, the "security by obscurity" principle provided by air-gapping is no longer followed. As the interconnectivity in ICPSs increases, so does the attack surface. Industrial vulnerability assessment reports have shown that a variety of new vulnerabilities have occurred due to this transition while the most common ones are related to weak boundary protection. Although there are existing surveys in this context, very little is mentioned regarding these reports. This paper bridges this gap by defining and reviewing ICPSs from a cybersecurity perspective. In particular, multi-dimensional adaptive attack taxonomy is presented and utilized for evaluating real-life ICPS cyber incidents. We also identify the general shortcomings and highlight the points that cause a gap in existing literature while defining future research directions.Comment: 32 pages, 10 figure

A Dynamic Policy License for Wireless Spectrum Management

Electromagnetic spectrum for wireless communications is fully allocated by regulatory authorities, but this does not mean that it is fully utilized. Demand for greater capacity and new services requires new regulatory and technical models for spectrum sharing. This thesis develops a regulatory model denoted the dynamic policy license. The dynamic policy license combines the assurances to licensees that come from holding a fixed license while maintaining regulatory flexibility. A dynamic policy license is similar to a traditional spectrum license that specifies a bandwidth, power, center frequency, location, and other parameters. However, one or more of these parameters is subject to change by the regulator over time. The allowed changes are restricted by the license to provide assurances and predictability to the licensee. The opportunities and challenges that this presents to both regulators and licensees is described.We examine, retrospectively, the application of the dynamic policy license to the case of Nextel Communications interfering with public safety communications. The resolution required several proposals by the FCC and others and over 2,200 filings by interested parties. Our license proposal is intended to provide flexibility and certainty to a variety of situations, including (1) changes in technology, demand, or use; (2) coexistence between multiple services; and (3) efficient use of spectrum over time.Spectrum issues such as allocation and allotment, assignment, service rules, and compliance and enforcement continue as contentious management issues. We suggest that existing fixed licensing models are sub-optimal, and in some cases are themselves the source of inflexibility and artificial scarcity. We contribute development of a license model that augments existing approaches across a wide range of governance models and assignment strategies.Increasing pressure on spectrum resources has prompted new approaches to spectrum sharing and coexistence. A blockchain-based smart contract in conjunction with the dynamic policy license is one approach to managing radio operations and spectrum needs. Smart contracts enable spectrum policies to move beyond static documents to become autonomous, dynamic, self-enforcing, secure, transparent, and auditable code that runs on the blockchain

Applications

Volume 3 describes how resource-aware machine learning methods and techniques are used to successfully solve real-world problems. The book provides numerous specific application examples: in health and medicine for risk modelling, diagnosis, and treatment selection for diseases in electronics, steel production and milling for quality control during manufacturing processes in traffic, logistics for smart cities and for mobile communications

A Low-Energy Security Solution for IoT-Based Smart Farms

This work proposes a novel configuration of the Transport Layer Security protocol (TLS), suitable for low energy Internet of Things (IoT), applications. The motivation behind the redesign of TLS is energy consumption minimisation and sustainable farming, as exemplified by an application domain of aquaponic smart farms. The work therefore considers decentralisation of a formerly centralised security model, with a focus on reducing energy consumption for battery powered devices. The research presents a four-part investigation into the security solution, composed of a risk assessment, energy analysis of authentication and data exchange functions, and finally the design and verification of a novel consensus authorisation mechanism. The first investigation considered traditional risk-driven threat assessment, but to include energy reduction, working towards device longevity within a content-oriented framework. Since the aquaponics environments include limited but specific data exchanges, a content-oriented approach produced valuable insights into security and privacy requirements that would later be tested by implementing a variety of mechanisms available on the ESP32. The second and third investigations featured the energy analysis of authentication and data exchange functions respectively, where the results of the risk assessment were implemented to compare the re-configurations of TLS mechanisms and domain content. Results concluded that selective confidentiality and persistent secure sessions between paired devices enabled considerable improvements for energy consumptions, and were a good reflection of the possibilities suggested by the risk assessment. The fourth and final investigation proposed a granular authorisation design to increase the safety of access control that would otherwise be binary in TLS. The motivation was for damage mitigation from inside attacks or network faults. The approach involved an automated, hierarchy-based, decentralised network topology to reduce data duplication whilst still providing robustness beyond the vulnerability of central governance. Formal verification using model-checking indicated a safe design model, using four automated back-ends. The research concludes that lower energy IoT solutions for the smart farm application domain are possible

Applications

Volume 3 describes how resource-aware machine learning methods and techniques are used to successfully solve real-world problems. The book provides numerous specific application examples: in health and medicine for risk modelling, diagnosis, and treatment selection for diseases in electronics, steel production and milling for quality control during manufacturing processes in traffic, logistics for smart cities and for mobile communications