Cyber Security of Critical Infrastructures

Critical infrastructures are vital assets for public safety, economic welfare, and the national security of countries. The vulnerabilities of critical infrastructures have increased with the widespread use of information technologies. As Critical National Infrastructures are becoming more vulnerable to cyber-attacks, their protection becomes a significant issue for organizations as well as nations. The risks to continued operations, from failing to upgrade aging infrastructure or not meeting mandated regulatory regimes, are considered highly significant, given the demonstrable impact of such circumstances. Due to the rapid increase of sophisticated cyber threats targeting critical infrastructures with significant destructive effects, the cybersecurity of critical infrastructures has become an agenda item for academics, practitioners, and policy makers. A holistic view which covers technical, policy, human, and behavioural aspects is essential to handle cyber security of critical infrastructures effectively. Moreover, the ability to attribute crimes to criminals is a vital element of avoiding impunity in cyberspace. In this book, both research and practical aspects of cyber security considerations in critical infrastructures are presented. Aligned with the interdisciplinary nature of cyber security, authors from academia, government, and industry have contributed 13 chapters. The issues that are discussed and analysed include cybersecurity training, maturity assessment frameworks, malware analysis techniques, ransomware attacks, security solutions for industrial control systems, and privacy preservation methods

Towards sustainable e-learning platforms in the context of cybersecurity: A TAM-driven approach

The rapid growth of electronic learning (e-learning) platforms has raised concerns about cybersecurity risks. The vulnerability of university students to cyberattacks and privacy concerns within e-learning platforms presents a pressing issue. Students’ frequent and intense internet presence, coupled with their extensive computer usage, puts them at higher risk of being a potential victim of cyberattacks. This problem necessitates a deeper understanding in order to enhance cybersecurity measures and safeguard students’ privacy and intellectual property in educational environments. This dissertation work addresses the following research questions: (a) To what extent do cybersecurity perspectives affect student’s intention to use e-learning platforms? (b) To what extent do students’ privacy concerns affect their intention to use e-learning platforms? (c) To what extent does students’ cybersecurity awareness affect their intention to use e-learning platforms? (d) To what extent do academic integrity concerns affect their intention to use e-learning platforms? and (e) To what extent does students’ computer self-efficacy affect their intention to use e-learning platforms? This study was conducted using an enhanced version of the technology acceptance model (TAM3) to examine the factors influencing students’ intention to use e-learning platforms. The study involved undergraduate and graduate students at Eastern Michigan University, and data were collected through a web-based questionnaire. The questionnaire was developed using the Qualtrics tool and included validated measures and scales with close-ended questions. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 28, and the significance level for hypothesis testing was set at 0.05. Out of 6,800 distributed surveys, 590 responses were received, and after data cleaning, 582 responses were included in the final sample. The findings revealed that cybersecurity perspectives, cybersecurity awareness, academic integrity concerns, and computer self-efficacy significantly influenced students’ intention to use e-learning platforms. The study has implications for practitioners, educators, and researchers involved in designing secure e-learning platforms, emphasizing the importance of cybersecurity and recommending effective cybersecurity training programs to enhance user engagement. Overall, the study highlights the role of cybersecurity in promoting the adoption and usage of e-learning platforms, providing valuable insights for developers and educators to create secure e-learning environments and benefiting stakeholders in the e-learning industry

Polycommit: Building Better Habits Through Gamification

Computer-assisted learning is older than Turing machines, and constantly evolves as technology improves. While some teachers are resistant to using technology in the classroom, “e-learning” techniques are becoming more common in almost every school, from K-12 to universities. As technology becomes more widespread, it becomes crucial to examine the various methodologies of computer-assisted learning and find the techniques that are most effective. This paper explores the effectiveness of one such methodology, spaced repetition. This technique applies to homework assignments available to students online. We include an exploration of several existing apps that use this technique, and introduce our own novel app, Polycommit. Polycommit was developed for use with several Cal Poly classes and was deployed during the first half of the Spring 2017 quarter. With careful attention to user feedback, we created a tool that motivated students to form better study habits. While our results do not show statistically significant improvement to student grades, this tool gives insight into how modern technology and gamification can be leveraged to create an engaging app that encourages positive study habits, and gives us a platform to develop future applications concerning gamification

Developing an activity-based user interface for remote experimentation for science education in schools

As technology continues to expand at an exponential rate our lives become infinitely more connected and complex, this creates an opportunity however, in the form of more highly skilled professional roles on offer. To help address the projected demand in future roles, as well as Australia’s deteriorating graduation rate this project will aim to design, develop and evaluate a web-based user interface. The outcomes of this project were two fold; technical work to create the interface and integrate it with pre-existing remote experiments, as well as research based outcomes concerning the various teaching methods, motivations and requirements. As such the evaluation methods for both outcomes will derive a degree of completeness with validation occurring through both the functionality and feel but also in regards to any research results generated. The interface, known as the User Centered Activity System (UCAS) is beginning user testing currently and consists of the base pages required to access and complete activities. It is hoped that this interface will impart the requisite knowledge required for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) learning, whilst engaging and encouraging users aided by the addition of game-like elements

Modern Aspects of Cyber-Security Training and Continuous Adaptation of Programmes to Trainees

Nowadays, more-and-more cyber-security training is emerging as an essential process for the lifelong personnel education in organizations, especially for those which operate critical infrastructures. This is due to security breaches on popular services that become publicly known and raise people’s security awareness. Except from large organizations, small-to-medium enterprises and individuals need to keep their knowledge on the related topics up-to-date as a means to protect their business operation or to obtain professional skills. Therefore, the potential target-group may range from simple users, who require basic knowledge on the current threat landscape and how to operate the related defense mechanisms, to security experts, who require hands-on experience in responding to security incidents. This high diversity makes training and certification quite a challenging task. This study combines pedagogical practices and cyber-security modelling in an attempt to support dynamically adaptive training procedures. The training programme is initially tailored to the trainee’s needs, promoting the continuous adaptation to his/her performance afterwards. As the trainee accomplishes the basic evaluation tasks, the assessment starts involving more advanced features that demand a higher level of understanding. The overall method is integrated in a modern cyber-ranges platform, and a pilot training programme for smart shipping employees is presented

Evaluating Self-Adaptive Authorisation Infrastructures through Gamification

Self-adaptive systems are able to modify their behaviour and/or structure in response to changes that occur to the system itself, its environment, or even its goals. In terms of authorisation infrastructures, self-adaptation has been shown to provide runtime capabilities for specifying and enforcing access control policies and subject access privileges, with a goal to mitigate insider threat. The evaluation of self-adaptive authorisation infrastructures, particularly, in the context of insider threats, is challenging because simulation of malicious behaviour can only demonstrate a fraction of the types of abuse that is representative of the real-world. In this paper, we present an innovative approach based on an ethical game of hacking, protected by an authorisation infrastructure. A key feature of the approach is the ability to observe user activity pre- and post-adaptation when evaluating runtime consequences of self- adaptation. Our live experiments captured a wide range of unpredictable changes, including malicious behaviour related to the exploitation of known vulnerabilities. As an outcome, we demonstrated the ability of our self-adaptive authorisation infrastructure to handle malicious behaviour given the existence of real and intelligent users, in addition to capturing how users responded to adaptation

Blockchain based energy transactions for a prosumer community

PhD thesis in Information technologyIntegration of solar micro-generation capabilities in domestic contexts is on the rise, leading to the creation of prosumer communities who generate part of the energy they consume. Prosumer communities require a decentralized, transparent and immutable transaction system in order to extract value from their surplus energy generation and usage flexibility. The aim of this study is to develop frameworks and methods to create such a prosumer transaction system with self enforcing smart contracts to facilitate trading of energy assets such as electricity units, energy flexibility incentives and storage credits. Blockchain is a transparent, distributed ledger for consensus based transaction processing maintained by a network of peer nodes. Hyperledger Fabric is a blockchain platform that offers the added benefits of lower operating cost, faster transaction processing, user authentication based access control and support for self enforcing smart contracts. This thesis investigates the applicability of Hyperledger Fabric to tokenize and transact energy assets in a unified transaction system. Data driven approaches to implement an incentive based energy flexibility system for peak mitigation on the blockchain are also investigated. To this end, the stakeholders for such a transaction management system were identified and their business relationships and interactions were described. Energy assets were encapsulated into blockchain tokens and algorithms were developed and encoded into self enforcing smart contracts based on the stakeholder relationships. A unified transaction framework was proposed that would bring on board all the stakeholders, their trading relationships and the assets being transacted. Tokens and methods in the transaction system were implemented in fungible and non fungible versions and the versions were critically compared in terms of application area, design, algorithmic complexity, performance, advantages and disadvantages. Further, with a focus on energy flexibility applications, a prosumer research dataset was analysed to gain insights into the production and consumption behaviors. Based on these insights, a data driven approach for peak mitigation was proposed and implemented on the Hyperledger Fabric blockchain. The thesis thus addresses different aspects of a blockchain based prosumer transaction system, and shows the feasibility of proposed approaches through implementation and performance testing of proofs of concept

Cyber-security training: A comparative analysis of cyber-ranges and emerging trends

Οι επιθέσεις στον κυβερνοχώρο γίνονται όλο και πιο προηγμένες και δύσκολα ανιχνεύσιμες, προέρχονται από ποικίλες πήγες και πραγματοποιούνται λαμβάνοντας πολλαπλές διαστάσεις και παίρνοντας διάφορες μορφές. Η ανάγκη οικοδόμησης και πειραματισμού σε προηγμένους μηχανισμούς ασφάλειας στον κυβερνοχώρο, καθώς και η συνεχής κατάρτιση με τη χρήση σύγχρονων μεθοδολογιών, τεχνικών και ενημερωμένων ρεαλιστικών σεναρίων είναι ζωτικής σημασίας. Τα Cyber Ranges μπορούν να προσφέρουν το περιβάλλον μέσα στο οποίο οι ιδικοί και επαγγελματίες στον τομέα της ασφάλειας στον κυβερνοχώρο μπορούν να εφαρμόσουν τεχνικές και δεξιότητες και να εκπαιδεύονται σε προσομοιώσεις σύνθετων δικτύων μεγάλης κλίμακας, προκειμένου να ανταποκριθούν σε πραγματικά σενάρια επίθεσης στον κυβερνοχώρο. Επιπλέον, μπορούν να προσομοιώσουν ένα περιβάλλον για τους επαγγελματίες της ασφάλειας πληροφοριών, να αξιολογήσουν τις διαδικασίες χειρισμού και αντιμετώπισης περιστατικών και να δοκιμάσουν νέες τεχνολογίες, προκειμένου να βοηθήσουν στην πρόληψη επιθέσεων στον κυβερνοχώρο. Κύριος σκοπός της παρούσας εργασίας είναι να περιγράψει τις λειτουργίες διαφόρων Cyber Ranges και να τονίσει τα κύρια δομικά στοιχεία και γνωρίσματα τους, να παρουσιάσει την υψηλού επιπέδου αρχιτεκτονική ενός υπερσύγχρονου Cyber Range και ταυτόχρονα να ταξινομήσει τα χαρακτηριστικά των υπό ανάλυση Cyber Ranges σύμφωνα με τα χαρακτηριστικά του προτεινόμενου.Cyber-attacks are becoming stealthier and more sophisticated can stem from various sources, using multiple vectors and taking different forms. The need for building and experimenting on advanced cyber-security mechanisms, as well as continuous training using state-of-the-art methodologies, techniques and up-to-date realistic scenarios is vital. Cyber Ranges can provide the environment where cyber-security experts and professionals can practice technical and soft skills and be trained on emulated large-scale complex networks in the way to respond to real-world cyber-attack scenarios. Furthermore, they can simulate an environment for information security professionals, to evaluate incident handling and response procedures and to test new technologies, in order to help prevent cyber-attacks. The main objective of this paper is to describe the functionalities of various Cyber Ranges and to highlight their key components and characteristics, to demonstrate a high-level architecture of a state-of-the-art Cyber Range while classifying the features of the reviewed Cyber Ranges according to the attributes of the proposed one

A Web-based Data-Driven Security Game for Teaching Software Security

Masteroppgave i Programutvikling samarbeid med HVLPROG399MAMN-PRO

Improving cyber security in industrial control system environment.

Integrating industrial control system (ICS) with information technology (IT) and internet technologies has made industrial control system environments (ICSEs) more vulnerable to cyber-attacks. Increased connectivity has brought about increased security threats, vulnerabilities, and risks in both technology and people (human) constituents of the ICSE. Regardless of existing security solutions which are chiefly tailored towards technical dimensions, cyber-attacks on ICSEs continue to increase with a proportionate level of consequences and impacts. These consequences include system failures or breakdowns, likewise affecting the operations of dependent systems. Impacts often include; marring physical safety, triggering loss of lives, causing huge economic damages, and thwarting the vital missions of productions and businesses. This thesis addresses uncharted solution paths to the above challenges by investigating both technical and human-factor security evaluations to improve cyber security in the ICSE. An ICS testbed, scenario-based, and expert opinion approaches are used to demonstrate and validate cyber-attack feasibility scenarios. To improve security of ICSs, the research provides: (i) an adaptive operational security metrics generation (OSMG) framework for generating suitable security metrics for security evaluations in ICSEs, and a list of good security metrics methodology characteristics (scope-definitive, objective-oriented, reliable, simple, adaptable, and repeatable), (ii) a technical multi-attribute vulnerability (and impact) assessment (MAVCA) methodology that considers and combines dynamic metrics (temporal and environmental) attributes of vulnerabilities with the functional dependency relationship attributes of the vulnerability host components, to achieve a better representation of exploitation impacts on ICSE networks, (iii) a quantitative human-factor security (capability and vulnerability) evaluation model based on human-agent security knowledge and skills, used to identify the most vulnerable human elements, identify the least security aspects of the general workforce, and prioritise security enhancement efforts, and (iv) security risk reduction through critical impact point assessment (S2R-CIPA) process model that demonstrates the combination of technical and human-factor security evaluations to mitigate risks and achieve ICSE-wide security enhancements. The approaches or models of cyber-attack feasibility testing, adaptive security metrication, multi-attribute impact analysis, and workforce security capability evaluations can support security auditors, analysts, managers, and system owners of ICSs to create security strategies and improve cyber incidence response, and thus effectively reduce security risk.PhD in Manufacturin