A molecular and antigenic survey of H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza virus isolates from smallholder duck farms in Central Java, Indonesia during 2007-2008

Background: Indonesia is one of the countries most severely affected by H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus in terms of poultry and human health. However, there is little information on the diversity of H5N1 viruses circulating in backyard farms, where chickens and ducks often intermingle. In this study, H5N1 virus infection occurring in 96 smallholder duck farms in central Java, Indonesia from 2007-2008 was investigated and the molecular and antigenic characteristics of H5N1 viruses isolated from these farms were analysed

Renewable, ethical? Assessing the energy justice potential of renewable electricity

Energy justice is increasingly being used as a framework to conceptualize the impacts of energy decision making in more holistic ways and to consider the social implications in terms of existing ethical values. Similarly, renewable energy technologies are increasingly being promoted for their environmental and social benefits. However, little work has been done to systematically examine the extent to which, in what ways and in what contexts, renewable energy technologies can contribute to achieving energy justice. This paper assesses the potential of renewable electricity technologies to address energy justice in various global contexts via a systematic review of existing studies analyzed in terms of the principles and dimensions of energy justice. Based on publications including peer reviewed academic literature, books, and in some cases reports by government or international organizations, we assess renewable electricity technologies in both grid integrated and off-grid use contexts. We conduct our investigation through the rubric of the affirmative and prohibitive principles of energy justice and in terms of its temporal, geographic, socio-political, economic, and technological dimensions. Renewable electricity technology development has and continue to have different impacts in different social contexts, and by considering the different impacts explicitly across global contexts, including differences between rural and urban contexts, this paper contributes to identifying and understanding how, in what ways, and in what particular conditions and circumstances renewable electricity technologies may correspond with or work to promote energy justice

Effective authentication to prevent Sybil attacks in vehicular platoons

The potential ability to increase the capacity and safety on roads, as well as fuel economy gains has made vehicle platooning an appealing prospect. However, its use is yet to be widespread, partially due to the security concerns on it. One particular concern is the admission of fake virtual vehicles into the platoons, allowing them to wreak havoc on the platoon, which is known as a Sybil attack. In this paper, we propose a secure vehicular authentication scheme for platoon admission which is resistant to the threats of Sybil attacks. The proposed scheme offers a mutual authentication on both vehicle identity and message through a combination of a key exchange, a digital signature and an encryption scheme based on Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC). The scheme holds its outstanding feature to provide both perfect forward secrecy and group backward secrecy to ensure the protection of anonymity of vehicles and platoons while typical malicious attacks such as replay, and man-in-the-middle attacks can also be resisted. A formal evaluation of the security of the scheme by Canetti-Krawczyk (CK) adversary and random oracle model has been conducted to demonstrate its security functionality. Finally, the performance of the proposed scheme has been evaluated to show its efficiency.Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR)Submitted/Accepted versionThis research is supported by A*STAR under its RIE2020 Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering (AME) Industry Alignment Fund – Pre Positioning (IAF-PP) (Award A19D6a0053)

Secure vehicular platoon management against Sybil attacks

The capacity of highways has been an ever-present constraint in the 21st century, bringing about the issue of safety with greater likelihoods of traffic accidents occurring. Furthermore, recent global oil prices have inflated to record levels. A potential solution lies in vehicular platooning, which has been garnering attention, but its deployment is uncommon due to cyber security concerns. One particular concern is a Sybil attack, by which the admission of fake virtual vehicles into the platoon allows malicious actors to wreak havoc on the platoon itself. In this paper, we propose a secure management scheme for platoons that can protect major events that occur in the platoon operations against Sybil attacks. Both vehicle identity and message exchanged are authenticated by adopting key exchange, digital signature and encryption schemes based on elliptic curve cryptography (ECC). Noteworthy features of the scheme include providing perfect forward secrecy and both group forward and backward secrecy to preserve the privacy of vehicles and platoons. Typical malicious attacks such as replay and man-in-the-middle attacks for example can also be resisted. A formal evaluation of the security functionality of the scheme by the Canetti–Krawczyk (CK) adversary and the random oracle model as well as a brief computational verification by CryptoVerif were conducted. Finally, the performance of the proposed scheme was evaluated to show its time and space efficiency.Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR)Published versionThis research is funded by A*STAR under its RIE2020 Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering (AME) Industry Alignment Fund–Pre Positioning (IAF-PP) (Award A19D6a0053). The APC is funded by the Guest Editor, Peter Chong