Protection of privacy in biometric data

Biometrics is commonly used in many automated veri cation systems offering several advantages over traditional veri cation methods. Since biometric features are associated with individuals, their leakage will violate individuals\u27 privacy, which can cause serious and continued problems as the biometric data from a person are irreplaceable. To protect the biometric data containing privacy information, a number of privacy-preserving biometric schemes (PPBSs) have been developed over the last decade, but they have various drawbacks. The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive overview of the existing PPBSs and give guidance for future privacy-preserving biometric research. In particular, we explain the functional mechanisms of popular PPBSs and present the state-of-the-art privacy-preserving biometric methods based on these mechanisms. Furthermore, we discuss the drawbacks of the existing PPBSs and point out the challenges and future research directions in PPBSs

Protection of big data privacy

In recent years, big data have become a hot research topic. The increasing amount of big data also increases the chance of breaching the privacy of individuals. Since big data require high computational power and large storage, distributed systems are used. As multiple parties are involved in these systems, the risk of privacy violation is increased. There have been a number of privacy-preserving mechanisms developed for privacy protection at different stages (e.g., data generation, data storage, and data processing) of a big data life cycle. The goal of this paper is to provide a comprehensive overview of the privacy preservation mechanisms in big data and present the challenges for existing mechanisms. In particular, in this paper, we illustrate the infrastructure of big data and the state-of-the-art privacy-preserving mechanisms in each stage of the big data life cycle. Furthermore, we discuss the challenges and future research directions related to privacy preservation in big data

Novel watermarking methods for copyright protection of audio signals

This research presented improved watermarking methods for mono and stereo audio signals. To enhance the performance, novel methods are developed using echo hiding techniques and patchwork-based algorithms. The superior performances of the proposed methods are demonstrated by theoretical analysis and simulation examples, in comparison with the existing methods

Echo hiding based stereo audio watermarking against pitch-scaling attacks

In audio watermarking, the robustness against pitch-scaling attack, is one of the most challenging problems. In this paper, we propose an algorithm, based on traditional time-spread(TS) echo hiding based audio watermarking to solve this problem. In TS echo hiding based watermarking, pitch-scaling attack shifts the location of pseudonoise (PN) sequence which appears in the cepstrum domain. Thus, position of the peak, which occurs after correlating with PN-sequence changes by an un-known amount and that causes the error. In the proposed scheme, we replace PN-sequence with unit-sample sequence and modify the decoding algorithm in such a way it will not depend on a particular point in cepstrum domain for extraction of watermark. Moreover proposed algorithm is applied to stereo audio signals to further improve the robustness. Experimental results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm against pitch-scaling attacks compared to existing methods. In addition to that proposed algorithm also gives better robustness against other conventional signal processing attacks.<br /

A novel bipolar time-spread echo hiding based watermarking method for stereo audio signals

In this paper, a novel bipolar time-spread (TS) echo hiding based watermarking method is proposed for stereo audio signals, to overcome the low robustness problem in the traditional TS echo hiding method. At the embedding, echo signals with opposite polarities are added to both channels of the host audio signal. This improves the imperceptibility of the watermarking scheme, since added watermarks have similar effects in both channels. Then decoding part is developed, in order to improve the robustness of the watermarking scheme against common attacks. Since these novel embedding and decoding methods utilize the advantage of two channels in stereo audio signals, it significantly reduces the interference of host signal at watermark extraction which is the main reason for error detection in the traditional TS echo hiding based watermarking under closed-loop attack. The effectiveness of the proposed watermarking scheme is theoretically analyzed and verified by simulations under common attacks. The proposed echo hiding method outperforms conventional TS echo hiding based watermarking when their perceptual qualities are similar

A novel pseudonoise sequence for time-spread echo based audio watermarking

This paper deals with the problem of digital audio watermarking using echo hiding. Compared to many other methods for audio watermarking, echo hiding techniques exhibit advantages in terms of relatively simple encoding and decoding, and robustness against common attacks. The low security issue existing in most echo hiding techniques is overcome in the timespread echo method by using pseudonoise (PN) sequence as a secret key. In this paper, we propose a novel sequence, in conjunction with a new decoding function, to improve the imperceptibility and the robustness of time-spread echo based audio watermarking. Theoretical analysis and simulation examples illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed sequence and decoding function.<br /

Patchwork-based stereo audio watermarking against de-synchronization attack

Audio watermarking schemes using patchworkbased algorithm have good robustness against majority of the watermarking attacks. However, these watermarking schemes are vulnerable to de-synchronization attack. This paper proposes a patchwork-based watermarking scheme for stereo audio signals to address this problem. To improve the robustness, the proposed method exploits the similarities of both channels in the stereo audio signals. Given a stereo audio signal, we first compute the discrete cosine transform (DCT) of both channels, which gives two sets of DCT coefficients. Then DCT segments are formed form DCT coefficients belong to a certain frequency range. The DCT segment formation is determined by a pseudonoise (PN) sequence which acts as a secret key. Then watermark bits are embedded into DCT segments by modifying the DCT coefficients. In the decoding process the secret key is used to extract the watermark bits embedded in the DCT segments. Simulation results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method against de-synchronization attack, compared to latest patchwork-based audio watermarking scheme. Besides, the proposed algorithm also gives better robustness against other conventional attacks

Privacy Preservation in Smart Meters: Current Status, Challenges and Future Directions

Recent years have seen the rapid development of technologies in Smart Grids (SGs) to enhance electricity networks with digital and data communication technologies. SGs can proactively detect, react, and respond to dynamic changes in the network. SGs can also enhance the efficiency and reliability of electricity supplies and promote the integration of renewable energy sources. Smart Meters (SMs) are often seen as the first step to a successful implementation of SGs. While SMs enable Utility Providers and consumers to obtain near real-time information of energy consumption, they can also be exploited to infer sensitive consumer data. Therefore, privacy preservation in SMs is paramount in ensuring the widespread and successful deployment of SGs. In this paper, we present a comprehensive survey of the state-of-the-art SM privacy-preserving techniques published in the literature over the past decade. We categorize these techniques based on the attack types and their objectives. We aim to offer a unique perspective in this survey article through the lens of privacy preservation, cross-cutting the wide range of techniques presented in the literature. We conclude by identifying the challenges and highlighting key future research directions in the field

Effective pseudonoise sequence and decoding function for imperceptibility and robustness enhancement in time-spread echo-based audio watermarking

This paper proposes an effective pseudonoise (PN) sequence and the corresponding decoding function for time-spread echo-based audio watermarking. Different from the traditional PN sequence used in time-spread echo hiding, the proposed PN sequence has two features. Firstly, the echo kernel resulting from the new PN sequence has frequency characteristics with smaller magnitudes in perceptually significant region. This leads to higher perceptual quality. Secondly, the correlation function of the new PN sequence has three times more large peaks than that of the existing PN sequence. Based on this feature, we propose a new decoding function to improve the robustness of time-spread echo-based audio watermarking. The effectiveness of the proposed PN sequence and decoding function is illustrated by theoretical analysis, simulation examples, and listening test

Bluetooth Low Energy Mesh: Applications, Considerations and Current State-of-the-Art

With the proliferation of IoT applications, more and more smart, connected devices will be required to communicate with one another, operating in situations that involve diverse levels of range and cost requirements, user interactions, mobility, and energy constraints. Wireless technologies that can satisfy the aforementioned requirements will be vital to realise emerging market opportunities in the IoT sector. Bluetooth Mesh is a new wireless protocol that extends the core Bluetooth low energy (BLE) stack and promises to support reliable and scalable IoT systems where thousands of devices such as sensors, smartphones, wearables, robots, and everyday appliances operate together. In this article, we present a comprehensive discussion on current research directions and existing use cases for Bluetooth Mesh, with recommendations for best practices so that researchers and practitioners can better understand how they can use Bluetooth Mesh in IoT scenarios