User-Centric Traffic Engineering in Software Defined Networks

Software defined networking (SDN) is a relatively new paradigm that decouples individual network elements from the control logic, offering real-time network programmability, translating high level policy abstractions into low level device configurations. The framework comprises of the data (forwarding) plane incorporating network devices, while the control logic and network services reside in the control and application planes respectively. Operators can optimize the network fabric to yield performance gains for individual applications and services utilizing flow metering and application-awareness, the default traffic management method in SDN. Existing approaches to traffic optimization, however, do not explicitly consider user application trends. Recent SDN traffic engineering designs either offer improvements for typical time-critical applications or focus on devising monitoring solutions aimed at measuring performance metrics of the respective services. The performance caveats of isolated service differentiation on the end users may be substantial considering the growth in Internet and network applications on offer and the resulting diversity in user activities. Application-level flow metering schemes therefore, fall short of fully exploiting the real-time network provisioning capability offered by SDN instead relying on rather static traffic control primitives frequent in legacy networking. For individual users, SDN may lead to substantial improvements if the framework allows operators to allocate resources while accounting for a user-centric mix of applications. This thesis explores the user traffic application trends in different network environments and proposes a novel user traffic profiling framework to aid the SDN control plane (controller) in accurately configuring network elements for a broad spectrum of users without impeding specific application requirements. This thesis starts with a critical review of existing traffic engineering solutions in SDN and highlights recent and ongoing work in network optimization studies. Predominant existing segregated application policy based controls in SDN do not consider the cost of isolated application gains on parallel SDN services and resulting consequence for users having varying application usage. Therefore, attention is given to investigating techniques which may capture the user behaviour for possible integration in SDN traffic controls. To this end, profiling of user application traffic trends is identified as a technique which may offer insight into the inherent diversity in user activities and offer possible incorporation in SDN based traffic engineering. A series of subsequent user traffic profiling studies are carried out in this regard employing network flow statistics collected from residential and enterprise network environments. Utilizing machine learning techniques including the prominent unsupervised k-means cluster analysis, user generated traffic flows are cluster analysed and the derived profiles in each networking environment are benchmarked for stability before integration in SDN control solutions. In parallel, a novel flow-based traffic classifier is designed to yield high accuracy in identifying user application flows and the traffic profiling mechanism is automated. The core functions of the novel user-centric traffic engineering solution are validated by the implementation of traffic profiling based SDN network control applications in residential, data center and campus based SDN environments. A series of simulations highlighting varying traffic conditions and profile based policy controls are designed and evaluated in each network setting using the traffic profiles derived from realistic environments to demonstrate the effectiveness of the traffic management solution. The overall network performance metrics per profile show substantive gains, proportional to operator defined user profile prioritization policies despite high traffic load conditions. The proposed user-centric SDN traffic engineering framework therefore, dynamically provisions data plane resources among different user traffic classes (profiles), capturing user behaviour to define and implement network policy controls, going beyond isolated application management

Social Engineering Vulnerabilities

Social engineering refers to the phenomenon of circumventing technical security mechanisms inherent in a system by manipulating legitimate users of the system using a host of physical and psychological compromising methods. This may lead to a compromise of the underlying IT systems for possible exploitation. It remains a popular method of bypassing security because attacks focus on the weakest link in the security architecture, the staff of the organization, instead of directly targeting electronic and cryptographic security algorithms. Universities and academic institutions are no exception to this vulnerability and the present research aims to investigate the level of susceptibility of university staff to social engineering vulnerabilities. This research entailed an experiment involving email based auditing technique directed at 152 staff members in the Faculty of Technology, University of Plymouth. Analysis of the quantitative and qualitative results revealed approximately 23% of recipients being susceptible to social engineering attacks which is more or less the same compared to similar studies and suggests that the threat is considerable. The research concluded with recommendations for staff including advice on identification of common social engineering exploits, methods employed by social engineers and the need for following well-defined security policies to counter psychological biasesSchool of Computing, Communications and Electronic

State of the Art and Recent Research Advances in Software Defined Networking

Emerging network services and subsequent growth in the networking infrastructure have gained tremendous momentum in recent years. Application performance requiring rapid real-time network provisioning, optimized traffic management, and virtualization of shared resources has induced the conceptualization and adoption of new networking models. Software defined networking (SDN), one of the predominant and relatively new networking paradigms, seeks to simplify network management by decoupling network control logic from the underlying hardware and introduces real-time network programmability enabling innovation. The present work reviews the state of the art in software defined networking providing a historical perspective on complementary technologies in network programmability and the inherent shortcomings which paved the way for SDN. The SDN architecture is discussed along with popular protocols, platforms, and existing simulation and debugging solutions. Furthermore, a detailed analysis is presented around recent SDN development and deployment avenues ranging from mobile communications and data centers to campus networks and residential environments. The review concludes by highlighting implementation challenges and subsequent research directions being pursued in academia and industry to address issues related to application performance, control plane scalability and design, security, and interdomain connectivity in the context of SDN

Evaluating Learning Algorithms for Keystroke Based User Authentication

The field of keystroke-based authentication increasingly relies on AI technologies for increased robustness and accuracy. A number of such approaches have been recently proposed, with variable levels of success and computational demands. This paper aims to investigate the comparative performance of supervised and unsupervised learning using two algorithms, KNN and K-means++, and explore the impact to the keystroke-based user authentication. Three keystroke features are selected: dwell time, flight time and press-to-press latency. FAR, FRR and accuracy are used as the performance metrics of KNN while purity and silhouette coefficient are selected as the performance metrics of K-means++. The experimental results show that KNN is more suitable for the analysed scenarios and has a slightly higher accuracy of 74.58% than K-means++. We further propose a method of reprocessing the dataset based on modifying the outliers when unsupervised algorithm was also able to get very good performance with 0.8767 of purity

Using a Machine Learning Model for Malicious URL Type Detection

The world wide web, beyond its benefits, has also become a major platform for online criminal activities. Traditional protection methods against malicious URLs, such as blacklisting, remain a valid alternative, but cannot detect unknown sites, hence new methods are being developed for automatic detection, using machine learning approaches. This paper strengthens the existing state of the art by proposing an alternative machine learning approach, that uses a set of 14 lexical and host-based features but focuses on the typical mechanisms employed by malicious URLs. The proposed method employs random forest and decision tree as core mechanisms and is evaluated on a combined benign and malicious URL dataset, which indicates an accuracy of over 97%

A systematic review of bio-cyber interface technologies and security issues for internet of bio-nano things

Advances in synthetic biology and nanotechnology have contributed to the design of tools that can be used to control, reuse, modify, and re-engineer cells' structure, as well as enabling engineers to effectively use biological cells as programmable substrates to realize Bio-NanoThings (biological embedded computing devices). Bio-NanoThings are generally tiny, non-intrusive, and concealable devices that can be used for in-vivo applications such as intra-body sensing and actuation networks, where the use of arti_cial devices can be detrimental. Such (nano-scale) devices can be used in various healthcare settings such as continuous health monitoring, targeted drug delivery, and nano-surgeries. These services can also be grouped to form a collaborative network (i.e., nanonetwork), whose performance can potentially be improved when connected to higher bandwidth external networks such as the Internet, say via 5G. However, to realize the IoBNT paradigm, it is also important to seamlessly connect the biological environment with the technological landscape by having a dynamic interface design to convert biochemical signals from the human body into an equivalent electromagnetic signal (and vice versa). This, unfortunately, risks the exposure of internal biological mechanisms to cyber-based sensing and medical actuation, with potential security and privacy implications. This paper comprehensively reviews bio-cyber interface for IoBNT architecture, focusing on bio-cyber interfacing options for IoBNT like biologically inspired bio-electronic devices, RFID enabled implantable chips, and electronic tattoos. This study also identi_es known and potential security and privacy vulnerabilities and mitigation strategies for consideration in future IoBNT designs and implementations