Tracking Traitors in Web Services via Blind Signatures

This paper presents a method and its implementation, built on the blind signatures protocol, to trace users sharing their licenses illegally when accessing services provided through Internet (Web services, Streaming, etc). The method devised is able to identify the legitimate user from those users who are illegally accessing services with a shared key. This method is robust when detecting licenses built with no authorization. An enhancement of the protocol to identify the last usage of a certain license is also provided, allowing to detect a traitor when an unauthorized copy of a license is used

An index based load balancer to enhance transactional application servers' QoS

The Web is the preferred interface for the new generation of applications. Web services are an ubiquitous concept for both, developers and managers. These Web applications require distribution systems of web requests that allow and support the dynamism of these environments, to provide service availability and resource usage, commonly heterogeneous. Web services provide an entry point to the Web application business logic. Therefore, the design of appropriate load balancing strategies, taking into account the dynamic nature of the application servers' activity, is essential. In this work we present a load balancing policy and its integration inbetween static and dynamic layers of any web application that uses application servers. The strategy gets the status report of each application server, used to later distribute web requests. Results that show how the strategy succeed are presented

Efficient Implementation on Low-Cost SoC-FPGAs of TLSv1.2 Protocol with ECC_AES Support for Secure IoT Coordinators

Security management for IoT applications is a critical research field, especially when taking into account the performance variation over the very different IoT devices. In this paper, we present high-performance client/server coordinators on low-cost SoC-FPGA devices for secure IoT data collection. Security is ensured by using the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol based on the TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256 cipher suite. The hardware architecture of the proposed coordinators is based on SW/HW co-design, implementing within the hardware accelerator core Elliptic Curve Scalar Multiplication (ECSM), which is the core operation of Elliptic Curve Cryptosystems (ECC). Meanwhile, the control of the overall TLS scheme is performed in software by an ARM Cortex-A9 microprocessor. In fact, the implementation of the ECC accelerator core around an ARM microprocessor allows not only the improvement of ECSM execution but also the performance enhancement of the overall cryptosystem. The integration of the ARM processor enables to exploit the possibility of embedded Linux features for high system flexibility. As a result, the proposed ECC accelerator requires limited area, with only 3395 LUTs on the Zynq device used to perform high-speed, 233-bit ECSMs in 413 µs, with a 50 MHz clock. Moreover, the generation of a 384-bit TLS handshake secret key between client and server coordinators requires 67.5 ms on a low cost Zynq 7Z007S device

Application architecture to efficiently manage formal and informal m-learning. A case study to motivate computer engineering students

Recent research is focusing on methods that enable effective consumption of digital content. Students are continually exposed to streams of digital content. An information system for learning was designed. Such a tool intends to connect learning in formal channels with the ability to learn in informal channels. The proposed methodology built upon the application was tested through a quasi-experimental research, implementing and evaluating its influence on how engineering students learnt in an advanced engineering course where concepts are complex. The sample is of fifty-eight students enrolled in Computer Engineering at Universidad de Almería. Their knowledge was evaluated using a specifically designed exam. Results suggest that the effectiveness of the methodology used and the learning tool itself were both robust and fulfilled the hypothesis. The contrast tests Snedecor F for ANOVA two tail and two-sample Tstudent test suggested the effectiveness of the learning tool proposed

Distributed Key Management to Secure IoT Wireless Sensor Networks in Smart-Agro

With the deepening of the research and development in the field of embedded devices, the paradigm of the Internet of things (IoT) is gaining momentum. Its technology’s widespread applications increasing the number of connected devices constantly. IoT is built on sensor networks, which are enabling a new variety of solutions for applications in several fields (health, industry, defense, agrifood and agro sectors, etc.). Wireless communications are indispensable for taking full advantage of sensor networks but implies new requirements in the security and privacy of communications. Security in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) is a major challenge for extending IoT applications, in particular those related to the smart-agro. Moreover, limitations on processing capabilities of sensor nodes, and power consumption have made the encryption techniques devised for conventional networks not feasible. In such scenario, symmetric-key ciphers are preferred for key management in WSN; key distribution is therefore an issue. In this work, we provide a concrete implementation of a novel scalable group distributed key management method and a protocol for securing communications in IoT systems used in the smart agro sector, based on elliptic curve cryptography, to ensure that information exchange between layers of the IoT framework is not affected by sensor faults or intentional attacks. In this sense, each sensor node executes an initial key agreement, which is done through every member’s public information in just two rounds and uses some authenticating information that avoids external intrusions. Further rekeying operations require just a single message and provide backward and forward security

Sistema guiado de localización de aparcamientos para personas discapacitadas

Número de publicación: ES2415514 A1 (25.07.2013) También publicado como: ES2415514 B1 (21.05.2014) Número de Solicitud: Consulta de Expedientes OEPM (C.E.O.) P201100282 (04.03.2011)Método para la gestión y control de aparcamientos regulados para discapacitados. La gestión necesaria por parte de los usuarios mediante dispositivos móviles hace necesaria la transferencia de la información por redes General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Universal Mobile Telecommunication System, High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA). En el sistema guiado de localización de aparcamiento para personas discapacitadas, el usuario activa en un dispositivo móvil la petición de parking. Remitiendo la identificación del vehículo, posición GPS, -opcionalmente- tiempo estimado de ocupación. Recibiendo en su dispositivo un mapa con aparcamientos codificados en color así como cualquier dato de interés. La información de ocupación está disponible a controladores de tráfico, que reciben en su dispositivo, periódicamente o bajo demanda, información de ocupación de estacionamientos en su zona, de modo que puede controlar el parking (vehículos sin licencia o licencia falsa). Los controladores pueden actualizar la información de ocupación, usando sus dispositivos.Universidad de Almerí

CCEDAF: Codificador Combinatorio de Estados para el Diseño de Autómatas Finitos

En esta demostración se presenta el funcionamiento de la herramienta software CCEDAF, orientado a alumnos de Laboratorio de Estructura y Tecnología de Computadores, para facilitarles el diseño de autómatas finitos con un menor número de puertas lógicas. La aplicación CCEDAF (Codificador Combinatorio de Estados para el Diseño de Autómatas Finitos) a partir de la tabla de transiciones del sistema digital, asigna todas las posibles combinaciones de codificación de estados para generar diferentes tablas de excitación, y obtener aquellas combinaciones que requieran un menor número de puertas lógicas

Automatización del problema de asignación de estados en el diseño de sistemas secuenciales síncronos

Cuando un alumno se introduce en el mundo del diseño de sistemas secuenciales síncronos se tropieza con dos problemas, minimización y codificación de estados, tanto más significativos cuanto menor número de puertas deseemos. Para la resolución del problema de minimización de estados existe un algoritmo, tan sencillo como largo y tedioso, que esta implementado en la mayoría de los entornos computacionales de diseño digital. Sin embargo, para la resolución del problema de asignación de estados, existen una serie de reglas difíciles de aplicar. Por este motivo se ha programado una herramienta, que a partir de la tabla de transiciones de estados minimizada, permite al alumno obtener los circuitos con menor número de puertas para los distintos tipos de biestables deseados

Blockchain from the Perspective of Privacy and Anonymisation: A Systematic Literature Review

The research presented aims to investigate the relationship between privacy and anonymisation in blockchain technologies on different fields of application. The study is carried out through a systematic literature review in different databases, obtaining in a first phase of selection 199 publications, of which 28 were selected for data extraction. The results obtained provide a strong relationship between privacy and anonymisation in most of the fields of application of blockchain, as well as a description of the techniques used for this purpose, such as Ring Signature, homomorphic encryption, k-anonymity or data obfuscation. Among the literature researched, some limitations and future lines of research on issues close to blockchain technology in the different fields of application can be detected. As conclusion, we extract the different degrees of application of privacy according to the mechanisms used and different techniques for the implementation of anonymisation, being one of the risks for privacy the traceability of the operations

Java, herramienta docente en asignaturas del área de Arquitectura de Computadores

Los últimos años han supuesto un cambio notable en el currículo de ingenierías informáticas, cambio impuesto por avances tanto tecnológicos como metodológicos. Toda esta serie de avances han traído consigo la aparición de lenguajes como Java (lenguaje y arquitectura) que permiten, desde el punto de vista docente, asentar conocimientos sin sacrificar la profundidad de los mismos debido a una dificultad excesiva impuesta por el entorno usado en clase. Este trabajo pretende mostrar algunas ventajas de Java como recurso docente, proporcionando además un compendio de recursos. Proponemos usar Java en asignaturas propias del área de Arquitectura de Computadores tales como Multiprocesadores, Redes y Estructura de Computadores. Estas asignaturas han estado tradicionalmente ligadas a complejos lenguajes que hacían, aún si cabe, más árida la materia para el alumno. Usar Java en estas asignaturas es añadir un reactivo para los alumnos por que: • Es orientado a objetos y más sencillo de aprender que cualquier otro lenguaje plausible que se pueda usar en las citadas asignaturas. • Muchos alumnos lo encuentran atractivo. • La gran mayoría valora aprender un lenguaje que con bastante probabilidad usarán en su trayectoria laboral. • El hecho de que sea tan sencillo de aprender permite centrar las clases en el diseño y solución de problemas, el lenguaje ya no es un inconveniente. Este trabajo también presenta la contrapartida de usar Java, por ejemplo, no emplear lenguajes como Occam, pero esto no debe ser problema si el objetivo es que adquieran conocimientos y habilidad para usarlos independientemente del lenguaje de programación empleado