Biblio

NATO strategy and policy has increasingly focused on incorporating cyber operations to support deterrence, warfighting, and intelligence objectives. However, offensive cyber operations in particular have presented a delicate challenge for the alliance. As cyber threats to NATO members continue to grow, the alliance has begun to address how it could incorporate offensive cyber operations into its strategy and policy. However, there are significant hurdles to meaningful cooperation on offensive cyber operations, in contrast with the high levels of integration in other operational domains. Moreover, there is a critical gap in existing conceptualizations of the role of offensive cyber operations in NATO policy. Specifically, NATO cyber policy has focused on cyber operations in a warfighting context at the expense of considering cyber operations below the level of conflict. In this article, we explore the potential role for offensive cyber operations not only in wartime but also below the threshold of armed conflict. In doing so, we systematically explore a number of challenges at the political/strategic as well as the operational/tactical levels and provide policy recommendations for next steps for the alliance.

Smart cities deploy large numbers of sensors and collect a tremendous amount of data from them. For example, Advanced Metering Infrastructures (AMIs), which consist of physical meters that collect usage data about public utilities such as power and water, are an important building block in a smart city. In a typical sensor network, the measurement devices are connected through a computer network, which exposes them to cyber attacks. Furthermore, the data is centrally managed at the operator’s servers, making it vulnerable to insider threats.Our goal is to protect the integrity of data collected by large-scale sensor networks and the firmware in measurement devices from cyber attacks and insider threats. To this end, we first develop a comprehensive threat model for attacks against data and firmware integrity, which can target any of the stakeholders in the operation of the sensor network. Next, we use our threat model to analyze existing defense mechanisms, including signature checks, remote firmware attestation, anomaly detection, and blockchain-based secure logs. However, the large size of the Trusted Computing Base and a lack of scalability limit the applicability of these existing mechanisms. We propose the Feather-Light Blockchain Infrastructure (FLBI) framework to address these limitations. Our framework leverages a two-layer architecture and cryptographic threshold signature chains to support large networks of low-capacity devices such as meters and data aggregators. We have fully implemented the FLBI’s end-to-end functionality on the Hyperledger Fabric and private Ethereum blockchain platforms. Our experiments show that the FLBI is able to support millions of end devices.

The MagNIF team at LLNL is developing a pulsed power platform to enable magnetized inertial confinement fusion and high energy density experiments at the National Ignition Facility. A pulsed solenoidal driver capable of premagnetizing fusion fuel to 40T is predicted to increase performance of indirect drive implosions. We have written a specialized Python code suite to support the delivery of a practical design optimized for target magnetization and risk mitigation. The code simulates pulsed power in parameterized system designs and converges to high-performance candidates compliant with evolving engineering constraints, such as scale, mass, diagnostic access, mechanical displacement, thermal energy deposition, facility standards, and component-specific failure modes. The physics resolution and associated computational costs of our code are intermediate between those of 0D circuit codes and 3D magnetohydrodynamic codes, to be predictive and support fast, parallel simulations in parameter space. Development of a reduced-order, physics-based target model is driven by high-resolution simulations in ALE3D (an institutional multiphysics code) and multi-diagnostic data from a commissioned pulser platform. Results indicate system performance is sensitive to transient target response, which should include magnetohydrodynamic expansion, resistive heating, nonlinear magnetic diffusion, and phase change. Design optimization results for a conceptual NIF platform are reported.

The growing complexity of wireless networks has sparked an upsurge in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) within the telecommunication industry in recent years. In network slicing, a key component of 5G that enables network operators to lease their resources to third-party tenants, AI models may be employed in complex tasks, such as short-term resource reservation (STRR). When AI is used to make complex resource management decisions with financial and service quality implications, it is important that these decisions be understood by a human-in-the-loop. In this paper, we apply state-of-the-art techniques from the field of Explainable AI (XAI) to the problem of STRR. Using real-world data to develop an AI model for STRR, we demonstrate how our XAI methodology can be used to explain the real-time decisions of the model, to reveal trends about the model’s general behaviour, as well as aid in the diagnosis of potential faults during the model’s development. In addition, we quantitatively validate the faithfulness of the explanations across an extensive range of XAI metrics to ensure they remain trustworthy and actionable.

We introduce the notion of an application-based covert channel—or ABCC—which provides a formal syntax for describing covert channels that tunnel messages through existing protocols. Our syntax captures many recent systems, including DeltaShaper (PETS 2017) and Protozoa (CCS 2020). We also define what it means for an ABCC to be secure against a passive eavesdropper, and prove that suitable abstractions of existing censorship circumvention systems satisfy our security notion. In doing so, we define a number of important non-cryptographic security assumptions that are often made implicitly in prior work. We believe our formalisms may be useful to censorship circumvention developers for reasoning about the security of their systems and the associated security assumptions required.

The new paradigm software-defined networking (SDN) supports network innovation and makes the control of network operations more agile. The flow table is the main component of SDN switch which contains a set of flow entries that define how new flows are processed. Low-rate distributed denial-of-service (LR-DDoS) attacks are difficult to detect and mitigate because they behave like legitimate users. There are many detection methods for LR DDoS attacks in the literature, but none of these methods detect single-packet LR DDoS attacks. In fact, LR DDoS attackers exploit vulnerabilities in the mechanism of congestion control in TCP to either periodically retransmit burst attack packets for a short time period or to continuously launch a single attack packet at a constant low rate. In this paper, the proposed scheme detects LR-DDoS by examining all incoming packets and filtering the single packets sent from different source IP addresses to the same destination at a constant low rate. Sending single packets at a constant low rate will increase the number of flows at the switch which can make it easily overflowed. After detecting the single attack packets, the proposed scheme prevents LR-DDoS at its early stage by deleting the flows created by these packets once they reach the threshold. According to the results of the experiment, the scheme achieves 99.47% accuracy in this scenario. In addition, the scheme has simple logic and simple calculation, which reduces the overhead of the SDN controller.

Security is a key concern across the world, and it has been a common thread for all critical sectors. Nowadays, it may be stated that security is a backbone that is absolutely necessary for personal safety. The most important requirements of security systems for individuals are protection against theft and trespassing. CCTV cameras are often employed for security purposes. The biggest disadvantage of CCTV cameras is their high cost and the need for a trustworthy individual to monitor them. As a result, a solution that is both easy and cost-effective, as well as secure has been devised. The smart door lock is built on Raspberry Pi technology, and it works by capturing a picture through the Pi Camera module, detecting a visitor's face, and then allowing them to enter. Local binary pattern approach is used for Face recognition. Remote picture viewing, notification, on mobile device are all possible with an IOT based application. The proposed system may be installed at front doors, lockers, offices, and other locations where security is required. The proposed system has an accuracy of 89%, with an average processing time is 20 seconds for the overall process.

Data security is a vast term that doesn’t have any limits, but there are a certain amount of tools and techniques that could help in gaining security. Honeypot is among one of the tools that are designated and designed to protect the security of a network but in a very dissimilar manner. It is a system that is designed and developed to be compromised and exploited. Honeypots are meant to lure the invaders, but due to advancements in computing systems parallelly, the intruding technologies are also attaining their gigantic influence. In this research work, an approach involving apache-spark (a Big Data Technique) would be introduced in order to use it with the Honeypot System. This work includes an extensive study based on several research papers, through which elaborated experiment-based result has been expressed on the best known open-source honeypot systems. The preeminent possible method of using The Honeypot with apache spark in the sequential channel would also be proposed with the help of a framework diagram.

Neural program embeddings have demonstrated considerable promise in a range of program analysis tasks, including clone identification, program repair, code completion, and program synthesis. However, most existing methods generate neural program embeddings di-rectly from the program source codes, by learning from features such as tokens, abstract syntax trees, and control flow graphs. This paper takes a fresh look at how to improve program embed-dings by leveraging compiler intermediate representation (IR). We first demonstrate simple yet highly effective methods for enhancing embedding quality by training embedding models alongside source code and LLVM IR generated by default optimization levels (e.g., -02). We then introduce IRGEN, a framework based on genetic algorithms (GA), to identify (near-)optimal sequences of optimization flags that can significantly improve embedding quality. We use IRGEN to find optimal sequences of LLVM optimization flags by performing GA on source code datasets. We then extend a popular code embedding model, CodeCMR, by adding a new objective based on triplet loss to enable a joint learning over source code and LLVM IR. We benchmark the quality of embedding using a rep-resentative downstream application, code clone detection. When CodeCMR was trained with source code and LLVM IRs optimized by findings of IRGEN, the embedding quality was significantly im-proved, outperforming the state-of-the-art model, CodeBERT, which was trained only with source code. Our augmented CodeCMR also outperformed CodeCMR trained over source code and IR optimized with default optimization levels. We investigate the properties of optimization flags that increase embedding quality, demonstrate IRGEN's generalization in boosting other embedding models, and establish IRGEN's use in settings with extremely limited training data. Our research and findings demonstrate that a straightforward addition to modern neural code embedding models can provide a highly effective enhancement.

Vendor cybersecurity risk assessment is of critical importance to smart city infrastructure and sustainability of the autonomous mobility ecosystem. Lack of engagement in cybersecurity policies and process implementation by the tier companies providing hardware or services to OEMs within this ecosystem poses a significant risk to not only the individual companies but to the ecosystem overall. The proposed quantitative method of estimating cybersecurity risk allows vendors to have visibility to the financial risk associated with potential threats and to consequently allocate adequate resources to cybersecurity. It facilitates faster implementation of defense measures and provides a useful tool in the vendor selection process. The paper focuses on cybersecurity risk assessment as a critical part of the overall company mission to create a sustainable structure for maintaining cybersecurity health. Compound cybersecurity risk and impact on company operations as outputs of this quantitative analysis present a unique opportunity to strategically plan and make informed decisions towards acquiring a reputable position in a sustainable ecosystem. This method provides attack trees and assigns a risk factor to each vendor thus offering a competitive advantage and an insight into the supply chain risk map. This is an innovative way to look at vendor cybersecurity posture. Through a selection of unique industry specific parameters and a modular approach, this risk assessment model can be employed as a tool to navigate the supply base and prevent significant financial cost. It generates synergies within the connected vehicle ecosystem leading to a safe and sustainable economy.

Named Data Networking (NDN) has been viewed as a promising future Internet architecture. It requires a new access control scheme to prevent the injection of unauthorized data request. In this paper, an access control supported by information service entity (ACISE) is proposed for NDN networks. A trust entity, named the information service entity (ISE), is deployed in each domain for the registration of the consumer and the edge router. The identity-based cryptography (IBC) is used to generate a private key for the authorized consumer at the ISE and to calculate a signature encapsulated in the Interest packet at the consumer. Therefore, the edge router could support the access control by the signature verification of the Interest packets so that no Interest packet from unauthorized consumer could be forwarded or replied. Moreover, shared keys are negotiated between authorized consumers and their edge routers. The subsequent Interest packets would be verified by the message authentication code (MAC) instead of the signature. The simulation results have shown that the ACISE scheme would achieve a similar response delay to the original NDN scheme when the NDN is under no attacks. However, the ACISE scheme is immune to the cache pollution attacks so that it could maintain a much smaller response delay compared to the other schemes when the NDN network is under the attacks.

The increase of autonomy in autonomous surface vehicles development brings along modified and new risks and potential hazards, this in turn, introduces the need for processes and methods for ensuring that systems are acceptable for their intended use with respect to dependability and safety concerns. One approach for evaluating software requirements for claims of safety is to employ an assurance case. Much like a legal case, the assurance case lays out an argument and supporting evidence to provide assurance on the software requirements. This paper analyses safety and security requirements relating to autonomous vessels, and regulations in the automotive industry and the marine industry before proposing a generic cybersecurity and safety assurance case that takes a general graphical approach of Goal Structuring Notation (GSN).

A methodology for studying the level of security for various types of CPS through the analysis of the consequences was developed during the research process. An analysis of the architecture of cyber-physical systems was carried out, vulnerabilities and threats of specific devices were identified, a list of possible information attacks and their consequences after the exploitation of vulnerabilities was identified. The object of research is models of cyber-physical systems, including IoT devices, microcomputers, various sensors that function through communication channels, organized by cyber-physical objects. The main subjects of this investigation are methods and means of security testing of cyber-physical systems (CPS). The main objective of this investigation is to update the problem of security in cyber-physical systems, to analyze the security of these systems. In practice, the testing methodology for the cyber-physical system “Smart Factory” was implemented, which simulates the operation of a real CPS, with different types of links and protocols used.

The rising use of smartphones each year is matched by the development of the smartphone's operating system, Android. Due to the immense popularity of the Android operating system, many unauthorized users (in this case, the attackers) wish to exploit this vulnerability to get sensitive data from every Android user. The flubot malware assault, which happened in 2021 and targeted Android devices practically globally, is one of the attacks on Android smartphones. It was known at the time that the flubot virus stole information, particularly from banking applications installed on the victim's device. To prevent this from happening again, we research the signature and behavior of flubot malware. In this study, a hybrid analysis will be conducted on three samples of flubot malware that are available on the open-source Hatching Triage platform. Using the Android Virtual Device (AVD) as the primary environment for malware installation, the analysis was conducted with the Android Debug Bridge (ADB) and Burpsuite as supporting tools for dynamic analysis. During the static analysis, the Mobile Security Framework (MobSF) and the Bytecode Viewer were used to examine the source code of the three malware samples. Analysis of the flubot virus revealed that it extracts or drops dex files on the victim's device, where the file is the primary malware. The Flubot virus will clone the messaging application or Short Message Service (SMS) on the default device. Additionally, we discovered a form of flubot malware that operates as a Domain Generation Algorithm (DGA) and communicates with its Command and Control (C&C) server.

The use of digital images is increasingly widespread currently. There is a need for security in digital photos. Cryptography is a technique that can be applied to secure data. In addition to safety, data integrity also needs to be considered to anticipate the image being manipulated. The hash function is a technique that can be used to determine data authentication. In this study, the Rail Fence Cipher and Myszkowski algorithms were used for the encryption and decryption of digital images, as the Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA-256) algorithm. Rail Fence Cipher Algorithm is a transposition algorithm that is quite simple but still vulnerable. It is combined with the Myszkowski Algorithm, which has a high level of complexity with a simple key. Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA-256) is a hash function that accepts an input limit of fewer than 2∧64 bits and produces a fixed hash value of 256 bits. The tested images vary based on image resolution and can be encrypted and decrypted well, with an average MSE value of 4171.16 and an average PSNR value of 11.96 dB. The hash value created is also unique. Keywords—Cryptography, Hash Function, Rail Fence Cipher, Myszkowski, SHA-256, Digital image.

Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) is a rapidly growing branch of IoT (Internet of Things), which requires special treatment to cyber security due to confidentiality of healthcare data and patient health threat. Healthcare data and automated medical devices might become vulnerable targets of malicious cyber-attacks. While a large number of robotic applications, including medical and healthcare, employ robot operating system (ROS) as their backbone, not enough attention is paid for ROS security. The paper discusses a security of ROS-based swing doors automation in the context of a robotic hospital framework, which should be protected from cyber-attacks.

Derivatives are key to numerous science, engineering, and machine learning applications. While existing tools generate derivatives of programs in a single language, modern parallel applications combine a set of frameworks and languages to leverage available performance and function in an evolving hardware landscape. We propose a scheme for differentiating arbitrary DAG-based parallelism that preserves scalability and efficiency, implemented into the LLVM-based Enzyme automatic differentiation framework. By integrating with a full-fledged compiler backend, Enzyme can differentiate numerous parallel frameworks and directly control code generation. Combined with its ability to differentiate any LLVM-based language, this flexibility permits Enzyme to leverage the compiler tool chain for parallel and differentiation-specitic optimizations. We differentiate nine distinct versions of the LULESH and miniBUDE applications, written in different programming languages (C++, Julia) and parallel frameworks (OpenMP, MPI, RAJA, Julia tasks, MPI.jl), demonstrating similar scalability to the original program. On benchmarks with 64 threads or nodes, we find a differentiation overhead of 3.4–6.8× on C++ and 5.4–12.5× on Julia.

This paper presents secure MatDot codes, a family of evaluation codes that support secure distributed matrix multiplication via a careful selection of evaluation points that exploit the properties of the dual code. We show that the secure MatDot codes provide security against the user by using locally recoverable codes. These new codes complement the recently studied discrete Fourier transform codes for distributed matrix multiplication schemes that also provide security against the user. There are scenarios where the associated costs are the same for both families and instances where the secure MatDot codes offer a lower cost. In addition, the secure MatDot code provides an alternative way to handle the matrix multiplication by identifying the fastest servers in advance. In this way, it can determine a product using fewer servers, specified in advance, than the MatDot codes which achieve the optimal recovery threshold for distributed matrix multiplication schemes.

Public key cryptography plays an important role in secure communications over insecure channels. Elliptic curve cryptography, as a variant of public key cryptography, has been extensively used in the last decades for such purposes. In this paper, we present a software tool for parallel generation of cryptographic keys based on elliptic curves. Binary method for point multiplication and C++ threads were used in parallel implementation, while secp256k1 elliptic curve was used for testing. Obtained results show speedup of 30% over the sequential solution for 8 threads. The results are briefly discussed in the paper.

Cybersecurity is without doubt becoming a societal challenge. It even starts to affect sectors that were not considered to be at risk in the past because of their relative isolation. One of these sectors is aviation in general, and specifically air traffic management. Nowadays, the cyber security is one of the essential issues of current Air Traffic Systems. Compliance with the basic principles of cyber security is mandated by European Union law as well as the national law. Therefore, EUROCONTROL as the provider of several tools or services (ARTAS, EAD, SDDS, etc.), is regularly conducting various activities, such as the cyber-security assessments, penetration testing, supply chain risk assessment, in order to maintain and improve persistence of the products against the cyber-attacks.

Systems for relative localization in multi-robot systems based on ultra-wideband (UWB) ranging have recently emerged as robust solutions for GNSS-denied environments. Scalability remains one of the key challenges, particularly in adhoc deployments. Recent solutions include dynamic allocation of active and passive localization modes for different robots or nodes in the system. with larger-scale systems becoming more distributed, key research questions arise in the areas of security and trustability of such localization systems. This paper studies the potential integration of collaborative-decision making processes with distributed ledger technologies. Specifically, we investigate the design and implementation of a methodology for running an UWB role allocation algorithm within smart contracts in a blockchain. In previous works, we have separately studied the integration of ROS2 with the Hyperledger Fabric blockchain, and introduced a new algorithm for scalable UWB-based localization. In this paper, we extend these works by (i) running experiments with larger number of mobile robots switching between different spatial configurations and (ii) integrating the dynamic UWB role allocation algorithm into Fabric smart contracts for distributed decision-making in a system of multiple mobile robots. This enables us to deliver the same functionality within a secure and trustable process, with enhanced identity and data access management. Our results show the effectiveness of the UWB role allocation for continuously varying spatial formations of six autonomous mobile robots, while demonstrating a low impact on latency and computational resources of adding the blockchain layer that does not affect the localization process.

Mid-infrared spectroscopic imaging (MIRSI) is an emerging class of label-free, biochemically quantitative technologies targeting digital histopathology. Conventional histopathology relies on chemical stains that alter tissue color. This approach is qualitative, often making histopathologic examination subjective and difficult to quantify. MIRSI addresses these challenges through quantitative and repeatable imaging that leverages native molecular contrast. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) imaging, the best-known MIRSI technology, has two challenges that have hindered its widespread adoption: data collection speed and spatial resolution. Recent technological breakthroughs, such as photothermal MIRSI, provide an order of magnitude improvement in spatial resolution. However, this comes at the cost of acquisition speed, which is impractical for clinical tissue samples. This paper introduces an adaptive compressive sampling technique to reduce hyperspectral data acquisition time by an order of magnitude by leveraging spectral and spatial sparsity. This method identifies the most informative spatial and spectral features, integrates a fast tensor completion algorithm to reconstruct megapixel-scale images, and demonstrates speed advantages over FTIR imaging while providing spatial resolutions comparable to new photothermal approaches.

This paper reports on the advanced assembly technology for small chip size of Fan-out WLP(FO-WLP) using high expansion tape. In a preceding paper, we reported that we have developed new tape expansion machine which can expand tape in four directions individually. Using this expansion machine device, we have developed high expansion tape which can get enough chip distance after expansion. Our expansion technology provides both high throughput and high placement accuracy. These previous studies have been evaluated using 3 mm x 3 mm chips assuming an actual FO-WLP device. Since our process can be handled by wafer size, smaller chip size improves throughput than larger chip size. In this study, we evaluate with 0.6 mm x 0.3 mm chip size and investigate tape characteristics required for small chip size expansion. By optimizing adhesive thickness and composition of adhesive, we succeed in developing high expansion tape for small chip size with good expandability and no adhesive residue on the expanded chip. We indicate that our proposal process is also effective for small chip size of FO-WLP.

Cyber-Physical Power System (CPPS) is one of the most critical infrastructure systems due to deep integration between power grids and communication networks. In the power system, cascading failure is spreading more readily in CPPS, even leading to blackouts as well as there are new difficulties with the power system security simulation and faults brought by physical harm or network intrusions. The current study summarized the cross- integration of several fields such as computer and cyberspace security in terms of the robustness of Cyber-Physical Systems, viewed as Interconnected and secure network systems. Therefore, the security events that significantly influenced the power system were evaluated in this study, besides the challenges and future directions of power system security simulation technologies were investigated for posing both challenges and opportunities for simulation techniques of power system security like building a new power system to accelerate the transformation of the existing energy system to a clean, low-carbon, safe, and efficient energy system which is used to assure power system stability through fusion systems that combine the cyber-physical to integrate the battery power station, power generation and renewable energy resources through the internet with the cyber system that contains Smart energy system control and attacks.

Technology plays a vital role in our lives to meet basic hygiene necessities. Currently, the whole world is facing an epidemic situation and the practice of using sanitizers is common nowadays. Sanitizers are used by people to sanitize their hands and bodies. It is also used for sanitizing objects that come into contact with the machine. While sanitizing a small area, people manage to sanitize via pumps, but it becomes difficult to sanitize the same area every day. One of the most severe sanitation concerns is a simple, economic and efficient method to adequately clean the indoor and outdoor environments. In particular, effective sanitization is required for people working in a clinical environment. Recently, some commonly used sanitizer techniques include electric sanitizer spray guns, electric sanitizer disinfectants, etc. However, these sanitizers are not automated, which means a person is required to roam personally with the device to every place to spray the disinfectant or sanitize an area. Therefore, a novel, cost-effective automatic sanitizing machine (ASM) named ASMBoT is designed that can dispense the sanitizer effectively by solving the aforementioned problems.