Biblio

Nowadays, Security is the biggest challenge in communication networks. Well defined security protocols not only solve the privacy and security issues but also help to reduce the implementation cost and simplify network's operation. Network society demands more reliable and secure network services as well as infrastructure. In communication networks, data theft, hacking, fraud, cyber warfare are serious security threats. Security as defined by experts is confirming protected communication amongst communication/computing systems and consumer applications in private and public networks, it is important for promising privacy, confidentiality, and protection of information. This paper highlights the security related issues and challenges in communication networks. We also present the holistic view for the underlaying physical layer including physical infrastructure attacks, jamming, interception, and eavesdropping. This research focused on improving the security measures and protocols in different communication networks.

Due to the proliferation of Internet-of-Things (IoT) environments, humans working with heterogeneous, smart objects in public IoT environments become more popular than ever before. This situation often requires to establish trust relationships between a user and a smart object for their secure interactions, but without the presence of prior interactions. In this work, we are interested in how a smart object can grant an access right to a human user in the absence of any prior knowledge in which some users may be malicious aiming to breach security goals of the IoT system. To solve this problem, we propose a trust-aware, role-based access control system, namely TARAS, which provides adaptive authorization to users based on dynamic trust estimation. In TARAS, for the initial trust establishment, we take a multidisciplinary approach by adopting the concept of I-sharing from psychology. The I-sharing follows the rationale that people with similar roles and traits are more likely to respond in a similar way. This theory provides a powerful tool to quickly establish trust between a smart object and a new user with no prior interactions. In addition, TARAS can adaptively filter malicious users out by revoking their access rights based on adaptive, dynamic trust estimation. Our experimental results show that the proposed TARAS mechanism can maximize system integrity in terms of correctly detecting malicious or benign users while maximizing service availability to users particularly when the system is fine-tuned based on the identified optimal setting in terms of an optimal trust threshold.

Energy Distribution Grids are considered critical infrastructure, hence the Distribution System Operators (DSOs) have developed sophisticated engineering practices to improve their resilience. Over the last years, due to the "Smart Grid" evolution, this infrastructure has become a distributed system where prosumers (the consumers who produce and share surplus energy through the grid) can plug in distributed energy resources (DERs) and manage a bi-directional flow of data and power enabled by an advanced IT and control infrastructure. This introduces new challenges, as the prosumers possess neither the skills nor the knowledge to assess the risk or secure the environment from cyber-threats. We propose a simple and usable approach based on the Reference Model of Information Assurance & Security (RMIAS), to support the prosumers in the selection of cybesecurity measures. The purpose is to reduce the risk of being directly targeted and to establish collective responsibility among prosumers as grid gatekeepers. The framework moves from a simple risk analysis based on security goals to providing guidelines for the users for adoption of adequate security countermeasures. One of the greatest advantages of the approach is that it does not constrain the user to a specific threat model.

In context of Industry 4.0 Augmented Reality (AR) is frequently mentioned as the upcoming interface technology for human-machine communication and collaboration. Many prototypes have already arisen in both the consumer market and in the industrial sector. According to numerous experts it will take only few years until AR will reach the maturity level to be deployed in productive applications. Especially for industrial usage it is required to assess security risks and challenges this new technology implicates. Thereby we focus on plant operators, Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and component vendors as stakeholders. Starting from several industrial AR use cases and the structure of contemporary AR applications, in this paper we identify security assets worthy of protection and derive the corresponding security goals. Afterwards we elaborate the threats industrial AR applications are exposed to and develop an edge computing architecture for future AR applications which encompasses various measures to reduce security risks for our stakeholders.

Commercial Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) can be accessed through sensor web portals. However, associated security implications and threats to the 1) users/subscribers 2) investors and 3) third party operators regarding sensor web portals are not seen in completeness, rather the contemporary work handles them in parts. In this paper, we discuss different kind of security attacks and vulnerabilities at different layers to the users, investors including Wireless Sensor Network Service Providers (WSNSPs) and WSN itself in relation with the two well-known documents i.e., “Department of Homeland Security” (DHS) and “Department of Defense (DOD)”, as these are standard security documents till date. Further we propose a comprehensive cross layer security solution in the light of guidelines given in the aforementioned documents that is minimalist in implementation and achieves the purported security goals.