Biblio

Several computer vision applications such as object detection and face recognition have started to completely rely on deep learning based architectures. These architectures, when paired with appropriate loss functions and optimizers, produce state-of-the-art results in a myriad of problems. On the other hand, with the advent of "blockchain", the cybersecurity industry has developed a new sense of trust which was earlier missing from both the technical and commercial perspectives. Employment of cryptographic hash as well as symmetric/asymmetric encryption and decryption algorithms ensure security without any human intervention (i.e., centralized authority). In this research, we present the synergy between the best of both these worlds. We first propose a model which uses the learned parameters of a typical deep neural network and is secured from external adversaries by cryptography and blockchain technology. As the second contribution of the proposed research, a new parameter tampering attack is proposed to properly justify the role of blockchain in machine learning.

In recent years, almost all the real-world operations are transferred to cyber world and these market computers connect with each other via Internet. As a result of this, there is an increasing number of security breaches of the networks, whose admins cannot protect their networks from the all types of attacks. Although most of these attacks can be prevented with the use of firewalls, encryption mechanisms, access controls and some password protections mechanisms; due to the emergence of new type of attacks, a dynamic intrusion detection mechanism is always needed in the information security market. To enable the dynamicity of the Intrusion Detection System (IDS), it should be updated by using a modern learning mechanism. Neural Network approach is one of the mostly preferred algorithms for training the system. However, with the increasing power of parallel computing and use of big data for training, as a new concept, deep learning has been used in many of the modern real-world problems. Therefore, in this paper, we have proposed an IDS system which uses GPU powered Deep Learning Algorithms. The experimental results are collected on mostly preferred dataset KDD99 and it showed that use of GPU speed up training time up to 6.48 times depending on the number of the hidden layers and nodes in them. Additionally, we compare the different optimizers to enlighten the researcher to select the best one for their ongoing or future research.

When robots and human users collaborate, trust is essential for user acceptance and engagement. In this paper, we investigated two factors thought to influence user trust towards a robot: preference elicitation (a combination of user involvement and explanation) and embodiment. We set our experiment in the application domain of a restaurant recommender system, assessing trust via user decision making and perceived source credibility. Previous research in this area uses simulated environments and recommender systems that present the user with the best choice from a pool of options. This experiment builds on past work in two ways: first, we strengthened the ecological validity of our experimental paradigm by incorporating perceived risk during decision making; and second, we used a system that recommends a nonoptimal choice to the user. While no effect of embodiment is found for trust, the inclusion of preference elicitation features significantly increases user trust towards the robot recommender system. These findings have implications for marketing and health promotion in relation to Human-Robot Interaction and call for further investigation into the development and maintenance of trust between robot and user.

This paper designs three distribution devices for the smart grid, which are, respectively, novel transformer with dc bias restraining ability, energy-saving contactor, and controllable reactor with adjustable intrinsic magnetic state based on the magnetically tunable nanocomposite material core. First, the magnetic performance of this magnetic material was analyzed and the magnetic properties processing method was put forward. One kind of nanocomposite which is close to the semihard magnetic state with low coercivity and high remanence was attained. Nanocomposite with four magnetic properties was processed and prepared using the distribution devices design. Second, in order to adjust the magnetic state better, the magnetization and demagnetization control circuit based on the single-phase supply power of rectification and inverter for the nanocomposite magnetic performance adjustment has been designed, which can mutual transform the material's soft and hard magnetic phases. Finally, based on the nanocomposite and the control circuit, a novel power transformer, an energy-saving contactor, and a magnetically controllable reactor were manufactured for the smart grid. The maintained remanence of the nanocomposite core after the magnetization could neutralize the dc bias magnetic flux in the transformer main core without changing the transformer neutral point connection mode, could pull in the contactor movable core instead of the traditional electromagnetic-type fixed core, and could adjust the reactor core saturation degree instead of the traditional electromagnetic coil. The simulation and experimental results verify the correctness of the design, which provides reliable, intelligent, interactive, and energy-saving power equipment for the smart power grids safe operation.

This paper proposes a novel kind of direct-current and alternate-decay-current hybrid integrative magnetization and demagnetization power supplies applied to transformer dc bias treatment based on a nanocomposite magnetic material. First, according to the single-phase transformer structure, one dc bias magnetic compensation mechanism was provided. The dc bias flux in the transformer main core could be eliminated directionally by utilizing the material remanence. Second, for the rapid response characteristic of the magnetic material to an external magnetic field, one positive and negative dc magnetization superimposed decaying ac demagnetization hybrid integrative power supplies based on single-phase rectifier circuit and inverter circuit was designed. In order to accurately control the magnetic field strength by which a good de/-magnetization effect could be achieved, this paper adopts the double-loop control technology of the magnetic field strength and magnetizing current for the nanocomposite magnetic state adjustment. Finally, two 10 kVA transformers and the experiment module of the hybrid integrative power supplies were manufactured and built. Experimental results showed that the integrated power supplies have good de/-magnetization effect and practicability, proving the validity and feasibility of the proposed scheme.

The Internet, the de facto platform for large-scale content distribution, suffers from two issues that limit its manageability, efficiency, and evolution. First, the IP-based Internet is host-centric and agnostic to the content being delivered and, second, the tight coupling of the control and data planes restrict its manageability, and subsequently the possibility to create dynamic alternative paths for efficient content delivery. Here, we present the CURLING system that leverages the emerging Information-Centric Networking paradigm for enabling cost-efficient Internet-scale content delivery by exploiting multicasting and in-network caching. Following the software-defined networking concept that decouples the control and data planes, CURLING adopts an interdomain hop-by-hop content resolution mechanism that allows network operators to dynamically enforce/change their network policies in locating content sources and optimizing content delivery paths. Content publishers and consumers may also control content access according to their preferences. Based on both analytical modeling and simulations using real domain-level Internet subtopologies, we demonstrate how CURLING supports efficient Internet-scale content delivery without the necessity for radical changes to the current Internet.

In this paper, we propose an architecture that utilizes blockchain technology for enabling verifiable trust in collaborative health research environments. The architecture supports the human-in-the-loop paradigm for health research by establishing trust between participants, including human researchers and AI systems, by making all data transformations transparent and verifiable by all participants. We define the trustworthiness of the system and provide an analysis of the architecture in terms of trust requirements. We then evaluate our architecture by analyzing its resiliency to common security threats and through an experimental realization.

The security, safety and reliability of rail systems are of the utmost importance. In order to better detect and prevent anomalies, it is necessary to accurately study and analyze the network traffic and abnormal behaviors, as well as to detect and alert any anomalies if happened. This paper focuses on data analysis for anomaly detection with Wireshark and packet analysis system. An alert function is also developed to provide an alert when abnormality happens. Rail network traffic data have been captured and analyzed so that their network features are obtained and used to detect the abnormality. To improve efficiency, a packet analysis system is introduced to receive the network flow and analyze data automatically. The provision of two detection methods, i.e., the Wireshark detection and the packet analysis system together with the alert function will facilitate the timely detection of abnormality and triggering of alert in the rail network.

In view of the problem that the health status and safety monitoring of the traditional intelligent home are mainly dependent on the manual inspection, this paper introduces the intelligent home-based remote monitoring system by introducing the Internet-based Internet of Things technology into the intelligent home condition monitoring and safety assessment. The system's Android remote operation based on the MVP model to develop applications, the use of neural networks to deal with users daily use of operational data to establish the network data model, combined with S3C2440A microcontrollers in the gateway to the embedded Linux to facilitate different intelligent home drivers development. Finally, the power line communication network is used to connect the intelligent electrical appliances to the gateway. By calculating the success rate of the routing nodes, the success rate of the network nodes of 15 intelligent devices is 98.33%. The system can intelligent home many electrical appliances at the same time monitoring, to solve the system data and network congestion caused by the problem can not he security monitoring.

For the control of the parameters and for the accounting of the energy consumption in buildings and structures the intelligent control system has been developed that provides: the continuous monitoring of the thermodynamic parameters of the energy carriers measured by wireless smart sensors; the calculation and transmission of the measured parameters via the radio channel to the database for their accumulation and storage; control signals delivery for the control devices of the energy consumption and for the security devices; the maintaining of a database of the energy consumption accounting. For the interaction of the hardware and software in the control system, the SimpliciTI-based protocol and algorithms for the reliable data transmission over the radio channel in a dense urban environment have been developed.

Situation awareness consists of "the perception of the elements in the environment within a volume of time and space, the comprehension of their meaning, and the projection of their status in the near future". Being aware of the security situation is then mandatory to launch proper security reactions in response to cybersecurity attacks. Security Incident and Event Management solutions are deployed within Security Operation Centers. Some vendors propose machine learning based approaches to detect intrusions by analysing networks behaviours. But cyberattacks like Wannacry and NotPetya, which shut down hundreds of thousands of computers, demonstrated that networks monitoring and surveillance solutions remain insufficient. Detecting these complex attacks (a.k.a. Advanced Persistent Threats) requires security administrators to retain a large number of logs just in case problems are detected and involve the investigation of past security events. This approach generates massive data that have to be analysed at the right time in order to detect any accidental or caused incident. In the same time, security administrators are not yet seasoned to such a task and lack the desired skills in data science. As a consequence, a large amount of data is available and still remains unexplored which leaves number of indicators of compromise under the radar. Building on the concept of situation awareness, we developed a situation-driven framework, called dynSMAUG, for dynamic security management. This approach simplifies the security management of dynamic systems and allows the specification of security policies at a high-level of abstraction (close to security requirements). This invited paper aims at exposing real security situations elicitation, coming from networks security experts, and showing the results of exploratory analysis techniques using complex event processing techniques to identify and extract security situations from a large volume of logs. The results contributed to the extension of the dynSMAUG solution.

A dynamic overlay system is presented for supporting transport service needs of dispersed computing applications for moving data and/or code between network computation points and end-users in IoT or IoBT. The Network Backhaul Layered Architecture (Nebula) system combines network discovery and QoS monitoring, dynamic path optimization, online learning, and per-hop tunnel transport protocol optimization and synthesis over paths, to carry application traffic flows transparently over overlay tunnels. An overview is provided of Nebula's overlay system, software architecture, API, and implementation in the NRL CORE network emulator. Experimental emulation results demonstrate the performance benefits that Nebula provides under challenging networking conditions.

In this paper, a novel anti-jamming mechanism is proposed to analyze and enhance the security of adversarial Internet of Battlefield Things (IoBT) systems. In particular, the problem is formulated as a dynamic psychological game between a soldier and an attacker. In this game, the soldier seeks to accomplish a time-critical mission by traversing a battlefield within a certain amount of time, while maintaining its connectivity with an IoBT network. The attacker, on the other hand, seeks to find the optimal opportunity to compromise the IoBT network and maximize the delay of the soldier's IoBT transmission link. The soldier and the attacker's psychological behavior are captured using tools from psychological game theory, with which the soldier's and attacker's intentions to harm one another are considered in their utilities. To solve this game, a novel learning algorithm based on Bayesian updating is proposed to find an ∈ -like psychological self-confirming equilibrium of the game.

Today, most embedded systems use Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS) to minimize energy consumption and maximize performance. The DVFS technique works by regulating the important parameters that govern the amount of energy consumed in a system, voltage and frequency. For the implementation of this technique, the operating system (OS) includes software applications that dynamically control a voltage regulator or a frequency regulator or both. In this paper, we demonstrate for the first time a malicious use of the frequency regulator against a TrustZone-enabled System-on-Chip (SoC). We demonstrate a use of frequency scaling to create covert channel in a TrustZone-enabled heterogeneous SoC. We present four proofs of concept to transfer sensitive data from a secure entity in the SoC to a non-secure one. The first proof of concept is from a secure ARM core to outside of SoC. The second is from a secure ARM core to a non-secure one. The third is from a non-trusted third party IP embedded in the programmable logic part of the SoC to a non-secure ARM core. And the last proof of concept is from a secure third party IP to a non-secure ARM core.

Intellectual Property (IP) infringement including piracy and overproduction have emerged as significant threats in the semiconductor supply chain. Key-based obfuscation techniques (i.e., logic locking) are widely applied to secure legacy IP from such attacks. However, the fundamental question remains open whether an attacker is allowed an exponential amount of time to seek correct key or could it be useful to lock out the design in a non-destructive manner after several incorrect attempts. In this paper, we address this question with a robust design lockout technique. Specifically, we perform comparisons on obfuscation logic output that reflects the condition (correct or incorrect) of the applied key without changing the system behavior. The proposed approach, when combined with key obfuscation (logic locking) technique, increases the difficulty of reverse engineering key obfuscated RTL module. We provide security evaluation of DLockout against three common side-channel attacks followed by a quantitative assessment of the resilience. We conducted a set of experiments on four datapath intensive IPs and one crypto core for three different key lengths (32-, 64-, and 128-bit) under the typical design corner. On average, DLockout incurs negligible area, power, and delay overheads.

It is challenging to detect weak hidden information in a JPEG compressed image. In this paper, we propose a 32-layer convolutional neural networks (CNNs) with feature reuse by concatenating all features from previous layers. The proposed method can improve the flow of gradient and information, and the shared features and bottleneck layers in the proposed CNN model further reduce the number of parameters dramatically. The experimental results shown that the proposed method significantly reduce the detection error rate compared with the existing JPEG steganalysis methods, e.g. state-of-the-art XuNet method and the conventional SCA-GFR method. Compared with XuNet method and conventional method SCA-GFR in detecting J-UNIWARD at 0.1 bpnzAC (bit per non-zero AC DCT coefficient), the proposed method can reduce detection error rate by 4.33% and 6.55% respectively.

Deep neural networks are widely used in many walks of life. Techniques such as transfer learning enable neural networks pre-trained on certain tasks to be retrained for a new duty, often with much less data. Users have access to both pre-trained model parameters and model definitions along with testing data but have either limited access to training data or just a subset of it. This is risky for system-critical applications, where adversarial information can be maliciously included during the training phase to attack the system. Determining the existence and level of attack in a model is challenging. In this paper, we present evidence on how adversarially attacking training data increases the boundary of model parameters using as an example of a CNN model and the MNIST data set as a test. This expansion is due to new characteristics of the poisonous data that are added to the training data. Approaching the problem from the feature space learned by the network provides a relation between them and the possible parameters taken by the model on the training phase. An algorithm is proposed to determine if a given network was attacked in the training by comparing the boundaries of parameters distribution on intermediate layers of the model estimated by using the Maximum Entropy Principle and the Variational inference approach.

DNS based domain name resolution has been known as one of the most fundamental Internet services. In the meanwhile, DNS cache poisoning attacks also have become a critical threat in the cyber world. In addition to Kaminsky attacks, the falsified data from the compromised authoritative DNS servers also have become the threats nowadays. Several solutions have been proposed in order to prevent DNS cache poisoning attacks in the literature for the former case such as DNSSEC (DNS Security Extensions), however no effective solutions have been proposed for the later case. Moreover, due to the performance issue and significant workload increase on DNS cache servers, DNSSEC has not been deployed widely yet. In this work, we propose an advanced detection method against DNS cache poisoning attacks using machine learning techniques. In the proposed method, in addition to the basic 5-tuple information of a DNS packet, we intend to add a lot of special features extracted based on the standard DNS protocols as well as the heuristic aspects such as “time related features”, “GeoIP related features” and “trigger of cached DNS data”, etc., in order to identify the DNS response packets used for cache poisoning attacks especially those from compromised authoritative DNS servers. In this paper, as a work in progress, we describe the basic idea and concept of our proposed method as well as the intended network topology of the experimental environment while the prototype implementation, training data preparation and model creation as well as the evaluations will belong to the future work.

The search for alternative delivery modes to teaching has been one of the pressing concerns of numerous educational institutions. One key innovation to improve teaching and learning is e-learning which has undergone enormous improvements. From its focus on text-based environment, it has evolved into Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) which provide more stimulating and immersive experiences among learners and educators. An example of VLEs is the virtual world which is an emerging educational platform among universities worldwide. One very interesting topic that can be taught using the virtual world is cybersecurity. Simulating cybersecurity in the virtual world may give a realistic experience to students which can be hardly achieved by classroom teaching. To date, there are quite a number of studies focused on cybersecurity awareness and cybersecurity behavior. But none has focused looking into the effect of digital simulation in the virtual world, as a new educational platform, in the cybersecurity attitude of the students. It is in this regard that this study has been conducted by designing simulation in the virtual world lessons that teaches the five aspects of cybersecurity namely; malware, phishing, social engineering, password usage and online scam, which are the most common cybersecurity issues. The study sought to examine the effect of this digital simulation design in the cybersecurity knowledge and attitude of the students. The result of the study ascertains that students exposed under simulation in the virtual world have a greater positive change in cybersecurity knowledge and attitude than their counterparts.

In this paper, we propose a cybersecurity exercise system in a virtual computer environment. The human resource development for security fields is an urgent issue because of the threat of cyber-attacks, recently, is increasing, many incidents occurring, but there is a not enough security personnel to respond. Some universities and companies are conducting education using a commercial training system on the market. However, built and operates the training system is expensive, therefore difficult to use in higher education institutions and SMEs. However, to build and operates, the training system needs high cost, thus difficult to use in higher education institutions and SMEs. For this reason, we developed the CyExec: a cybersecurity exercise system consisting of a virtual computer environment using VirtualBox and Docker. We also implemented the WebGoat that is an OSS vulnerability diagnosis and learning program on the CyExec and developed an attack and defense exercise program.

Routing security plays an important role in the mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs). Despite many attempts to improve its security, the routing mechanism of MANETs remains vulnerable to attacks. Unlike most existing solutions that prevent the specific problems, our approach tends to detect the misbehavior and identify the anomalous nodes in MANETs automatically. The existing approaches offer support for detecting attacks or debugging in different routing phases, but many of them cannot answer the absence of an event. Besides, without considering the privacy of the nodes, these methods depend on the central control program or a third party to supervise the whole network. In this paper, we present a system called DAPV that can find single or collaborative malicious nodes and the paralyzed nodes which behave abnormally. DAPV can detect both direct and indirect attacks launched during the routing phase. To detect malicious or abnormal nodes, DAPV relies on two main techniques. First, the provenance tracking enables the hosts to deduce the expected log information of the peers with the known log entries. Second, the privacy-preserving verification uses Merkle Hash Tree to verify the logs without revealing any privacy of the nodes. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach by applying DAPV to three scenarios: 1) detecting injected malicious intermediated routers which commit active and passive attacks in MANETs; 2) resisting the collaborative black-hole attack of the AODV protocol, and; 3) detecting paralyzed routers in university campus networks. Our experimental results show that our approach can detect the malicious and paralyzed nodes, and the overhead of DAPV is moderate.

The paper outlines the concept of the Digital economy, defines the role and types of intellectual resources in the context of digitalization of the economy, reviews existing approaches and methods to intellectual property valuation and analyzes drawbacks of quantitative evaluation of intellectual resources (based intellectual property valuation) related to: uncertainty, noisy data, heterogeneity of resources, nonformalizability, lack of reliable tools for measuring the parameters of intellectual resources and non-stationary development of intellectual resources. The results of the study offer the ways of further development of methods for quantitative evaluation of intellectual resources (inter alia aimed at their capitalization).

Researchers develop bioassays following rigorous experimentation in the lab that involves considerable fiscal and highly-skilled-person-hour investment. Previous work shows that a bioassay implementation can be reverse engineered by using images or video and control signals of the biochip. Hence, techniques must be devised to protect the intellectual property (IP) rights of the bioassay developer. This study is the first step in this direction and it makes the following contributions: (1) it introduces use of a sieve-valve as a security primitive to obfuscate bioassay implementations; (2) it shows how sieve-valves can be used to obscure biochip building blocks such as multiplexers and mixers; (3) it presents design rules and security metrics to design and measure obfuscated biochips. We assess the cost-security trade-offs associated with this solution and demonstrate practical sieve-valve based obfuscation on real-life biochips.

This paper outlines the concept of intellectual property utilization and develops a framework for the targeted generation of intellectual property for the benefit of various economic entities. The study proposes two types of the decision support system: (i) based on deterministic logic, and (ii) based on multi-agent systems. The results of the study offer the development of a mathematical approach to the interaction process of agents in multi-agent systems, inter alia related to the targeted generation of intellectual property.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a vast collection of interconnected sensors, devices, and services that share data and information over the Internet with the objective of leveraging multiple information sources to optimize related systems. The technologies associated with the IoT have significantly improved the quality of many existing applications by reducing costs, improving functionality, increasing access to resources, and enhancing automation. The adoption of IoT by industries has led to the next industrial revolution: Industry 4.0. The rise of the Industrial IoT (IIoT) promises to enhance factory management, process optimization, worker safety, and more. However, the rollout of the IIoT is not without significant issues, and many of these act as major barriers that prevent fully achieving the vision of Industry 4.0. One major area of concern is the security and privacy of the massive datasets that are captured and stored, which may leak information about intellectual property, trade secrets, and other competitive knowledge. As a way forward toward solving security and privacy concerns, we aim in this paper to identify common input-output (I/O) design patterns that exist in applications of the IIoT. These design patterns enable constructing an abstract model representation of data flow semantics used by such applications, and therefore better understand how to secure the information related to IIoT operations. In this paper, we describe communication protocols and identify common I/O design patterns for IIoT applications with an emphasis on data flow in edge devices, which, in the industrial control system (ICS) setting, are most often involved in process control or monitoring.