Biblio

Performing an interaction using gaze and pinch has been certified as an efficient interactive method in Mixed Reality, for such techniques can provide users concise and natural experiences. However, executing a task with individual interactions gradually is inefficient in some application scenarios. In this paper, we propose the Hand-Pinch Menu, which core concept is to reduce unnecessary operations by combining several interactions. Users can continuously perform multiple interactions on a selected object concurrently without changing gestures by using this technique. The user study results show that our Gaze-Pinch Menu can improve operational efficiency effectively.

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are underlying network infrastructure for a variety of surveillance applications. The network should be tolerant of unexpected failures of sensor nodes to meet the Quality of Service (QoS) requirements of these applications. One major cause of failure is active security attacks such as Depletion-of-Battery (DoB) attacks. This paper model the problem of detecting such attacks as an anomaly detection problem in a dynamic graph. The problem is addressed by employing a cluster ensemble approach called the K-Means Spectral and Hierarchical ensemble (KSH) approach. The experimental result shows that KSH detected DoB attacks with better accuracy when compared to baseline approaches.

Semantic image annotation is a field of paramount importance in which deep learning excels. However, some application domains, like security or medicine, may need an explanation of this annotation. Explainable Artificial Intelligence is an answer to this need. In this work, an explanation is a sentence in natural language that is dedicated to human users to provide them clues about the process that leads to the decision: the labels assignment to image parts. We focus on semantic image annotation with fuzzy logic that has proven to be a useful framework that captures both image segmentation imprecision and the vagueness of human spatial knowledge and vocabulary. In this paper, we present an algorithm for textual explanation generation of the semantic annotation of image regions.

We study the problem of generation of cycles, chains and graphs of pairing-friendly elliptic curves using in succinct non-interactive arguments for knowledge protocols in blockchain. The task to build a “stick” for existing MNT753 cycle is reduced to the factorization problem for big numbers. Together with graphs of pairing friendly elliptic curves we consider auxiliary graphs of their orders (primes or irreducible polynomials) associated to vertices and embedding degrees to edges. Numerical experiments allow us to conjecture that (except of MNT case): 1) for any fixed embedding degrees there exist only finite number of such cycles and, hence, there are no families of such cycles; 2) chains of prime order are very rare; we suppose that there are no polynomial families of such chains. It is hard to find a family of pairing friendly elliptic curves with the base field order q(x) such that ζk ∈ Q[x]/(q(x)) for k \textbackslashtextgreater 6. From other hand our examples show that we can apply Brezing-Weng construction with k=6 and D=3 iteratively to obtain chains of length 3-4. We build 1) a family of 1-chains with embedding degrees 8 and 7, where all orders are given by cyclotomic polynomials; 2) a combination of MNT cycle and near-MNT curve.

What is the minimum number of guesses needed on average to correctly guess a realization of a random variable? The answer to this question led to the introduction of the notion of a quantity called guesswork by Massey in 1994, which can be viewed as an alternate security criterion to entropy. In this paper, we consider guesswork in the presence of quantum side information, and show that a general sequential guessing strategy is equivalent to performing a single quantum measurement and choosing a guessing strategy based on the outcome. We use this result to deduce entropic one-shot and asymptotic bounds on the guesswork in the presence of quantum side information, and to formulate a semi-definite program (SDP) to calculate the quantity. We evaluate the guesswork for a simple example involving the BB84 states, and we prove a continuity result that certifies the security of slightly imperfect key states when the guesswork is used as the security criterion.

Authenticate on the system using only the authentication method based on username and password is not enough to ensure an acceptable level of information security for a critical system. It has been used in a multi factor authentication to increase the information security during the authentication process. However factors like what you have cause an inconvenience to the users, because the users during the authentication process always will need to have a device in their possession that complements the authentication process. By the other side of the biometric factor might change during the time, it needs an auxiliary device that will increase the costs and it also might be dependent from environmental conditions to work appropriately. To avoid some problems that exist in multi factor authentication, this work purposes authentication through semantic representation in OWL (web Ontology Language) tuples of recognized concepts in images as a form to increase the security in the authentication process. A proof of the concept was modeled and implemented, it has a demonstration that the robustness of this authentication system depends on the complexity of relationship in the semantic base (ontology) and in the simplicity of the relationship identified in the images.

The papers in this special section focus on network science for high confidence cyber-physical systems (CPS) Here CPS refers to the engineered systems that can seamlessly integrate the physical world with the cyber world via advanced computation and communication capabilities. To enable high-confidence CPS for achieving better benefits as well as supporting emerging applications, network science-based theories and methodologies are needed to cope with the ever-growing complexity of smart CPS, to predict the system behaviors, and to model the deep inter-dependencies among CPS and the natural world. The major objective of this special section is to exploit various network science techniques such as modeling, analysis, mining, visualization, and optimization to advance the science of supporting high-confidence CPS for greater assurances of security, safety, scalability, efficiency, and reliability. These papers bring a timely and important research topic. The challenges and opportunities of applying network science approaches to high-confidence CPS are profound and far-reaching.

Current Internet Protocol routing provides minimal privacy, which enables multiple exploits. The main issue is that the source and destination addresses of all packets appear in plain text. This enables numerous attacks, including surveillance, man-in-the-middle (MITM), and denial of service (DoS). The talk explains how these attacks work in the current network. Endpoints often believe that use of Network Address Translation (NAT), and Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) can minimize the loss of privacy.We will explain how the regularity of human behavior can be used to overcome these countermeasures. Once packets leave the local autonomous system (AS), they are routed through the network by the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP). The talk will discuss the unreliability of BGP and current attacks on the routing protocol. This will include an introduction to BGP injects and the PEERING testbed for BGP experimentation. One experiment we have performed uses statistical methods (CUSUM and F-test) to detect BGP injection events. We describe work we performed that applies BGP injects to Internet Protocol (IP) address randomization to replace fixed IP addresses in headers with randomized addresses. We explain the similarities and differences of this approach with virtual private networks (VPNs). Analysis of this work shows that BGP reliance on autonomous system (AS) numbers removes privacy from the concept, even though it would disable the current generation of MITM and DoS attacks. We end by presenting a compromise approach that creates software-defined data exchanges (SDX), which mix traffic randomization with VPN concepts. We contrast this approach with the Tor overlay network and provide some performance data.

The Security available in personal computers and laptops are not possible in mobile communication, since there is no controlling software such as an operating system. The European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will require many organisations throughout the European Union to comply with new requirements that are intended to protect their user's personal data. The responsibilities of the organizations and the penalties related to the protection of personal data of the users are proved to be both organisationally and technically challenging. Under the GDPR's 'privacy by design' and 'privacy by default' requirements, organizations need to prove that they are in control of user data and have taken steps to protect it. There are a large number of organizations that makes use of mobile devices to process personal data of their customers. GDPR mandates that the organization shall be able to manage all devices that handles sensitive data so that the company can implement group updates, restrict apps and networks, and enforce security measures. In this work, we propose a Mobile Device Management solution using the built-in frameworks of Android and iOS mobile platforms which is compatible and incorporates GDPR articles relevant to a small to medium sized organization.

Cross-platform development is becoming widely used by developers, and writing for separate platforms is being replaced by developing a single code base that will work across multiple platforms simultaneously, while reducing cost and time. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate cross-platform development by creating a cargo tracking system that will work on multiple platforms with web application by tracking cargo using Global Positioning System (GPS), since the transport business has played a vital role in the evolution of human civilization. In this system, Google Flutter technology is used to create a mobile application that works on both Android and iOS platforms at the same time, by providing maps to clients showing their cargo location using Google Map API, as well as providing a web-based application.

This paper proposes and analyzes a new virtual machine (VM) placement technique called Group Instance to deal with co-location attacks in public Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) clouds. Specifically, Group Instance organizes cloud users into groups with pre-determined sizes set by the cloud provider. Our empirical results obtained via experiments with real-world data sets containing million of VM requests have demonstrated the effectiveness of the new technique. In particular, the advantages of Group Instance are three-fold: 1) it is simple and highly configurable to suit the financial and security needs of cloud providers, 2) it produces better or at least similar performance compared to more complicated, state-of-the-art algorithms in terms of resource utilization and co-location security, and 3) it does not require any modifications to the underlying infrastructures of existing public cloud services.

Traditionally, the management of power distribution networks relies on the centralized implementation of the optimal power flow and, in particular, the minimization of the generation cost and transmission losses. Nevertheless, the increasing penetration of both renewable energy sources and independent players such as ancillary service providers in modern networks have made this centralized framework inadequate. Against this background, we propose a noncooperative game-theoretic framework for optimally controlling energy storage systems (ESSs) in power distribution networks. Specifically, in this paper we address a power grid model that comprehends traditional loads, distributed generation sources and several independent energy storage providers, each owning an individual ESS. Through a rolling-horizon approach, the latter participate in the grid optimization process, aiming both at increasing the penetration of distributed generation and leveling the power injection from the transmission grid. Our framework incorporates not only economic factors but also grid stability aspects, including the power flow constraints. The paper fully describes the distribution grid model as well as the underlying market hypotheses and policies needed to force the energy storage providers to find a feasible equilibrium for the network. Numerical experiments based on the IEEE 33-bus system confirm the effectiveness and resiliency of the proposed framework.

The study presents the design and development of security solution pertaining to prevention of leakage of secret data that is in transit (DIT) to be deployed in a Network Gateway, the Gateway is the link connecting the Trusted Network with the Un-trusted Network. The entire solution includes, tasks such as classification of data flowing in the network, followed by the confinement of the identified data, the confinement of the identified data is done either by tagging the data or by means of encryption, however the later form is employed to achieve confinement of classified data under secret category thereby achieving confidentiality of the same. GNN is used for achieving the categorization function and the results are found to be satisfying with less processing time. The dataset that is used is the publicly available dataset and is available in its labeled format. The final deployment will however be based on the datasets that is available to meet a particular requirement of an Organization/Institution. Any organization can prepare a customized dataset suiting its requirements and train the model. The model can then be used for meeting the DLP requirement.

For the last two decades, a wide spectrum of interpretations of non-interference11The notion of non-interference discussed in this paper enforces flow security in a program and is different from the concept of non-interference used for establishing functional correctness of parallel programs [1] have been used in the security analysis of programs, starting with the notion proposed by Goguen & Meseguer along with arguments of its impact on security practice. While the majority of works deal with sequential programs, several researchers have extended the notion of non-interference to enforce information flow-security in non-deterministic and concurrent programs. Major efforts of generalizations are based on (i) considering input sequences as a basic unit for input/output with semantic interpretation on a two-point information flow lattice, or (ii) typing of expressions as values for reading and writing, or (iii) typing of expressions along with its limited effects. Such approaches have limited compositionality and, thus, pose issues while extending these notions for concurrent programs. Further, in a general multi-point lattice, the notion of a public observer (or attacker) is not unique as it depends on the level of the attacker and the one attacked. In this paper, we first propose a compositional variant of non-interference for sequential systems that follow a general information flow lattice and place it in the context of earlier definitions of non-interference. We show that such an extension leads to the capturing of violations of information flow security in a concrete setting of a sequential language. Finally, we generalize non-interference for concurrent programs and illustrate its use for security analysis, particularly in the cases where information is transmitted through shared variables.

This article describes a new way to generate and distribute secret encryption keys, in which the processes of generating a public key and formicating a secret encryption key are performed in algebra with a parameter, the secrecy of which provides increased durability of the key.

Security of personal data in the e-healthcare has always been challenging issue. The embedded and wearable devices used to collect these personal and critical data of the patients and users are sensitive in nature. Attribute-Based Encryption is believed to provide access control along with data security for distributed data among multiple parties. These resources limited devices do have the capabilities to secure the data while sending to the cloud but instead it increases the overhead and latency of running the encryption algorithm. On the top of if confidentiality is required, which will add more latency. In order to reduce latency and overhead, we propose a new load balancing algorithm that will distribute the data to nearby devices with available resources to encrypt the data and send it to the cloud. In this article, we are proposing a load balancing algorithm for E-Health system called (GALB). Our algorithm is based on Genetic Algorithm (GA). Our algorithm (GALB) distribute the tasks that received to the main gateway between the devices on E-health environment. The distribution strategy is based on the available resources in the devices, the distance between the gateway and the those devices, and the complexity of the task (size) and CP-ABE encryption policy length. In order to evaluate our algorithm performance, we compare the near optimal solution proposed by GALB with the optimal solution proposed by LP.

Caching strategies have been evaluated and compared in many studies, most often via simulation, but also in analytic methods. Knapsack solutions provide a general analytical approach for upper bounds on web caching performance. They assume objects of maximum (value/size) ratio being selected as cache content, with flexibility to define the caching value. Therefore the popularity, cost, size, time-to-live restrictions etc. per object can be included an overall caching goal, e.g., for reducing delay and/or transport path length in content delivery. The independent request model (IRM) leads to basic knapsack bounds for static optimum cache content. We show that a 2-dimensional (2D-)knapsack solution covers arbitrary request pattern, which selects dynamically changing content yielding maximum caching value for any predefined request sequence. Moreover, Belady's optimum strategy for clairvoyant caching is identified as a special case of our 2D-knapsack solution when all objects are unique. We also summarize a comprehensive picture of the demands and efficiency criteria for web caching, including updating speed and overheads. Our evaluations confirm significant performance gaps from LRU to advanced GreedyDual and score-based web caching methods and to the knapsack bounds.

Automatic vulnerability detection is challenging. In this paper, we report our in-progress work of vulnerability prediction based on graph neural network (GNN). We propose a general GNN-based framework for predicting the vulnerabilities in program functions. We study the different instantiations of the framework in representative program graph representations, initial node encodings, and GNN learning methods. The preliminary experimental results on a representative benchmark indicate that the GNN-based method can improve the accuracy and recall rates of vulnerability prediction.

In order to design an end-to-end data security preservation mechanism, this paper first proposes a grid terminal data security management model based on master-slave Blockchain, including grid terminal, slave Blockchain, and main Blockchain. Among them, the grid terminal mainly completes data generation and data release, the receiving of data and the distributed signature of data are mainly completed from the slave Blockchain, and the main Blockchain mainly completes the intelligent storage of data. Secondly, the data security management mechanism of grid terminal based on master-slave Blockchain is designed, including data distribution process design, data receiving process design, data distributed signature design and data intelligent storage process design. Finally, taking the identity registration and data storage process of the grid terminal as an example, the workflow of the data security management mechanism of the grid terminal based on the master-slave Blockchain is described in detail.

The disadvantages and inextensibility of the traditional network require more novel thoughts for the future network architecture, as for ICN (Information-Centric Network), is an information centered and self-caching network, ICN is deeply rooted in the 5G era, of which concept is user-centered and content-centered. Although the ICN enables cache replacement of content, an information distribution scheduling algorithm is still needed to allocate resources properly due to its limited cache capacity. This paper starts with data popularity, information epilepsy and other data related attributes in the ICN environment. Then it analyzes the factors affecting the cache, proposes the concept and calculation method of Gene value. Since the ICN is still in a theoretical state, this paper describes an ICN scenario that is close to the reality and processes a greedy caching algorithm named GDGCA (Gene Driven Greedy Caching Algorithm). The GDGCA tries to design an optimal simulation model, which based on the thoughts of throughput balance and satisfaction degree (SSD), then compares with the regular distributed scheduling algorithm in related research fields, such as the QoE indexes and satisfaction degree under different Poisson data volumes and cycles, the final simulation results prove that GDGCA has better performance in cache scheduling of ICN edge router, especially with the aid of Information Gene value.

Digital identity is the key element of digital transformation in representing any real-world entity in the digital form. To ensure a successful digital future the requirement for an effective digital identity is paramount, especially as demand increases for digital services. Several Identity Management (IDM) systems are developed to cope with identity effectively, nonetheless, existing IDM systems have some limitations corresponding to identity and its management such as sovereignty, storage and access control, security, privacy and safeguarding, all of which require further improvement. Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) is an emerging IDM system which incorporates several required features to ensure that identity is sovereign, secure, reliable and generic. It is an evolving IDM system, thus it is essential to analyse its various features to determine its effectiveness in coping with the dynamic requirements of identity and its current challenges. This paper proposes numerous governing principles of SSI to analyse any SSI ecosystem and its effectiveness. Later, based on the proposed governing principles of SSI, it performs a comparative analysis of the two most popular SSI ecosystems uPort and Sovrin to present their effectiveness and limitations.

Designing an efficient difficulty control algorithm is an essential problem in Proof-of-Work (PoW) based blockchains because the network hash rate is randomly changing. This paper proposes a general difficulty control algorithm and provides insights for difficulty adjustment rules for PoW based blockchains. The proposed algorithm consists a two-layer neural network. It has low memory cost, meanwhile satisfying the fast-updating and low volatility requirements for difficulty adjustment. Real data from Ethereum are used in the simulations to prove that the proposed algorithm has better performance for the control of the block difficulty.

Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) play an increasingly significant role in many critical applications. These valuable applications attract various sophisticated attacks. This paper considers a stealthy estimation attack, which aims to modify the state estimation of the CPSs. The intelligent attackers can learn defense strategies and use clandestine attack strategies to avoid detection. To address the issue, we design a Chi-square detector in a Digital Twin (DT), which is an online digital model of the physical system. We use a Signaling Game with Evidence (SGE) to find the optimal attack and defense strategies. Our analytical results show that the proposed defense strategies can mitigate the impact of the attack on the physical estimation and guarantee the stability of the CPSs. Finally, we use an illustrative application to evaluate the performance of the proposed framework.

The paper presents the concept of applying a game theory approach in infrastructure of wireless dynamic networks to counter computer attacks. The applying of this approach will allow to create mechanism for adaptive reconfiguration of network structure in the context of implementation various types of computer attacks and to provide continuous operation of network even in conditions of destructive information impacts.

Cyber incidents are occurring every day using various attack strategies. Deploying security solutions with strong configurations will reduce the attack surface and improve the forensic readiness, but will increase the security overhead and cost. In contrast, using moderate or low security configurations will reduce that overhead, but will inevitably decrease the investigation readiness. To avoid the use of cost-prohibitive approaches in developing forensic-ready systems, we present in this paper a game theoretic approach for deploying an investigation-ready infrastructure. The proposed game is a non-cooperative two-player game between an adaptive cyber defender that uses a cognitive security solution to increase the investigation readiness and reduce the attackers' untraceability, and a cyber attacker that wants to execute non-provable attacks with a low cost. The cognitive security solution takes its strategic decision, mainly based on its ability to make forensic experts able to differentiate between provable identifiable, provable non-identifiable, and non-provable attack scenarios, starting from the expected evidences to be generated. We study the behavior of the two strategic players, looking for a mixed Nash equilibrium during competition and computing the probabilities of attacking and defending. A simulation is conducted to prove the efficiency of the proposed model in terms of the mean percentage of gained security cost, the number of stepping stones that an attacker creates and the rate of defender false decisions compared to two different approaches.