The distributed energy resources (DERs) have significantly stimulated the development of decentralized energy system and changed the way how the energy system works. In recent years, peer-to-peer (P2P) trading has drawn attention as a promising alternative for prosumers to engage with the energy market more actively, particular by using the emerging blockchain technology. Blockchain can securely hold critical information and store data in blocks linking with chain, providing a desired platform for the P2P energy trading. This paper provides a detailed description of blockchain-enabled P2P energy trading, its essential components, and how it can be implemented within the local energy market An analysis of potential threats during blockchain-enabled P2P energy trading is also performed, which subsequently results in a list of operation and privacy requirements suggested to be implemented in the local energy market.
Authored by Siyuan Dong, Zhong Fan
The growing amount of data and advances in data science have created a need for a new kind of cloud platform that provides users with flexibility, strong security, and the ability to couple with supercomputers and edge devices through high-performance networks. We have built such a nation-wide cloud platform, called "mdx" to meet this need. The mdx platform's virtualization service, jointly operated by 9 national universities and 2 national research institutes in Japan, launched in 2021, and more features are in development. Currently mdx is used by researchers in a wide variety of domains, including materials informatics, geo-spatial information science, life science, astronomical science, economics, social science, and computer science. This paper provides an overview of the mdx platform, details the motivation for its development, reports its current status, and outlines its future plans.
Authored by Toyotaro Suzumura, Akiyoshi Sugiki, Hiroyuki Takizawa, Akira Imakura, Hiroshi Nakamura, Kenjiro Taura, Tomohiro Kudoh, Toshihiro Hanawa, Yuji Sekiya, Hiroki Kobayashi, Yohei Kuga, Ryo Nakamura, Renhe Jiang, Junya Kawase, Masatoshi Hanai, Hiroshi Miyazaki, Tsutomu Ishizaki, Daisuke Shimotoku, Daisuke Miyamoto, Kento Aida, Atsuko Takefusa, Takashi Kurimoto, Koji Sasayama, Naoya Kitagawa, Ikki Fujiwara, Yusuke Tanimura, Takayuki Aoki, Toshio Endo, Satoshi Ohshima, Keiichiro Fukazawa, Susumu Date, Toshihiro Uchibayashi
Phishing is a method of online fraud where attackers are targeted to gain access to the computer systems for monetary benefits or personal gains. In this case, the attackers pose themselves as legitimate entities to gain the users' sensitive information. Phishing has been significant concern over the past few years. The firms are recording an increase in phishing attacks primarily aimed at the firm's intellectual property and the employees' sensitive data. As a result, these attacks force firms to spend more on information security, both in technology-centric and human-centric approaches. With the advancements in cyber-security in the last ten years, many techniques evolved to detect phishing-related activities through websites and emails. This study focuses on the latest techniques used for detecting phishing attacks, including the usage of Visual selection features, Machine Learning (ML), and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to see the phishing attacks. New strategies for identifying phishing attacks are evolving, but limited standardized knowledge on phishing identification and mitigation is accessible from user awareness training. So, this study also focuses on the role of security-awareness movements to minimize the impact of phishing attacks. There are many approaches to train the user regarding these attacks, such as persona-centred training, anti-phishing techniques, visual discrimination training and the usage of spam filters, robust firewalls and infrastructure, dynamic technical defense mechanisms, use of third-party certified software to mitigate phishing attacks from happening. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to carry out a systematic analysis of literature to assess the state of knowledge in prominent scientific journals on the identification and prevention of phishing. Forty-three journal articles with the perspective of phishing detection and prevention through awareness training were reviewed from 2011 to 2020. This timely systematic review also focuses on the gaps identified in the selected primary studies and future research directions in this area.
Authored by Kanchan Patil, Sai Arra
The main objective of this research is to increase security awareness against phishing attacks in the education sector by teaching users about phishing URLs. The educational media was made based on references from several previous studies that were used as basic references. Development of antiphishing game framework educational media using the extended DPE framework. Participants in this study were vocational and college students in the technology field. The respondents included vocational and college students, each with as many as 30 respondents. To assess the level of awareness and understanding of phishing, especially phishing URLs, participants will be given a pre-test before playing the game, and after completing the game, the application will be given a posttest. A paired t-test was used to answer the research hypothesis. The results of data analysis show differences in the results of increasing identification of URL phishing by respondents before and after using educational media of the anti-phishing game framework in increasing security awareness against URL phishing attacks. More serious game development can be carried out in the future to increase user awareness, particularly in phishing or other security issues, and can be implemented for general users who do not have a background in technology.
Authored by Dikka Wibawa, Hermawan Setiawan, Girinoto
The vertiginous technological advance related to globalization and the new digital era has led to the design of new techniques and tools that deal with the risks of technology and information. Terms such as "cybersecurity" stand out, which corresponds to that area of computer science that is responsible for the development and implementation of information protection mechanisms and technological infrastructure, in order to deal with cyberattacks. Phishing is a crime that uses social engineering and technical subterfuge to steal personal identity data and financial account credentials from users, representing a high economic and financial risk worldwide, both for individuals and for large organizations. The objective of this research is to determine the ways to prevent phishing, by analyzing the characteristics of this computer fraud, the various existing modalities and the main prevention strategies, in order to increase the knowledge of users about this. subject, highlighting the importance of adequate training that allows establishing efficient mechanisms to detect and block phishing.
Authored by Javier Guaña-Moya, Marco Chiluisa-Chiluisa, Paulina Jaramillo-Flores, Darwin Naranjo-Villota, Eugenio Mora-Zambrano, Lenin Larrea-Torres
Phishing has become a prominent method of data theft among hackers, and it continues to develop. In recent years, many strategies have been developed to identify phishing website attempts using machine learning particularly. However, the algorithms and classification criteria that have been used are highly different from the real issues and need to be compared. This paper provides a detailed comparison and evaluation of the performance of several machine learning algorithms across multiple datasets. Two phishing website datasets were used for the experiments: the Phishing Websites Dataset from UCI (2016) and the Phishing Websites Dataset from Mendeley (2018). Because these datasets include different types of class labels, the comparison algorithms can be applied in a variety of situations. The tests showed that Random Forest was better than other classification methods, with an accuracy of 88.92% for the UCI dataset and 97.50% for the Mendeley dataset.
Authored by Wendy Sarasjati, Supriadi Rustad, Purwanto, Heru Santoso, Muljono, Abdul Syukur, Fauzi Rafrastara, De Setiadi
It is the key to the Internet's expansion of social and economic functions by ensuring the credibility of online users' identities and behaviors while taking into account privacy protection. Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and blockchain technology have provided ways to achieve credibility from different perspectives. Based on these two technologies, we attempt to generalize people's offline activities to online ones with our proposed model, Atom and Molecule. We then present the strict definition of trustworthy system and the trustworthy Internet. The definition of Generalized Blockchain and its practical implementation are provided as well.
Authored by Shengjian Chen
Spatio-Temporal Attack Course-of-Action (COA) Search Learning for Scalable and Time-Varying Networks
One of the key topics in network security research is the autonomous COA (Couse-of-Action) attack search method. Traditional COA attack search methods that passively search for attacks can be difficult, especially as the network gets bigger. To address these issues, new autonomous COA techniques are being developed, and among them, an intelligent spatial algorithm is designed in this paper for efficient operations in scalable networks. On top of the spatial search, a Monte-Carlo (MC)-based temporal approach is additionally considered for taking care of time-varying network behaviors. Therefore, we propose a spatio-temporal attack COA search algorithm for scalable and time-varying networks.
Authored by Haemin Lee, Seok Bin Son, Won Yun, Joongheon Kim, Soyi Jung, Dong Kim
With the influx of technology use and human-robot teams, it is important to understand how swift trust is developed within these teams. Given this influx, we plan to study how surface cues (i.e., observable characteristics) and imported information (i.e., knowledge from external sources or personal experiences) effect the development of swift trust. We hypothesize that human-like surface level cues and positive imported information will yield higher swift trust. These findings will help the assignment of human robot teams in the future.
Authored by Sabina Patel, Elizabeth Phillips, Elizabeth Lazzara
The increasing number of vehicles registered demands for safe and secure carparks due to increase in vehicle theft. The current Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) systems is a single authentication system and hence it is not secure. Therefore, this research has developed a double authentication system by combing ANPR with a Quick Response (QR) code system to create ANPR-DAS that improves the security at a carpark. It has yielded an accuracy of up to 93% and prevents car theft at a car park.
Authored by Ezilaan Irraivan, Swee Phang
With the development of Industrial Internet identification analysis, various encryption methods have been widely used in identification analysis to ensure the security of identification encoding and data. However, the past encryption methods failed to consider the problem of encryption efficiency in the case of high concurrency, so it will reduce the identification resolution efficiency and increase the computational pressure of secondary nodes when applying these methods to the identification analysis. In this paper, in order to improve the efficiency of identification analysis under the premise of ensuring information security, a safe and efficient analytical encryption method for industrial Internet identification based on Secure Hash Algorithm 256 (SHA-256), and Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA) is presented. Firstly, by replacing the secret key in the identification encoding encryption with the SHA-256 function, the number of secret keys is reduced, which is beneficial to improve the efficiency of identification analysis. Secondly, by replacing the large prime number of the RSA encryption algorithm with multiple small prime numbers, the generation speed of RSA key pair is improved, which is conducive to reduce the computation of secondary nodes. Finally, by assigning a unique RSA private key to the identification code during the identification registration phase, SHA-256 and RSA are associated, the number of key exchanges is reduced during the encryption process, which is conducive to improve the security of encryption. The experiment verifies that the proposed method can improve security of encryption and efficiency of identification analysis, by comparing the complexity of ciphertext cracking and the identification security analysis time between the traditional encryption method and this method.
Authored by Zhiyong Luo, Bo Wang
This study purpose was to examine the determinant factors that affect the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise (MSME) merchants who had the intention to use Quick Response Code Indonesian Standard (QRIS) as a payment system. QRIS was expected to be applied by merchants to diminish the virus spread and keep the circulation of money safe; but there were not many merchants using the QRIS as a payment method. The factors MSME merchant might not use the QRIS were related to perceived usefulness, perceived security, perceived ease of use, and trust. The population was MSMEs in South Tangerang City who did not use QRIS yet and the population was unknown. Using the Lemeshow formula, obtained a sample of 115 people, and the sampling technique used purposive sampling. Then data were analyzed using multi-regression analysis and processed by SPSS. The results indicated that perceived usefulness and perceived security had a significant affect on trust, whereas trust and ease of use significant affect the intention to use QRIS. Moreover, trust was able to mediate the perceived usefulness to intention to use. Since ease of use had no significant affect on trust, then the mediation given by trust to perceived ease of use had no significant affect on intention to use.
Authored by Brata Djoyo, Safira Nurzaqia, Salsa Budiarti, Syerina Agustin
Multi robot systems are defined as a collection of two or more robots that are capable of working autonomously while coordinating with each other. Three challenges emerge while designing any multi robot system. The robots have to coordinate their path planning or trajectory planning in order to avoid collision during the course of navigation, while collaborating tasks with other robots to achieve a specific end goal for the system. The other challenge, which is the focus of this paper, is the security of the entire multi robot system. Since robots have to coordinate with each other, any one of them being malicious due to any kind of security threat, can lead to a chain reaction that may compromise the entire system. Such security threats can be fatal if not dealt with immediately. This paper proposes the use of a Hybridized Blockchain Model (HBM) to identify such security threats and take necessary actions in real time so that the system does not encounter any catastrophic failure. The proposed security architecture uses ROS (Robot operating system) to decentralize the information collected by robot clients and HBM to monitor the clients and take necessary real time actions.
Authored by Rahul Kumar, Muthu Subramanian
Network security isolation technology is an important means to protect the internal information security of enterprises. Generally, isolation is achieved through traditional network devices, such as firewalls and gatekeepers. However, the security rules are relatively rigid and cannot better meet the flexible and changeable business needs. Through the double sandbox structure created for each user, each user in the virtual machine is isolated from each other and security is ensured. By creating a virtual disk in a virtual machine as a user storage sandbox, and encrypting the read and write of the disk, the shortcomings of traditional network isolation methods are discussed, and the application of cloud desktop network isolation technology based on VMwarer technology in universities is expounded.
Authored by Kai Ye
The aim of this paper is to examine noteworthy cyberattacks that have taken place against ICS and SCADA systems and to analyse them. This paper also proposes a new classification scheme based on the severity of the attack. Since the information revolution, computers and associated technologies have impacted almost all aspects of daily life, and this is especially true of the industrial sector where one of the leading trends is that of automation. This widespread proliferation of computers and computer networks has also made it easier for malicious actors to gain access to these systems and networks and carry out harmful activities.
Authored by Cheerag Kaura, Nidhi Sindhwani, Alka Chaudhary
An Enhanced Security Architecture for Industry 4.0 Applications based on Software-Defined Networking
Software-Defined Networking (SDN) can be a good option to support Industry 4.0 (4IR) and 5G wireless networks. SDN can also be a secure networking solution that improves the security, capability, and programmability in the networks. In this paper, we present and analyze an SDN-based security architecture for 4IR with 5G. SDN is used for increasing the level of security and reliability of the network by suitably dividing the whole network into data, control, and applications planes. The SDN control layer plays a beneficial role in 4IR with 5G scenarios by managing the data flow properly. We also evaluate the performance of the proposed architecture in terms of key parameters such as data transmission rate and response time.
Authored by Anichur Rahman, Kamrul Hasan, Seong–Ho Jeong
An Exploration of Mis/Disinformation in Audio Format Disseminated in Podcasts: Case Study of Spotify
This paper examines audio-based social networking platforms and how their environments can affect the persistence of fake news and mis/disinformation in the whole information ecosystem. This is performed through an exploration of their features and how they compare to that of general-purpose multimodal platforms. A case study on Spotify and its recent issue on free speech and misinformation is the application area of this paper. As a supplementary, a demographic analysis of the current statistics of podcast streamers is outlined to give an overview of the target audience of possible deception attacks in the future. As for the conclusion, this paper confers a recommendation to policymakers and experts in preparing for future mis-affordance of the features in social environments that may unintentionally give the agents of mis/disinformation prowess to create and sow discord and deception.
Authored by Kevin Caramancion
The new architecture of transformer networks proposed in the work can be used to create an intelligent chat bot that can learn the process of communication and immediately model responses based on what has been said. The essence of the new mechanism is to divide the information flow into two branches containing the history of the dialogue with different levels of granularity. Such a mechanism makes it possible to build and develop the personality of a dialogue agent in the process of dialogue, that is, to accurately imitate the natural behavior of a person. This gives the interlocutor (client) the feeling of talking to a real person. In addition, making modifications to the structure of such a network makes it possible to identify a likely attack using social engineering methods. The results obtained after training the created system showed the fundamental possibility of using a neural network of a new architecture to generate responses close to natural ones. Possible options for using such neural network dialogue agents in various fields, and, in particular, in information security systems, are considered. Possible options for using such neural network dialogue agents in various fields, and, in particular, in information security systems, are considered. The new technology can be used in social engineering attack detection systems, which is a big problem at present. The novelty and prospects of the proposed architecture of the neural network also lies in the possibility of creating on its basis dialogue systems with a high level of biological plausibility.
Authored by V. Ryndyuk, Y. Varakin, E. Pisarenko
The use of software to support the information infrastructure that governments, critical infrastructure providers and businesses worldwide rely on for their daily operations and business processes is gradually becoming unavoidable. Commercial off-the shelf software is widely and increasingly used by these organizations to automate processes with information technology. That notwithstanding, cyber-attacks are becoming stealthier and more sophisticated, which has led to a complex and dynamic risk environment for IT-based operations which users are working to better understand and manage. This has made users become increasingly concerned about the integrity, security and reliability of commercial software. To meet up with these concerns and meet customer requirements, vendors have undertaken significant efforts to reduce vulnerabilities, improve resistance to attack and protect the integrity of the products they sell. These efforts are often referred to as “software assurance.” Software assurance is becoming very important for organizations critical to public safety and economic and national security. These users require a high level of confidence that commercial software is as secure as possible, something only achieved when software is created using best practices for secure software development. Therefore, in this paper, we explore the need for information assurance and its importance for both organizations and end users, methodologies and best practices for software security and information assurance, and we also conducted a survey to understand end users’ opinions on the methodologies researched in this paper and their impact.
Authored by Muhammad Khan, Enow Ehabe, Akalanka Mailewa
Aviation is a highly sophisticated and complex System-of-Systems (SoSs) with equally complex safety oversight. As novel products with autonomous functions and interactions between component systems are adopted, the number of interdependencies within and among the SoS grows. These interactions may not always be obvious. Understanding how proposed products (component systems) fit into the context of a larger SoS is essential to promote the safe use of new as well as conventional technology.UL 4600, is a Standard for Safety for the Evaluation of Autonomous Products specifically written for completely autonomous Load vehicles. The goal-based, technology-neutral features of this standard make it adaptable to other industries and applications.This paper, using the philosophy of UL 4600, gives guidance for creating an assurance case for products in an SoS context. An assurance argument is a cogent structured argument concluding that an autonomous aircraft system possesses all applicable through-life performance and safety properties. The assurance case process can be repeated at each level in the SoS: aircraft, aircraft system, unmodified components, and modified components. The original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) develops the assurance case for the whole aircraft envisioned in the type certification process. Assurance cases are continuously validated by collecting and analyzing Safety Performance Indicators (SPIs). SPIs provide predictive safety information, thus offering an opportunity to improve safety by preventing incidents and accidents. Continuous validation is essential for risk-based approval of autonomously evolving (dynamic) systems, learning systems, and new technology. System variants, derivatives, and components are captured in a subordinate assurance case by their developer. These variants of the assurance case inherently reflect the evolution of the vehicle-level derivatives and options in the context of their specific target ecosystem. These subordinate assurance cases are nested under the argument put forward by the OEM of components and aircraft, for certification credit.It has become a common practice in aviation to address design hazards through operational mitigations. It is also common for hazards noted in an aircraft component system to be mitigated within another component system. Where a component system depends on risk mitigation in another component of the SoS, organizational responsibilities must be stated explicitly in the assurance case. However, current practices do not formalize accounting for these dependencies by the parties responsible for design; consequently, subsequent modifications are made without the benefit of critical safety-related information from the OEMs. The resulting assurance cases, including 3rd party vehicle modifications, must be scrutinized as part of the holistic validation process.When changes are made to a product represented within the assurance case, their impact must be analyzed and reflected in an updated assurance case. An OEM can facilitate this by integrating affected assurance cases across their customer’s supply chains to ensure their validity. The OEM is expected to exercise the sphere-of-control over their product even if it includes outsourced components. Any organization that modifies a product (with or without assurance argumentation information from other suppliers) is accountable for validating the conditions for any dependent mitigations. For example, the OEM may manage the assurance argumentation by identifying requirements and supporting SPI that must be applied in all component assurance cases. For their part, component assurance cases must accommodate all spheres-of-control that mitigate the risks they present in their respective contexts. The assurance case must express how interdependent mitigations will collectively assure the outcome. These considerations are much more than interface requirements and include explicit hazard mitigation dependencies between SoS components. A properly integrated SoS assurance case reflects a set of interdependent systems that could be independently developed..Even in this extremely interconnected environment, stakeholders must make accommodations for the independent evolution of products in a manner that protects proprietary information, domain knowledge, and safety data. The collective safety outcome for the SoS is based on the interdependence of mitigations by each constituent component and could not be accomplished by any single component. This dependency must be explicit in the assurance case and should include operational mitigations predicated on people and processes.Assurance cases could be used to gain regulatory approval of conventional and new technology. They can also serve to demonstrate consistency with a desired level of safety, especially in SoSs whose existing standards may not be adequate. This paper also provides guidelines for preserving alignment between component assurance cases along a product supply chain, and the respective SoSs that they support. It shows how assurance is a continuous process that spans product evolution through the monitoring of interdependent requirements and SPI. The interdependency necessary for a successful assurance case encourages stakeholders to identify and formally accept critical interconnections between related organizations. The resulting coordination promotes accountability for safety through increased awareness and the cultivation of a positive safety culture.
Authored by Uma Ferrell, Alfred Anderegg
State of the art Artificial Intelligence Assurance (AIA) methods validate AI systems based on predefined goals and standards, are applied within a given domain, and are designed for a specific AI algorithm. Existing works do not provide information on assuring subjective AI goals such as fairness and trustworthiness. Other assurance goals are frequently required in an intelligent deployment, including explainability, safety, and security. Accordingly, issues such as value loading, generalization, context, and scalability arise; however, achieving multiple assurance goals without major trade-offs is generally deemed an unattainable task. In this manuscript, we present two AIA pipelines that are model-agnostic, independent of the domain (such as: healthcare, energy, banking), and provide scores for AIA goals including explainability, safety, and security. The two pipelines: Adversarial Logging Scoring Pipeline (ALSP) and Requirements Feedback Scoring Pipeline (RFSP) are scalable and tested with multiple use cases, such as a water distribution network and a telecommunications network, to illustrate their benefits. ALSP optimizes models using a game theory approach and it also logs and scores the actions of an AI model to detect adversarial inputs, and assures the datasets used for training. RFSP identifies the best hyper-parameters using a Bayesian approach and provides assurance scores for subjective goals such as ethical AI using user inputs and statistical assurance measures. Each pipeline has three algorithms that enforce the final assurance scores and other outcomes. Unlike ALSP (which is a parallel process), RFSP is user-driven and its actions are sequential. Data are collected for experimentation; the results of both pipelines are presented and contrasted.
Authored by Md Sikder, Feras Batarseh, Pei Wang, Nitish Gorentala
Intelligent service network under the paradigm of the Internet of Things (IoT) uses sensor and network communication technology to realize the interconnection of everything and real-time communication between devices. Under the background of combat, all kinds of sensor devices and equipment units need to be highly networked to realize interconnection and information sharing, which makes the Internet of Things technology hopeful to be applied in the battlefield to interconnect these entities to form the Internet of Battlefield Things (IoBT). This paper analyzes the related concepts of IoBT, and constructs the IoBT multilayer dependency network model according to the typical characteristics and topology of IoBT, then constructs the weighted super-adjacency matrix according to the coupling weights within and between different layers, and the stability model of IoBT is analyzed and derived. Finally, an example of IoBT network is given to provide a reference for analyzing the stability factors of IoBT network.
Authored by Haihao Ding, Qingsong Zhao
While 5G Edge Computing along with IoT technology has transformed the future of healthcare data transmission, it presents security vulnerabilities and risks when transmitting patients' confidential information. Currently, there are very few reliable security solutions available for healthcare data that routes through SDN routers in 5G Edge Computing. These solutions do not provide cryptographic security from IoT sensor devices. In this paper, we studied how 5G edge computing integrated with IoT network helps healthcare data transmission for remote medical treatment, explored security risks associated with unsecured data transmission, and finally proposed a cryptographic end-to-end security solution initiated at IoT sensor devices and routed through SDN routers. Our proposed solution with cryptographic security initiated at IoT sensor goes through SDN control plane and data plane in 5G edge computing and provides an end-to-end secured communication from IoT device to doctor's office. A prototype built with two-layer encrypted communication has been lab tested with promising results. This analysis will help future security implementation for eHealth in 5G and beyond networks.
Authored by Sabrina Ahmed, Zareen Subah, Mohammed Ali
Recently, as the use of Internet of Things (IoT) devices has expanded, security issues have emerged. As a solution to the IoT security problem, PUF (Physical Unclonable Function) technology has been proposed, and research on key generation or device authentication using it has been actively conducted. In this paper, we propose a method to apply PUF-based device authentication technology to the Open Connectivity Foundation (OCF) open platform. The proposed method can greatly improve the security level of IoT open platform by utilizing PUF technology.
Authored by Byoungkoo Kim, Seungyong Yoon, Yousung Kang
Exploring the efficient vulnerability scanning and detection technology of various tools is one fundamental aim of network security. This network security technique ameliorates the tremendous number of IoT security challenges and the threats they face daily. However, among various tools, Shodan Eye scanning technology has proven to be very helpful for network administrators and security personnel to scan, detect and analyze vulnerable ports and traffic in organizations' networks. This work presents a simulated network scanning activity and manual vulnerability analysis of an internet-connected industrial equipment of two chosen industrial networks (Industry A and B) by running Shodan on a virtually hosted (Oracle Virtual Box)-Linux-based operating system (Kali Linux). The result shows that the shodan eye is a a promising tool for network security and efficient vulnerability research.
Authored by Ebuka Nkoro, Cosmas Nwakanma, Jae-Min Lee, Dong-Seong Kim