Information Systems Security

A topical collection in Future Internet (ISSN 1999-5903). This collection belongs to the section "Cybersecurity".

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Editor


E-Mail Website
Collection Editor
Group of Analysis, Security and Systems (GASS), Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM), 28040 Madrid, Spain
Interests: artificial intelligence; big data; computer networks; computer security; information theory; IoT; multimedia forensics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Topical Collection Information

Dear Colleagues,

The outstanding increase in both the number and complexity of computer attacks in the last few years, as well as the large profit made by them, have led to new business models based on cybercrime. This encourages the emergence of new strains, and raises the demand of defensive technologies able to confront them. However, the development of countermeasures has become a real challenge for the research community. This is mainly due to the fact that the design of defenses is lagging behind that of intruders, and new strategies for prevention, detection, and mitigation, adapted to the new trends, are required.

In order to contribute to addressing these threats, this Special Issue intends to collect the current developments and the future directions on network security. Hence, we encourage authors to submit original papers related to these fields.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Databases and big data security
  • Electronic commerce security and digital currencies
  • E-mail security, spam, and fraud
  • Grid and cloud computing security
  • Internet security and applications
  • Intrusion detection and prevention
  • Mobile computing security
  • Multimedia forensics
  • Network forensics
  • Network steganography and steganalysis
  • Peer-to-peer network security
  • Penetration testing
  • Secure system architectures
  • Security protocols
  • Sensor network security
  • Trust and privacy
  • Vehicular ad hoc networks security

Prof. Dr. Luis Javier Garcia Villalba
Collection Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the collection website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Future Internet is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • computer attack
  • cryptography
  • cybercrime
  • forensic
  • internet securit
  • intrusion detection
  • malware
  • network security
  • privacy
  • steganography
  • trust
  • vulnerability

Related Special Issues

Published Papers (23 papers)

2023

Jump to: 2021, 2020, 2018, 2017, 2016

38 pages, 1513 KiB  
Article
Secure Partitioning of Cloud Applications, with Cost Look-Ahead
by Alessandro Bocci, Stefano Forti, Roberto Guanciale, Gian-Luigi Ferrari and Antonio Brogi
Future Internet 2023, 15(7), 224; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi15070224 - 22 Jun 2023
Viewed by 927
Abstract
The security of Cloud applications is a major concern for application developers and operators. Protecting users’ data confidentiality requires methods to avoid leakage from vulnerable software and unreliable Cloud providers. Recently, trusted execution environments (TEEs) emerged in Cloud settings to isolate applications from [...] Read more.
The security of Cloud applications is a major concern for application developers and operators. Protecting users’ data confidentiality requires methods to avoid leakage from vulnerable software and unreliable Cloud providers. Recently, trusted execution environments (TEEs) emerged in Cloud settings to isolate applications from the privileged access of Cloud providers. Such hardware-based technologies exploit separation kernels, which aim at safely isolating the software components of applications. In this article, we propose a methodology to determine safe partitionings of Cloud applications to be deployed on TEEs. Through a probabilistic cost model, we enable application operators to select the best trade-off partitioning in terms of future re-partitioning costs and the number of domains. To the best of our knowledge, no previous proposal exists addressing such a problem. We exploit information-flow security techniques to protect the data confidentiality of applications by relying on declarative methods to model applications and their data flow. The proposed solution is assessed by executing a proof-of-concept implementation that shows the relationship among the future partitioning costs, number of domains and execution times. Full article
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31 pages, 2325 KiB  
Review
Online Privacy Fatigue: A Scoping Review and Research Agenda
by Karl van der Schyff, Greg Foster, Karen Renaud and Stephen Flowerday
Future Internet 2023, 15(5), 164; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi15050164 - 28 Apr 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2468
Abstract
Online users are responsible for protecting their online privacy themselves: the mantra is custodiat te (protect yourself). Even so, there is a great deal of evidence pointing to the fact that online users generally do not act to preserve the privacy of their [...] Read more.
Online users are responsible for protecting their online privacy themselves: the mantra is custodiat te (protect yourself). Even so, there is a great deal of evidence pointing to the fact that online users generally do not act to preserve the privacy of their personal information, consequently disclosing more than they ought to and unwisely divulging sensitive information. Such self-disclosure has many negative consequences, including the invasion of privacy and identity theft. This often points to a need for more knowledge and awareness but does not explain why even knowledgeable users fail to preserve their privacy. One explanation for this phenomenon may be attributed to online privacy fatigue. Given the importance of online privacy and the lack of integrative online privacy fatigue research, this scoping review aims to provide researchers with an understanding of online privacy fatigue, its antecedents and outcomes, as well as a critical analysis of the methodological approaches used. A scoping review based on the PRISMA-ScR checklist was conducted. Only empirical studies focusing on online privacy were included, with nontechnological studies being excluded. All studies had to be written in English. A search strategy encompassing six electronic databases resulted in eighteen eligible studies, and a backward search of the references resulted in an additional five publications. Of the 23 studies, the majority were quantitative (74%), with fewer than half being theory driven (48%). Privacy fatigue was mainly conceptualized as a loss of control (74% of studies). Five categories of privacy fatigue antecedents were identified: privacy risk, privacy control and management, knowledge and information, individual differences, and privacy policy characteristics. This study highlights the need for greater attention to be paid to the methodological design and theoretical underpinning of future research. Quantitative studies should carefully consider the use of CB-SEM or PLS-SEM, should aim to increase the sample size, and should improve on analytical rigor. In addition, to ensure that the field matures, future studies should be underpinned by established theoretical frameworks. This review reveals a notable absence of privacy fatigue research when modeling the influence of privacy threats and invasions and their relationship with privacy burnout, privacy resignation, and increased self-disclosure. In addition, this review provides insight into theoretical and practical research recommendations that future privacy fatigue researchers should consider going forward. Full article
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23 pages, 500 KiB  
Article
Analysis of Digital Information in Storage Devices Using Supervised and Unsupervised Natural Language Processing Techniques
by Luis Alberto Martínez Hernández, Ana Lucila Sandoval Orozco and Luis Javier García Villalba
Future Internet 2023, 15(5), 155; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi15050155 - 23 Apr 2023
Viewed by 1590
Abstract
Due to the advancement of technology, cybercrime has increased considerably, making digital forensics essential for any organisation. One of the most critical challenges is to analyse and classify the information on devices, identifying the relevant and valuable data for a specific purpose. This [...] Read more.
Due to the advancement of technology, cybercrime has increased considerably, making digital forensics essential for any organisation. One of the most critical challenges is to analyse and classify the information on devices, identifying the relevant and valuable data for a specific purpose. This phase of the forensic process is one of the most complex and time-consuming, and requires expert analysts to avoid overlooking data relevant to the investigation. Although tools exist today that can automate this process, they will depend on how tightly their parameters are tuned to the case study, and many lack support for complex scenarios where language barriers play an important role. Recent advances in machine learning allow the creation of new architectures to significantly increase the performance of information analysis and perform the intelligent search process automatically, reducing analysis time and identifying relationships between files based on initial parameters. In this paper, we present a bibliographic review of artificial intelligence algorithms that allow an exhaustive analysis of multimedia information contained in removable devices in a forensic process, using natural language processing and natural language understanding techniques for the automatic classification of documents in seized devices. Finally, some of the open challenges technology developers face when generating tools that use artificial intelligence techniques to analyse the information contained in documents on seized devices are reviewed. Full article
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22 pages, 1877 KiB  
Article
A Novel Hybrid Edge Detection and LBP Code-Based Robust Image Steganography Method
by Habiba Sultana, A. H. M. Kamal, Gahangir Hossain and Muhammad Ashad Kabir
Future Internet 2023, 15(3), 108; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi15030108 - 10 Mar 2023
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3649
Abstract
In digital image processing and steganography, images are often described using edges and local binary pattern (LBP) codes. By combining these two properties, a novel hybrid image steganography method of secret embedding is proposed in this paper. This method only employs edge pixels [...] Read more.
In digital image processing and steganography, images are often described using edges and local binary pattern (LBP) codes. By combining these two properties, a novel hybrid image steganography method of secret embedding is proposed in this paper. This method only employs edge pixels that influence how well the novel approach embeds data. To increase the quantity of computed edge pixels, several edge detectors are applied and hybridized using a logical OR operation. A morphological dilation procedure in the hybridized edge image is employed to this purpose. The least significant bits (LSB) and all LBP codes are calculated for edge pixels. Afterward, these LBP codes, LSBs, and secret bits using an exclusive-OR operation are merged. These resulting implanted bits are delivered to edge pixels’ LSBs. The experimental results show that the suggested approach outperforms current strategies in terms of measuring perceptual transparency, such as peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) and structural similarity index (SSI). The embedding capacity per tempered pixel in the proposed approach is also substantial. Its embedding guidelines protect the privacy of implanted data. The entropy, correlation coefficient, cosine similarity, and pixel difference histogram data show that our proposed method is more resistant to various types of cyber-attacks. Full article
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2021

Jump to: 2023, 2020, 2018, 2017, 2016

21 pages, 20332 KiB  
Article
Software Design and Experimental Evaluation of a Reduced AES for IoT Applications
by Malik Qasaimeh, Raad S. Al-Qassas and Mohammad Ababneh
Future Internet 2021, 13(11), 273; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi13110273 - 27 Oct 2021
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2456
Abstract
IoT devices include RFID tags, microprocessors, sensors, readers, and actuators. Their main characteristics are their limited resources and computing capabilities, which pose critical challenges to the reliability and security of their applications. Encryption is necessary for security when using these limited-resource devices, but [...] Read more.
IoT devices include RFID tags, microprocessors, sensors, readers, and actuators. Their main characteristics are their limited resources and computing capabilities, which pose critical challenges to the reliability and security of their applications. Encryption is necessary for security when using these limited-resource devices, but conventional cryptographic algorithms are too heavyweight and resource-demanding to run on IoT infrastructures. This paper presents a lightweight version of AES (called LAES), which provides competitive results in terms of randomness levels and processing time, operating on GF(24). Detailed mathematical operations and proofs are presented concerning LAES rounds design fundamentals. The proposed LAES algorithm is evaluated based on its randomness, performance, and power consumption; it is then compared to other cryptographic algorithm variants, namely Present, Clefia, and AES. The design of the randomness and performance analysis is based on six measures developed with the help of the NIST test statistical suite of cryptographic applications. The performance and power consumption of LAES on a low-power, 8-bit microcontroller unit were evaluated using an Arduino Uno board. LAES was found to have competitive randomness levels, processing times, and power consumption compared to Present, Clefia, and AES. Full article
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14 pages, 658 KiB  
Article
Securing Resource-Constrained IoT Nodes: Towards Intelligent Microcontroller-Based Attack Detection in Distributed Smart Applications
by Andrii Shalaginov and Muhammad Ajmal Azad
Future Internet 2021, 13(11), 272; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi13110272 - 27 Oct 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2683
Abstract
In recent years, the Internet of Things (IoT) devices have become an inseparable part of our lives. With the growing demand for Smart Applications, it becomes clear that IoT will bring regular automation and intelligent sensing to a new level thus improving quality [...] Read more.
In recent years, the Internet of Things (IoT) devices have become an inseparable part of our lives. With the growing demand for Smart Applications, it becomes clear that IoT will bring regular automation and intelligent sensing to a new level thus improving quality of life. The core component of the IoT ecosystem is data which exists in various forms and formats. The collected data is then later used to create context awareness and make meaningful decisions. Besides an undoubtedly large number of advantages from the usage of IoT, there exist numerous challenges attributed to the security of objects that cannot be neglected for uninterrupted services. The Mirai botnet attack demonstrated that the IoT system is susceptible to different forms of cyberattacks. While advanced data analytics and Machine Learning have proved efficiency in various applications of cybersecurity, those still have not been explored enough in the literature from the applicability perspective in the domain of resource-constrained IoT. Several architectures and frameworks have been proposed for defining the ways for analyzing the data, yet mostly investigating off-chip analysis. In this contribution, we show how an Artificial Neural Network model can be trained and deployed on trivial IoT nodes for detecting intelligent similarity-based network attacks. This article proposes a concept of the resource-constrained intelligent system as a part of the IoT infrastructure to be able to harden the cybersecurity on microcontrollers. This work will serve as a stepping stone for the application of Artificial Intelligence on devices with limited computing capabilities such as end-point IoT nodes. Full article
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22 pages, 457 KiB  
Review
Security Challenges of Location Privacy in VANETs and State-of-the-Art Solutions: A Survey
by Shawal Khan, Ishita Sharma, Mazzamal Aslam, Muhammad Zahid Khan and Shahzad Khan
Future Internet 2021, 13(4), 96; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi13040096 - 10 Apr 2021
Cited by 31 | Viewed by 5884
Abstract
A Vehicular Ad-hoc Network (VANET) comprises a group of moving or stationary vehicles connected by a wireless network. VANETs play a vital role in providing safety and comfort to drivers in vehicular environments. They provide smart traffic control and real-time information, event allocation. [...] Read more.
A Vehicular Ad-hoc Network (VANET) comprises a group of moving or stationary vehicles connected by a wireless network. VANETs play a vital role in providing safety and comfort to drivers in vehicular environments. They provide smart traffic control and real-time information, event allocation. VANETs have received attention in support of safe driving, intelligent navigation, emergency and entertainment applications in vehicles. Nevertheless, these increasingly linked vehicles pose a range of new safety and security risks to both the host and its associated properties and may even have fatal consequences. Violations of national privacy and vehicle identities are a major obstacle to introducing forced contact protocols in vehicles. Location privacy refers to the privacy of the vehicle (driver) and the location of the vehicle. Whenever a vehicle sends a message, no one but authorized entities should know their real identity and location of the vehicle. All the messages sent by the vehicle must be authenticated before processing, hence location privacy is an important design aspect to be considered in VANETs operations. The novelty of this paper is that it specifically reviews location privacy in VANETs in terms of operational and safety concerns. Furthermore, it presents a critical analysis of various attacks, identity thefts, manipulation and other techniques in vogue for location privacy protection available in state-of-the-art solutions for VANETs. The efforts in this paper will help researchers to develop a great breadth of understanding pertaining to location privacy issues and various security threats encountered by VANETs and present the critical analysis of the available state-of-the- art solutions to maintain location privacy in VANETs. Full article
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2020

Jump to: 2023, 2021, 2018, 2017, 2016

23 pages, 453 KiB  
Article
A Methodology to Evaluate Standards and Platforms within Cyber Threat Intelligence
by Alessandra de Melo e Silva, João José Costa Gondim, Robson de Oliveira Albuquerque and Luis Javier García Villalba
Future Internet 2020, 12(6), 108; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi12060108 - 23 Jun 2020
Cited by 31 | Viewed by 7847
Abstract
The cyber security landscape is fundamentally changing over the past years. While technology is evolving and new sophisticated applications are being developed, a new threat scenario is emerging in alarming proportions. Sophisticated threats with multi-vectored, multi-staged and polymorphic characteristics are performing complex attacks, [...] Read more.
The cyber security landscape is fundamentally changing over the past years. While technology is evolving and new sophisticated applications are being developed, a new threat scenario is emerging in alarming proportions. Sophisticated threats with multi-vectored, multi-staged and polymorphic characteristics are performing complex attacks, making the processes of detection and mitigation far more complicated. Thus, organizations were encouraged to change their traditional defense models and to use and to develop new systems with a proactive approach. Such changes are necessary because the old approaches are not effective anymore to detect advanced attacks. Also, the organizations are encouraged to develop the ability to respond to incidents in real-time using complex threat intelligence platforms. However, since the field is growing rapidly, today Cyber Threat Intelligence concept lacks a consistent definition and a heterogeneous market has emerged, including diverse systems and tools, with different capabilities and goals. This work aims to provide a comprehensive evaluation methodology of threat intelligence standards and cyber threat intelligence platforms. The proposed methodology is based on the selection of the most relevant candidates to establish the evaluation criteria. In addition, this work studies the Cyber Threat Intelligence ecosystem and Threat Intelligence standards and platforms existing in state-of-the-art. Full article
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2018

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37 pages, 5822 KiB  
Article
Structured Data REST Protocol for End to End Data Mashup
by Prakash Narayan Hardaha and Shailendra Singh
Future Internet 2018, 10(10), 98; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi10100098 - 04 Oct 2018
Viewed by 4510
Abstract
Due to the exponential growth of the data and its services, visiting multiple webs/apps by a user raises three issues—(1) consumption of extra bytes; (2) time killing process of surfing inside the webs/apps; (3) tedious task of remembering address of webs/apps with their [...] Read more.
Due to the exponential growth of the data and its services, visiting multiple webs/apps by a user raises three issues—(1) consumption of extra bytes; (2) time killing process of surfing inside the webs/apps; (3) tedious task of remembering address of webs/apps with their credentials. The data mashup is a set of techniques and user-friendly approaches which not only resolves above issues but also allows ordinary user to fetch required data from multiple disparate data sources and to create the integrated view in his defined digital place. In this paper, we have proposed an extension of existing REST protocol called Structured Data REST (SDRest) protocol and user-friendly novel approach which allows even ordinary users to develop end to end data mashup, using the innovative concept of Structured Data Mashup Box (SDMB) and One Time Configuration (OTC)-Any Time Access (ATA) models. Our implementation shows that pre-mashup configuration can easily be performed by an ordinary user and an integrated user interface view of end user data mashup can be created without any technical knowledge or programming. We have also evaluated the proposed work by comparing it with some of the related works and found that the proposed work has developed user friendly configurable approach using the current state of the art techniques to involve not only the ordinary user but also the mashup service provider and the data service provider to develop public, private and hybrid data mashup. Full article
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11 pages, 1656 KiB  
Article
Using Noise Level to Detect Frame Repetition Forgery in Video Frame Rate Up-Conversion
by Yanli Li, Lala Mei, Ran Li and Changan Wu
Future Internet 2018, 10(9), 84; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi10090084 - 24 Aug 2018
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3753
Abstract
Frame repetition (FR) is a common temporal-domain tampering operator, which is often used to increase the frame rate of video sequences. Existing methods detect FR forgery by analyzing residual variation or similarity between video frames; however, these methods are easily interfered with by [...] Read more.
Frame repetition (FR) is a common temporal-domain tampering operator, which is often used to increase the frame rate of video sequences. Existing methods detect FR forgery by analyzing residual variation or similarity between video frames; however, these methods are easily interfered with by noise, affecting the stability of detection performance. This paper proposes a noise-level based detection method which detects the varying noise level over time to determine whether the video is forged by FR. Wavelet coefficients are first computed for each video frame, and median absolute deviation (MAD) of wavelet coefficients is used to estimate the standard deviation of Gaussian noise mixed in each video frame. Then, fast Fourier transform (FFT) is used to calculate the amplitude spectrum of the standard deviation curve of the video sequence, and to provide the peak-mean ratio (PMR) of the amplitude spectrum. Finally, according to the PMR obtained, a hard threshold decision is taken to determine whether the standard deviation bears periodicity in the temporal domain, in which way FR forgery can be automatically identified. The experimental results show that the proposed method ensures a large PMR for the forged video, and presents a better detection performance when compared with the existing detection methods. Full article
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18 pages, 1666 KiB  
Article
SDN Based Collaborative Scheme for Mitigation of DDoS Attacks
by Sufian Hameed and Hassan Ahmed Khan
Future Internet 2018, 10(3), 23; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi10030023 - 27 Feb 2018
Cited by 60 | Viewed by 9451
Abstract
Software Defined Networking (SDN) has proved itself to be a backbone in the new network design and is quickly becoming an industry standard. The idea of separation of control plane and data plane is the key concept behind SDN. SDN not only allows [...] Read more.
Software Defined Networking (SDN) has proved itself to be a backbone in the new network design and is quickly becoming an industry standard. The idea of separation of control plane and data plane is the key concept behind SDN. SDN not only allows us to program and monitor our networks but it also helps in mitigating some key network problems. Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack is among them. In this paper we propose a collaborative DDoS attack mitigation scheme using SDN. We design a secure controller-to-controller (C-to-C) protocol that allows SDN-controllers lying in different autonomous systems (AS) to securely communicate and transfer attack information with each other. This enables efficient notification along the path of an ongoing attack and effective filtering of traffic near the source of attack, thus saving valuable time and network resources. We also introduced three different deployment approaches i.e., linear, central and mesh in our testbed. Based on the experimental results we demonstrate that our SDN based collaborative scheme is fast and reliable in efficiently mitigating DDoS attacks in real time with very small computational footprints. Full article
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2017

Jump to: 2023, 2021, 2020, 2018, 2016

2873 KiB  
Article
Network Intrusion Detection through Discriminative Feature Selection by Using Sparse Logistic Regression
by Reehan Ali Shah, Yuntao Qian, Dileep Kumar, Munwar Ali and Muhammad Bux Alvi
Future Internet 2017, 9(4), 81; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi9040081 - 10 Nov 2017
Cited by 26 | Viewed by 8602
Abstract
Intrusion detection system (IDS) is a well-known and effective component of network security that provides transactions upon the network systems with security and safety. Most of earlier research has addressed difficulties such as overfitting, feature redundancy, high-dimensional features and a limited number of [...] Read more.
Intrusion detection system (IDS) is a well-known and effective component of network security that provides transactions upon the network systems with security and safety. Most of earlier research has addressed difficulties such as overfitting, feature redundancy, high-dimensional features and a limited number of training samples but feature selection. We approach the problem of feature selection via sparse logistic regression (SPLR). In this paper, we propose a discriminative feature selection and intrusion classification based on SPLR for IDS. The SPLR is a recently developed technique for data analysis and processing via sparse regularized optimization that selects a small subset from the original feature variables to model the data for the purpose of classification. A linear SPLR model aims to select the discriminative features from the repository of datasets and learns the coefficients of the linear classifier. Compared with the feature selection approaches, like filter (ranking) and wrapper methods that separate the feature selection and classification problems, SPLR can combine feature selection and classification into a unified framework. The experiments in this correspondence demonstrate that the proposed method has better performance than most of the well-known techniques used for intrusion detection. Full article
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400 KiB  
Article
TSKT-ORAM: A Two-Server k-ary Tree Oblivious RAM without Homomorphic Encryption
by Jinsheng Zhang, Qiumao Ma, Wensheng Zhang and Daji Qiao
Future Internet 2017, 9(4), 57; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi9040057 - 27 Sep 2017
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 6166
Abstract
This paper proposes TSKT-oblivious RAM (ORAM), an efficient multi-server ORAM construction, to protect a client’s access pattern to outsourced data. TSKT-ORAM organizes each of the server storages as a k-ary tree and adopts XOR-based private information retrieval (PIR) and a novel delayed [...] Read more.
This paper proposes TSKT-oblivious RAM (ORAM), an efficient multi-server ORAM construction, to protect a client’s access pattern to outsourced data. TSKT-ORAM organizes each of the server storages as a k-ary tree and adopts XOR-based private information retrieval (PIR) and a novel delayed eviction technique to optimize both the data query and data eviction process. TSKT-ORAM is proven to protect the data access pattern privacy with a failure probability of 2 - 80 when system parameter k 128 . Meanwhile, given a constant-size local storage, when N (i.e., the total number of outsourced data blocks) ranges from 2 16 2 34 , the communication cost of TSKT-ORAM is only 22–46 data blocks. Asymptotic analysis and practical comparisons are conducted to show that TSKT-ORAM incurs lower communication cost, storage cost and access delay in practical scenarios than the compared state-of-the-art ORAM schemes. Full article
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742 KiB  
Review
Review on Semi-Fragile Watermarking Algorithms for Content Authentication of Digital Images
by Xiaoyan Yu, Chengyou Wang and Xiao Zhou
Future Internet 2017, 9(4), 56; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi9040056 - 25 Sep 2017
Cited by 32 | Viewed by 7032
Abstract
With the popularity of network and the continuous development of multimedia technology, saving of network bandwidth and copyright protection of multimedia content have gradually attracted people’s attention. The fragile watermark for integrity authentication of image data and protection of copyright has become a [...] Read more.
With the popularity of network and the continuous development of multimedia technology, saving of network bandwidth and copyright protection of multimedia content have gradually attracted people’s attention. The fragile watermark for integrity authentication of image data and protection of copyright has become a hotspot. In the storage and transmission process, image data must be compressed to save network bandwidth. As a result, semi-fragile watermarking techniques, which can be used to distinguish common image processing operations from malicious tampering, are emerging. In this paper, semi-fragile watermarking algorithms for image authentication are surveyed. The basic principles and characteristics about semi-fragile watermarking algorithms are introduced, and several kinds of attack behaviors are also included. Aiming at several typical image-authentication algorithms, advantages and disadvantages are analyzed, and evaluation indexes of various algorithms are compared. Finally, we analyze the key points and difficulties in the study on semi-fragile watermarking algorithms, and the direction about future development is prospected. Full article
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278 KiB  
Article
A Survey of Denial-of-Service and Distributed Denial of Service Attacks and Defenses in Cloud Computing
by Adrien Bonguet and Martine Bellaiche
Future Internet 2017, 9(3), 43; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi9030043 - 05 Aug 2017
Cited by 41 | Viewed by 10073
Abstract
Cloud Computing is a computing model that allows ubiquitous, convenient and on-demand access to a shared pool of highly configurable resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications and services). Denial-of-Service (DoS) and Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks are serious threats to the Cloud services’ availability [...] Read more.
Cloud Computing is a computing model that allows ubiquitous, convenient and on-demand access to a shared pool of highly configurable resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications and services). Denial-of-Service (DoS) and Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks are serious threats to the Cloud services’ availability due to numerous new vulnerabilities introduced by the nature of the Cloud, such as multi-tenancy and resource sharing. In this paper, new types of DoS and DDoS attacks in Cloud Computing are explored, especially the XML-DoS and HTTP-DoS attacks, and some possible detection and mitigation techniques are examined. This survey also provides an overview of the existing defense solutions and investigates the experiments and metrics that are usually designed and used to evaluate their performance, which is helpful for the future research in the domain. Full article
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367 KiB  
Article
Security Enhancement for Data Migration in the Cloud
by Jean Raphael Ngnie Sighom, Pin Zhang and Lin You
Future Internet 2017, 9(3), 23; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi9030023 - 22 Jun 2017
Cited by 29 | Viewed by 7534
Abstract
In today’s society, cloud computing has significantly impacted nearly every section of our lives and business structures. Cloud computing is, without any doubt, one of the strategic directions for many companies and the most dominating infrastructure for enterprises as long as end users. [...] Read more.
In today’s society, cloud computing has significantly impacted nearly every section of our lives and business structures. Cloud computing is, without any doubt, one of the strategic directions for many companies and the most dominating infrastructure for enterprises as long as end users. Instead of buying IT equipment (hardware and/or software) and managing it themselves, many organizations today prefer to buy services from IT service providers. The number of service providers increase dramatically and the cloud is becoming the tools of choice for more cloud storage services. However, as more personal information and data are moved to the cloud, into social media sites, DropBox, Baidu WangPan, etc., data security and privacy issues are questioned. Daily, academia and industry seek to find an efficient way to secure data migration in the cloud. Various solution approaches and encryption techniques have been implemented. In this work, we will discuss some of these approaches and evaluate the popular ones in order to find the elements that affect system performance. Finally, we will propose a model that enhances data security and privacy by combining Advanced Encryption Standard-256, Information Dispersal Algorithms and Secure Hash Algorithm-512. Our protocol achieves provable security assessments and fast execution times for medium thresholds. Full article
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3551 KiB  
Article
Feature-Based Image Watermarking Algorithm Using SVD and APBT for Copyright Protection
by Yunpeng Zhang, Chengyou Wang, Xiaoli Wang and Min Wang
Future Internet 2017, 9(2), 13; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi9020013 - 19 Apr 2017
Cited by 18 | Viewed by 6606
Abstract
Watermarking techniques can be applied in digital images to maintain the authenticity and integrity for copyright protection. In this paper, scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT) is combined with local digital watermarking and a digital watermarking algorithm based on SIFT, singular value decomposition (SVD), and [...] Read more.
Watermarking techniques can be applied in digital images to maintain the authenticity and integrity for copyright protection. In this paper, scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT) is combined with local digital watermarking and a digital watermarking algorithm based on SIFT, singular value decomposition (SVD), and all phase biorthogonal transform (APBT) is proposed. It describes the generation process of the SIFT algorithm in detail and obtains a series of scale-invariant feature points. A large amount of candidate feature points are selected to obtain the neighborhood which can be used to embed the watermark. For these selected feature points, block-based APBT is carried out on their neighborhoods. Moreover, a coefficients matrix of certain APBT coefficients is generated for SVD to embed the encrypted watermark. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed watermarking algorithm has stronger robustness than some previous schemes. In addition, APBT-based digital watermarking algorithm has good imperceptibility and is more robust to different combinations of attacks, which can be applied for the purpose of copyright protection. Full article
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741 KiB  
Article
Towards Incidence Management in 5G Based on Situational Awareness
by Lorena Isabel Barona López, Ángel Leonardo Valdivieso Caraguay, Jorge Maestre Vidal, Marco Antonio Sotelo Monge and Luis Javier García Villalba
Future Internet 2017, 9(1), 3; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi9010003 - 17 Jan 2017
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 8774
Abstract
The fifth generation mobile network, or 5G, moves towards bringing solutions to deploying faster networks, with hundreds of thousands of simultaneous connections and massive data transfer. For this purpose, several emerging technologies are implemented, resulting in virtualization and self-organization of most of their [...] Read more.
The fifth generation mobile network, or 5G, moves towards bringing solutions to deploying faster networks, with hundreds of thousands of simultaneous connections and massive data transfer. For this purpose, several emerging technologies are implemented, resulting in virtualization and self-organization of most of their components, which raises important challenges related to safety. In order to contribute to their resolution, this paper proposes a novel architecture for incident management on 5G. The approach combines the conventional risk management schemes with the Endsley Situational Awareness model, thus improving effectiveness in different aspects, among them the ability to adapt to complex and dynamical monitoring environments, and countermeasure tracking or the role of context when decision-making. The proposal takes into account all layers for information processing in 5G mobile networks, ranging from infrastructure to the actuators responsible for deploying corrective measures. Full article
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2016

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1392 KiB  
Article
Key Technologies in the Context of Future Networks: Operational and Management Requirements
by Lorena Isabel Barona López, Ángel Leonardo Valdivieso Caraguay, Marco Antonio Sotelo Monge and Luis Javier García Villalba
Future Internet 2017, 9(1), 1; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi9010001 - 22 Dec 2016
Cited by 17 | Viewed by 8546
Abstract
The concept of Future Networks is based on the premise that current infrastructures require enhanced control, service customization, self-organization and self-management capabilities to meet the new needs in a connected society, especially of mobile users. In order to provide a high-performance mobile system, [...] Read more.
The concept of Future Networks is based on the premise that current infrastructures require enhanced control, service customization, self-organization and self-management capabilities to meet the new needs in a connected society, especially of mobile users. In order to provide a high-performance mobile system, three main fields must be improved: radio, network, and operation and management. In particular, operation and management capabilities are intended to enable business agility and operational sustainability, where the addition of new services does not imply an excessive increase in capital or operational expenditures. In this context, a set of key-enabled technologies have emerged in order to aid in this field. Concepts such as Software Defined Network (SDN), Network Function Virtualization (NFV) and Self-Organized Networks (SON) are pushing traditional systems towards the next 5G network generation.This paper presents an overview of the current status of these promising technologies and ongoing works to fulfill the operational and management requirements of mobile infrastructures. This work also details the use cases and the challenges, taking into account not only SDN, NFV, cloud computing and SON but also other paradigms. Full article
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1372 KiB  
Article
Applying the Action-Research Method to Develop a Methodology to Reduce the Installation and Maintenance Times of Information Security Management Systems
by Antonio Santos-Olmo, Luis Enrique Sánchez, David G. Rosado, Eduardo Fernández-Medina and Mario Piattini
Future Internet 2016, 8(3), 36; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi8030036 - 22 Jul 2016
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 7554
Abstract
Society is increasingly dependent on Information Security Management Systems (ISMS), and having these kind of systems has become vital for the development of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs). However, these companies require ISMS that have been adapted to their special features and have [...] Read more.
Society is increasingly dependent on Information Security Management Systems (ISMS), and having these kind of systems has become vital for the development of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs). However, these companies require ISMS that have been adapted to their special features and have been optimized as regards the resources needed to deploy and maintain them, with very low costs and short implementation periods. This paper discusses the different cycles carried out using the ‘Action Research (AR)’ method, which have allowed the development of a security management methodology for SMEs that is able to automate processes and reduce the implementation time of the ISMS. Full article
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9354 KiB  
Article
Analysis of Dynamic Complexity of the Cyber Security Ecosystem of Colombia
by Angélica Flórez, Lenin Serrano, Urbano Gómez, Luis Suárez, Alejandro Villarraga and Hugo Rodríguez
Future Internet 2016, 8(3), 33; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi8030033 - 19 Jul 2016
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 8415
Abstract
This paper presents two proposals for the analysis of the complexity of the Cyber security Ecosystem of Colombia (CEC). This analysis shows the available knowledge about entities engaged in cyber security in Colombia and the relationships between them, which allow an understanding of [...] Read more.
This paper presents two proposals for the analysis of the complexity of the Cyber security Ecosystem of Colombia (CEC). This analysis shows the available knowledge about entities engaged in cyber security in Colombia and the relationships between them, which allow an understanding of the synergy between the different existing components. The complexity of the CEC is detailed from the view of the Influence Diagram of System Dynamics and the Domain Diagram of Software Engineering. The resulting model makes cyber security evident as a strategic component of national security. Full article
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2403 KiB  
Article
The Importance of the Security Culture in SMEs as Regards the Correct Management of the Security of Their Assets
by Antonio Santos-Olmo, Luis Enrique Sánchez, Ismael Caballero, Sara Camacho and Eduardo Fernandez-Medina
Future Internet 2016, 8(3), 30; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi8030030 - 07 Jul 2016
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 9572
Abstract
The information society is increasingly more dependent on Information Security Management Systems (ISMSs), and the availability of these kinds of systems is now vital for the development of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs). However, these companies require ISMSs that have been adapted to [...] Read more.
The information society is increasingly more dependent on Information Security Management Systems (ISMSs), and the availability of these kinds of systems is now vital for the development of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs). However, these companies require ISMSs that have been adapted to their special features, and which are optimized as regards the resources needed to deploy and maintain them. This article shows how important the security culture within ISMSs is for SMEs, and how the concept of security culture has been introduced into a security management methodology (MARISMA is a Methodology for “Information Security Management System in SMEs” developed by the Sicaman Nuevas Tecnologías Company, Research Group GSyA and Alarcos of the University of Castilla-La Mancha.) for SMEs. This model is currently being directly applied to real cases, thus allowing a steady improvement to be made to its implementation. Full article
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2562 KiB  
Article
Development of an Expert System for the Evaluation of Students’ Curricula on the Basis of Competencies
by Luis Enrique Sánchez, Antonio Santos-Olmo, Esther Álvarez, Monica Huerta, Sara Camacho and Eduardo Fernández-Medina
Future Internet 2016, 8(2), 22; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi8020022 - 18 May 2016
Cited by 19 | Viewed by 7083
Abstract
The concept of competence, which emerged during the reform of computer engineering degrees, has not brought benefits to companies when attempting to select the most suitable candidates for their jobs. This article aims to show some of the research that has been conducted [...] Read more.
The concept of competence, which emerged during the reform of computer engineering degrees, has not brought benefits to companies when attempting to select the most suitable candidates for their jobs. This article aims to show some of the research that has been conducted to determine why companies have not found these skills useful and how both can be aligned. Finally, we show the development of an Expert System that will enable companies to select the most suitable candidates for their jobs, considering personal and social skills, along with technical knowledge. This prototype will serve as a basis to align the competencies defined in the curricula with professional requirements, thus allowing a true alignment between degree courses and the needs of professional companies. Full article
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