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Emerging Technologies, Sustainable Engineering and Cybersecurity in the Digital Age

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Engineering and Science".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 June 2024 | Viewed by 15274

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Martin Wynn

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Guest Editor

School of Computing and Engineering, University of Gloucestershire, Cheltenham GL50 4AZ, UK
Interests: digitalisation; IT strategy; e-business; process management; digital twins
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Kamal Bechkoum

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

School of Computing and Engineering, University of Gloucestershire, Cheltenham GL50 4AZ, UK
Interests: artificial intelligence and machine learning; engineering design; cyber security; big data analytics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue provides a platform for papers on three interrelated aspects of digitalization—emerging technologies, sustainable engineering, and cybersecurity—all of which are having major impacts on business and society at large.

Emerging technologies are those where development and practical application are not yet fully apparent, and in the computing field this includes robotics, artificial intelligence, blockchain, and the new educational (“EdTech”) technologies, amongst others. These technologies have “the potential to exert a considerable impact on the socio-economic domain(s) which is observed in terms of the composition of actors, institutions and patterns of interactions, along with the associated knowledge production processes. Its most prominent impact, however, lies in the future" [1] (p.4).

Sustainable engineering has been defined as “the science of applying the principles of engineering and design in a manner that fosters positive social and economic development while minimizing environmental impact” [2] (para. 1). UNESCO [3] recently noted that “addressing sustainable development within the challenges of climate change, population growth and urbanization will require innovative engineering and technology-based solutions” (p. 4), and sustainable engineering solutions will be central to meeting these global challenges. Potential applications are wide and varied, including waste disposal and management, energy development and consumption, industrial process efficiencies, pollution reduction, water supply, housing, and shelter.

Cybersecurity is another major challenge for all organisations in the digital era, as witnessed in a recent IDG Research Report, in which Sayer [4] found that “securing the enterprise” was the main concern for Chief Information Officers, with 25% of IT leaders confirming that “cybersecurity initiatives such as real-time security monitoring and forensics were the most important things they were working on” (para. 7).

This Special Issue aims to explore these three themes individually and collectively, and to examine technology interfaces, integration, dependencies, and convergence. More specifically, case studies or analytical reviews of the deployment of these technologies in organisations are welcome, outlining challenges, opportunities, implications, costs, and benefits. These studies will add to the existing literature in providing a series of snapshots of key aspects of the rapidly evolving technology landscape in the digital era.

References

Rotolo, D.; Hicks, D.; Martin, B. What is an emerging technology? Research Policy 2015, 44(10), 1827-1843. Available online: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/56071/1/2015RP_Rotolo_Hicks_Martin_Preprint.pdf (accessed on 13 September 2022).
Maier, K. What is Sustainable Engineering? 6 August, 2022. Available online: https://www.allthescience.org/what-is-sustainable-engineering.htm (accessed on 13 September 2022).
UNESCO. Engineering for Sustainable Development: Delivering on the Sustainable Development Goals. 2021. Available online: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000375644.locale=en (accessed on 13 September 2022).
Sayer, P. Exclusive Survey: CIOs Outline Tech Priorities for 2021–2022. 5 October 2021. CIO.Com. Available online: https://www.cio.com/article/3635152/exclusive-survey-cios-outline-tech-priorities-for-2021-22.html (accessed on 13 September 2022).

Dr. Martin Wynn
Prof. Dr. Kamal Bechkoum
Guest Editors

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 special issue 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. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2400 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

emerging technologies
sustainable engineering
cybersecurity
digitalisation
digital transformation
technology convergence

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

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20 pages, 4005 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Cross-Citation-Based Model for Technological Advancement Assessment: Methodology and Application

by Shengxuan Tang, Ming Cai and Yao Xiao

Sustainability 2024, 16(1), 435; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16010435 - 04 Jan 2024

Viewed by 1051

Abstract

Assessing technological advancements is crucial for the formulation of science and technology policies and making well-informed investments in the ever-evolving technology market. However, current assessment methods are predominantly geared towards mature technologies, limiting our capacity for a systematic and quantitative evaluation of emerging technologies. Overcoming this challenge is crucial for accurate technology evaluation across various fields and generations. To address this challenge, we present a novel approach that leverages bibliometrics, specifically paper citation networks, to gauge shifts in the flow of knowledge throughout the technological evolution. This method is capable of discerning a wide array of trends in technology development and serves as a highly effective tool for evaluating technological progress. In this paper, we showcase the accuracy and applicability of this approach by applying it to the realm of mobile communication technology. Furthermore, we provide a comparative analysis of its quantitative results with other conventional assessment methods. The practical significance of our model lies in providing a nuanced understanding of emerging technologies within a specific domain, enabling informed decisions, and fostering strategic planning in technology-oriented fields. In terms of originality and value, this model serves as a comprehensive tool for assessing technological progress, quantifying emerging technologies, facilitating the evaluation of diverse technological trajectories, and efficiently informing technology policy-making processes. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Technologies, Sustainable Engineering and Cybersecurity in the Digital Age)

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24 pages, 3476 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Blockchain Technology and Related Security Risks: Towards a Seven-Layer Perspective and Taxonomy

by Sepideh Mollajafari and Kamal Bechkoum

Sustainability 2023, 15(18), 13401; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151813401 - 07 Sep 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2842

Abstract

Blockchain technology can be a useful tool to address issues related to sustainability. From its initial foundation based on cryptocurrency to the development of smart contracts, blockchain technology promises significant business benefits for various industry sectors, including the potential to offer more trustworthy modes of governance, reducing the risks for environmental and economic crises. Notwithstanding its known benefits, and despite having some protective measures and security features, this emerging technology still faces significant security challenges within its different abstract layers. This paper classifies the critical cybersecurity threats and vulnerabilities inherent in smart contracts based on an in-depth literature review and analysis. From the perspective of architectural layering, each layer of the blockchain has its own corresponding security issues. In order to have a detailed look at the source of security vulnerabilities within the blockchain, a seven-layer architecture is used, whereby the various components of each layer are set out, highlighting the related security risks and corresponding countermeasures. This is followed by a taxonomy that establishes the inter-relationships between the vulnerabilities and attacks in a smart contract. A specific emphasis is placed on the issues caused by centralisation within smart contracts, whereby a “one-owner” controls access, thus threatening the very decentralised nature that blockchain is based upon. This work offers two main contributions: firstly, a general taxonomy that compiles the different vulnerabilities, types of attacks, and related countermeasures within each of the seven layers of the blockchain; secondly, a specific focus on one layer of the blockchain namely, the contract layer. A model application is developed that depicts, in more detail, the security risks within the contract layer, while enlisting the best practices and tools to use to mitigate against these risks. The findings point to future research on developing countermeasures to alleviate the security risks and vulnerabilities inherent to one-owner control in smart contracts. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Technologies, Sustainable Engineering and Cybersecurity in the Digital Age)

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16 pages, 674 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Toward Designing a Secure Authentication Protocol for IoT Environments

by Mehdi Hosseinzadeh, Mazhar Hussain Malik, Masoumeh Safkhani, Nasour Bagheri, Quynh Hoang Le, Lilia Tightiz and Amir H. Mosavi

Sustainability 2023, 15(7), 5934; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15075934 - 29 Mar 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1635

Abstract

Authentication protocol is a critical part of any application to manage the access control in many applications. A former research recently proposed a lightweight authentication scheme to transmit data in an IoT subsystem securely. Although the designers presented the first security analysis of the proposed protocol, that protocol has not been independently analyzed by third-party researchers, to the best of our knowledge. On the other hand, it is generally agreed that no cryptosystem should be used in a practical application unless its security has been verified through security analysis by third parties extensively, which is addressed in this paper. Although it is an efficient protocol by design compared to other related schemes, our security analysis identifies the non-ideal properties of this protocol. More specifically, we show that this protocol does not provide perfect forward secrecy. In addition, we show that it is vulnerable to an insider attacker, and an active insider adversary can successfully recover the shared keys between the protocol’s entities. In addition, such an adversary can impersonate the remote server to the user and vice versa. Next, the adversary can trace the target user using the extracted information. Finally, we redesign the protocol such that the enhanced protocol can withstand all the aforementioned attacks. The overhead of the proposed protocol compared to its predecessor is only 15.5% in terms of computational cost. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Technologies, Sustainable Engineering and Cybersecurity in the Digital Age)

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30 pages, 3383 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Generic Internet of Things (IoT) Middleware for Smart City Applications

by Zulfiqar Ali, Azhar Mahmood, Shaheen Khatoon, Wajdi Alhakami, Syed Sajid Ullah, Jawaid Iqbal and Saddam Hussain

Sustainability 2023, 15(1), 743; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15010743 - 31 Dec 2022

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 3731

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) is one of the key components of the ICT infrastructure of smart cities due to its great potential for intelligent management of infrastructures and facilities and the enhanced delivery of services in support of sustainable cities. Smart cities typically rely on IoT, where a wide variety of devices communicate with each other and collaborate across heterogeneous and distributed computing environments to provide information and services to urban entities and urbanites. However, leveraging the IoT within software applications raises tremendous challenges, such as data acquisition, device heterogeneity, service management, security and privacy, interoperability, scalability, flexibility, data processing, and visualization. Middleware for IoT has been recognized as the system that can provide the necessary infrastructure of services and has become increasingly important for IoT over the last few years. This study aims to review and synthesize the relevant literature to identify and discuss the core challenges of existing IoT middleware. Furthermore, it augments the information landscape of IoT middleware with big data applications to achieve the required level of services supporting sustainable cities. In doing so, it proposes a novel IoT middleware for smart city applications, namely Generic Middleware for Smart City Applications (GMSCA), which brings together many studies to further capture and invigorate the application demand for sustainable solutions which IoT and big data can offer. The proposed middleware is implemented, and its feasibility is assessed by developing three applications addressing various scenarios. Finally, the GMSCA is tested by conducting load balance and performance tests. The results prove the excellent functioning and usability of the GMSCA. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Technologies, Sustainable Engineering and Cybersecurity in the Digital Age)

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17 pages, 297 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Cybersecurity and Country of Origin: Towards a New Framework for Assessing Digital Product Domesticity

by Serkan Ozdemir, Martin Wynn and Bilgin Metin

Sustainability 2023, 15(1), 87; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15010087 - 21 Dec 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1948

Abstract

Recent events concerning the Kaspersky anti-virus software in the UK and the Android operating system in the US have highlighted the significance of the domesticity of digital products for national cybersecurity, and the importance of establishing the origin of digital products has been further brought into focus by the war in Ukraine and China’s military activities around Taiwan. Digital products can contain hardware components, software elements, embedded systems, and data, and determining the country of origin (COO) in these circumstances is problematic. The aim of this research, and its main contribution, is to provide an operational framework for the application of the COO concept to address this problem. Using an inductive research methodology based on semi-structured interviews and an online survey, a 19-parameter framework for assessing the COO of digital products is developed and then applied to the case example of a mobile phone import in Turkey. This article concludes that new processes and policies are urgently required to enhance the cyber and information security for digital products, aid domestic digital technology production, and support the transition to recyclable technologies. Such developments are of significance not only for western nations concerned with data and security issues, but also for developing world countries trying to develop their own domestic digital product manufacturing capabilities. This is also of relevance to the computer end-user, who would benefit from greater clarity on the origin of digital products ahead of a purchase decision. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Technologies, Sustainable Engineering and Cybersecurity in the Digital Age)

Review

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26 pages, 3043 KiB

Open AccessReview

Penetration Taxonomy: A Systematic Review on the Penetration Process, Framework, Standards, Tools, and Scoring Methods

by Kamal Uddin Sarker, Farizah Yunus and Aziz Deraman

Sustainability 2023, 15(13), 10471; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151310471 - 03 Jul 2023

Viewed by 2986

Abstract

Cyber attackers are becoming smarter, and at the end of the day, many novel attacks are hosted in the cyber world. Security issues become more complex and critical when the number of services and subscribers increases due to advanced technologies. To ensure a secure environment, cyber professionals suggest reviewing the information security posture of the organization regularly via security experts, which is known as penetration testing. A pen tester executes a penetration test of an organization according to the frameworks and standardization guidelines. Security breaches of the system, loopholes in OS or applications, network vulnerabilities, and breaking data integration scopes are identified, and appropriate remediation is suggested by a pen tester team. The main aim of a penetration process is to fix the vulnerabilities prior to the attack in tangible and intangible resources. Firstly, this review work clarifies the penetration conception and is followed by the taxonomy of penetration domains, frameworks, standards, tools, and scoring methods. It performs a comparison study on the aforementioned items that develops guidelines for selecting an appropriate item set for the penetration process according to the demand of the organization. This paper ends with a constructive observation along with a discussion on recent penetration trends and the scope of future research. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Technologies, Sustainable Engineering and Cybersecurity in the Digital Age)

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