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Full-Text Articles in Computer Engineering

Network Security Toolkit Including Heuristic Solutions For Trust System Placement And Network Obfuscation, Gabriel H. Greve Dec 2010

Network Security Toolkit Including Heuristic Solutions For Trust System Placement And Network Obfuscation, Gabriel H. Greve

Theses and Dissertations

For Part I, a supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) network consists of a group stations and substations in a portion of the power grid. The use of Internet technology in SCADA communications as well as other factors has caused vulnerabilities. One idea to help mitigate this risk is to strategically place trust nodes to compartmentalize and secure the SCADA systems without disturbing its finely honed processes. The trust nodes combine firewall and intrusion detection technology to provide more secure communication. An optimal solution to this problem has already been developed using a mixed-integer linear programming model. Because the problem …


Improving The Quality Of Service And Security Of Military Networks With A Network Tasking Order Process, Matthew D. Compton Sep 2010

Improving The Quality Of Service And Security Of Military Networks With A Network Tasking Order Process, Matthew D. Compton

Theses and Dissertations

This research presents a Network Tasking Order process that collects mission plans, network capabilities, and historical records to build a Network Tasking Order (NTO). The NTO document directs the form and usage of the network, much like an Air Tasking Order (ATO) directs the usage of air power. The NTO process is fleshed out with the content and format of the NTO given herein for the first time. Tools such as topology control algorithms are then shown through simulation to improve the quality of service of the network by finding favorable ways to connect the assets identified during the NTO …


Reputation-Based Internet Protocol Security: A Multilayer Security Framework For Mobil Ad Hoc Networks, Timothy H. Lacey Sep 2010

Reputation-Based Internet Protocol Security: A Multilayer Security Framework For Mobil Ad Hoc Networks, Timothy H. Lacey

Theses and Dissertations

This research effort examines the theory, application, and results for a Reputation-based Internet Protocol Security (RIPSec) framework that provides security for an ad-hoc network operating in a hostile environment. In RIPSec, protection from external threats is provided in the form of encrypted communication links and encryption-wrapped nodes while internal threats are mitigated by behavior grading that assigns reputations to nodes based on their demonstrated participation in the routing process. Network availability is provided by behavior grading and round-robin multipath routing. If a node behaves faithfully, it earns a positive reputation over time. If a node misbehaves (for any number of …


Hijacking User Uploads To Online Persistent Data Repositories For Covert Data Exfiltration, Curtis P. Barnard Sep 2010

Hijacking User Uploads To Online Persistent Data Repositories For Covert Data Exfiltration, Curtis P. Barnard

Theses and Dissertations

As malware has evolved over the years, it has gone from harmless programs that copy themselves into other executables to modern day botnets that perform bank fraud and identity theft. Modern malware often has a need to communicate back to the author, or other machines that are also infected. Several techniques for transmitting this data covertly have been developed over the years which vary significantly in their level of sophistication. This research creates a new covert channel technique for stealing information from a network by piggybacking on user-generated network traffic. Specifically, steganography drop boxes and passive covert channels are merged …


Applying Image Matching To Video Analysis, Adam J. Behring Sep 2010

Applying Image Matching To Video Analysis, Adam J. Behring

Theses and Dissertations

Dealing with the volume of multimedia collected on a daily basis for intelligence gathering and digital forensics investigations requires significant manual analysis. A component of this problem is that a video may be reanalyzed that has already been analyzed. Identifying duplicate video sequences is difficult due to differences in videos of varying quality and size. This research uses a kd-tree structure to increase image matching speed. Keypoints are generated and added to a kd-tree of a large dimensionality (128 dimensions). All of the keypoints for the set of images are used to construct a global kd-tree, which allows nearest neighbor …


Performance Evaluation Of A Field Programmable Gate Array-Based System For Detecting And Tracking Peer-To-Peer Protocols On A Gigabit Ethernet Network, Brennon D. Thomas Jun 2010

Performance Evaluation Of A Field Programmable Gate Array-Based System For Detecting And Tracking Peer-To-Peer Protocols On A Gigabit Ethernet Network, Brennon D. Thomas

Theses and Dissertations

Recent years have seen a massive increase in illegal, suspicious, and malicious traffic traversing government and military computer networks. Some examples include illegal file distribution and disclosure of sensitive information using the BitTorrent file sharing protocol, criminals and terrorists using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technologies to communicate, and foreign entities exfiltrating sensitive data from government, military, and Department of Defense contractor networks. As a result of these growing threats, the TRacking and Analysis for Peer-to-Peer (TRAPP) system was developed in 2008 to detect BitTorrent and VoIP traffic of interest. The TRAPP system, designed on a Xilinx Virtex-II Pro Field …


Attaining Realistic Simulations Of Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks, Derek J. Huber Jun 2010

Attaining Realistic Simulations Of Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks, Derek J. Huber

Theses and Dissertations

Mobile Ad-hoc Networks (MANET) are comprised of wireless systems that communicate without the assistance of centrally managed routers or base stations. MANET research and development has increased due to computing technologies offering smaller, faster, smarter, and more power efficient platforms to operate on. Largely the testing and evaluation of new and existing MANET protocols has resided in simulation environments. This is due in part to the complexities and expenses incurred when conducting real world tests. Many researchers have come to recognize that these current simulations tend to assume away critical components of the MANET domain. These assumptions are made either …


Visually Managing Ipsec, Peter J. Dell'accio Mar 2010

Visually Managing Ipsec, Peter J. Dell'accio

Theses and Dissertations

The United States Air Force relies heavily on computer networks to transmit vast amounts of information throughout its organizations and with agencies throughout the Department of Defense. The data take many forms, utilize different protocols, and originate from various platforms and applications. It is not practical to apply security measures specific to individual applications, platforms, and protocols. Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) is a set of protocols designed to secure data traveling over IP networks, including the Internet. By applying security at the network layer of communications, data packets can be secured regardless of what application generated the data or which …


Reputation-Based Trust For A Cooperative, Agent-Based Backup Protection Scheme For Power Networks, John F. Borowski Mar 2010

Reputation-Based Trust For A Cooperative, Agent-Based Backup Protection Scheme For Power Networks, John F. Borowski

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis research explores integrating a reputation-based trust mechanism with an agent-based backup protection system to improve the performance of traditional backup relay methods that are currently in use in power transmission systems. Integrating agent technology into relay protection schemes has been previously proposed to clear faults more rapidly and to add precision by enabling the use of adaptive protection methods. A distributed, cooperative trust system such as that used in peer-to-peer file sharing networks has the potential to add an additional layer of defense in a protection system designed to operate with greater autonomy. This trust component enables agents …


Static And Dynamic Component Obfuscation On Reconfigurable Devices, Camdon R. Cady Mar 2010

Static And Dynamic Component Obfuscation On Reconfigurable Devices, Camdon R. Cady

Theses and Dissertations

Computing systems are used in virtually every aspect of our lives. Technology such as smart phones and electronically controlled subsystems in cars is becoming so commonly used that it is virtually ubiquitous. Sometimes, this technology can be exploited to perform functions that it was never intended to perform, or fail to provide information that it is supposed to protect. X-HIA was shown to be effective at identifying several circuit components in a significantly shorter time than previous identification methods. Instead of requiring a number of input/output pairings that grows factorially or exponentially as the circuit size grows, it requires only …


Modeling Computer Communication Networks In A Realistic 3d Environment, Charles R. Rowell Jr. Mar 2010

Modeling Computer Communication Networks In A Realistic 3d Environment, Charles R. Rowell Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

Communication network simulations have typically been visualized in the past through 2D representations, but this is insufficient for battlefield network scenarios. Visual representations of battlefield networks greatly benefit from 3D visualization due to its ability to retain asset location. This research investigates the feasibility of modeling a typical battlefield communication network in a realistic 3D manner and discusses the effects of doing so. The result is an open source, 3D network visualization tool that can create highly intuitive connected battlefield scenes, enabling the user to quickly comprehend network state. It highlights mobile assets, packet movement, and node connectivity while allowing …


A Distributed Network Logging Topology, Nicholas E. Fritts Mar 2010

A Distributed Network Logging Topology, Nicholas E. Fritts

Theses and Dissertations

Network logging is used to monitor computer systems for potential problems and threats by network administrators. Research has found that the more logging enabled, the more potential threats can be detected in the logs (Levoy, 2006). However, generally it is considered too costly to dedicate the manpower required to analyze the amount of logging data that it is possible to generate. Current research is working on different correlation and parsing techniques to help filter the data, but these methods function by having all of the data dumped in to a central repository. Central repositories are limited in the amount of …


Handshaking Protocols And Jamming Mechanisms For Blind Rendezvous In A Dynamic Spectrum Access Environment, Aaron A. Gross Mar 2010

Handshaking Protocols And Jamming Mechanisms For Blind Rendezvous In A Dynamic Spectrum Access Environment, Aaron A. Gross

Theses and Dissertations

Blind frequency rendezvous is an important process for bootstrapping communications between radios without the use of pre-existing infrastructure or common control channel in a Dynamic Spectrum Access (DSA) environment. In this process, radios attempt to arrive in the same frequency channel and recognize each other’s presence in changing, under-utilized spectrum. This paper refines existing blind rendezvous techniques by introducing a handshaking algorithm for setting up communications once two radios have arrived in the same frequency channel. It then investigates the effect of different jamming techniques on blind rendezvous algorithms that utilize this handshake. The handshake performance is measured by determining …


Developing Cyberspace Data Understanding: Using Crisp-Dm For Host-Based Ids Feature Mining, Joseph R. Erskine Mar 2010

Developing Cyberspace Data Understanding: Using Crisp-Dm For Host-Based Ids Feature Mining, Joseph R. Erskine

Theses and Dissertations

Current intrusion detection systems generate a large number of specific alerts, but do not provide actionable information. Many times, these alerts must be analyzed by a network defender, a time consuming and tedious task which can occur hours or days after an attack occurs. Improved understanding of the cyberspace domain can lead to great advancements in Cyberspace situational awareness research and development. This thesis applies the Cross Industry Standard Process for Data Mining (CRISP-DM) to develop an understanding about a host system under attack. Data is generated by launching scans and exploits at a machine outfitted with a set of …


Analysis Of A Rumor Routing Protocol With Limited Packet Lifetimes, Peter R. Francik Mar 2010

Analysis Of A Rumor Routing Protocol With Limited Packet Lifetimes, Peter R. Francik

Theses and Dissertations

Wireless sensor networks require specialized protocols that conserve power and minimize network traffic. Therefore, it is vitally important to analyze how the parameters of a protocol affect these metrics. In doing so, a more efficient protocol can be developed. This research evaluates how the number of nodes in a network, time between generated agents, lifetime of agents, number of agent transmissions, time between generated queries, lifetime of queries, and node transmission time affect a modified rumor routing protocol for a large-scale, wireless sensor network. Furthermore, it analyzes how the probability distribution of certain protocol parameters affects the network performance. The …


Component Hiding Using Identification And Boundary Blurring Techniques, James D. Parham Jr. Mar 2010

Component Hiding Using Identification And Boundary Blurring Techniques, James D. Parham Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

Protecting software from adversarial attacks is extremely important for DoD technologies. When systems are compromised, the possibility exists for recovery costing millions of dollars and countless labor hours. Circuits implemented on embedded systems utilizing FPGA technology are the result of downloading software for instantiating circuits with specific functions or components. We consider the problem of component hiding a form of software protection. Component identification is a well studied problem. However, we use component identification as a metric for driving the cost of reverse engineering to an unreasonable level. We contribute to protection of software and circuitry by implementing a Java …