Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Optimal Placement Of Distributed Energy Storage Systems In Distribution Networks Using Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm, Choton K. Das, Octavian Bass, Ganesh Kothapalli, Thair S. Mahmoud, Daryoush Habibi

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The deployment of utility-scale energy storage systems (ESSs) can be a significant avenue for improving the performance of distribution networks. An optimally placed ESS can reduce power losses and line loading, mitigate peak network demand, improve voltage profile, and in some cases contribute to the network fault level diagnosis. This paper proposes a strategy for optimal placement of distributed ESSs in distribution networks to minimize voltage deviation, line loading, and power losses. The optimal placement of distributed ESSs is investigated in a medium voltage IEEE-33 bus distribution system, which is influenced by a high penetration of renewable (solar and wind) …

Bringing Defensive Artificial Intelligence Capabilities To Mobile Devices, Kevin Chong, Ahmed Ibrahim

Australian Information Security Management Conference

Traditional firewalls are losing their effectiveness against new and evolving threats today. Artificial intelligence (AI) driven firewalls are gaining popularity due to their ability to defend against threats that are not fully known. However, a firewall can only protect devices in the same network it is deployed in, leaving mobile devices unprotected once they leave the network. To comprehensively protect a mobile device, capabilities of an AI-driven firewall can enhance the defensive capabilities of the device. This paper proposes porting AI technologies to mobile devices for defence against today’s ever-evolving threats. A defensive AI technique providing firewall-like capability is being …

Security Vulnerabilities In Android Applications, Crischell Montealegre, Charles Rubia Njuguna, Muhammad Imran Malik, Peter Hannay, Ian Noel Mcateer

Australian Information Security Management Conference

Privacy-related vulnerabilities and risks are often embedded into applications during their development, with this action being either performed out of malice or out of negligence. Moreover, the majority of the mobile applications initiate connections to websites, other apps, or services outside of its scope causing significant compromise to the oblivious user. Therefore, mobile data encryption or related data-protection controls should be taken into account during the application development phase. This paper evaluates some standard apps and their associated threats using publicly available tools and demonstrates how an ignorant user or an organisation can fall prey to such apps.

Xmpp Architecture And Security Challenges In An Iot Ecosystem, Muhammad Imran Malik, Ian Noel Mcateer, Peter Hannay, Syed Naeem Firdous, Zubair Baig

Australian Information Security Management Conference

The elusive quest for technological advancements with the aim to make human life easier has led to the development of the Internet of Things (IoT). IoT technology holds the potential to revolutionise our daily life, but not before overcoming barriers of security and data protection. IoTs’ steered a new era of free information that transformed life in ways that one could not imagine a decade ago. Hence, humans have started considering IoTs as a pervasive technology. This digital transformation does not stop here as the new wave of IoT is not about people, rather it is about intelligent connected devices. …

Mitigating Man-In-The-Middle Attacks On Mobile Devices By Blocking Insecure Http Traffic Without Using Vpn, Kevin Chong, Muhammad Imran Malik, Peter Hannay

Australian Information Security Management Conference

Mobile devices are constantly connected to the Internet, making countless connections with remote services. Unfortunately, many of these connections are in cleartext, visible to third-parties while in transit. This is insecure and opens up the possibility for man-in-the-middle attacks. While there is little control over what kind of connection running apps can make, this paper presents a solution in blocking insecure HTTP packets from leaving the device. Specifically, the proposed solution works on the device, without the need to tunnel packets to a remote VPN server, and without special privileges such as root access. Speed tests were performed to quantify …

An Investigation Into A Denial Of Service Attack On An Ethereum Network, Richard Greene, Michael N. Johnstone

Australian Information Security Management Conference

Apart from its much-publicised use in crypto-currency, blockchain technology is used in a wide range of application areas, from diamonds to wine. The most common application of this technology is in smart contracts in supply chain management, where assurance of delivery and provenance are important. One problem for an Ethereum consortium is the potential for disruption caused by a Denial-of-Service attack across the consortium nodes. Such an attack can be launched from a single source or multiple sources to amplify the effect. This paper investigates the impact of various Denial-of-Service attacks on an Ethereum Consortium deployed on the Azure Cloud …

Review Of Deep Learning Methods In Robotic Grasp Detection, Shehan Caldera, Alexander Rassau, Douglas Chai

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

For robots to attain more general-purpose utility, grasping is a necessary skill to master. Such general-purpose robots may use their perception abilities to visually identify grasps for a given object. A grasp describes how a robotic end-effector can be arranged to securely grab an object and successfully lift it without slippage. Traditionally, grasp detection requires expert human knowledge to analytically form the task-specific algorithm, but this is an arduous and time-consuming approach. During the last five years, deep learning methods have enabled significant advancements in robotic vision, natural language processing, and automated driving applications. The successful results of these methods …

Influence Of Substrate Stage Temperature And Rotation Rate On The Magneto-Optical Quality Of Rf-Sputtered Bi2.1dy0.9fe3.9ga1.1o12 Garnet Thin Films, Mohammad E. Alam, Mikhail Vasiliev, Kamal Alameh

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Highly bismuth-substituted iron garnet thin films are prepared on quartz substrates by using a radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering technique. We study the factors (process parameters associated with the RF magnetron sputter deposition technique) affecting the magneto-optical (MO) properties of ferrite garnet films of composition Bi2.1Dy0.9Fe3.9Ga1.1O12. All films show high MO response across the visible range of wavelengths after being annealed. In particular, the effects of substrate stage temperature and rotation rate on the various properties of films are studied. Experimental results reveal that the characteristics of garnet films of this type can be tuned and optimized for use in …

Automatic Log Parser To Support Forensic Analysis, Hudan Studiawan, Ferdous Sohel, Christian Payne

Australian Digital Forensics Conference

Event log parsing is a process to split and label each field in a log entry. Existing approaches commonly use regular expressions or parsing rules to extract the fields. However, such techniques are time-consuming as a forensic investigator needs to define a new rule for each log file type. In this paper, we present a tool, namely nerlogparser, to parse the log entries automatically, where log parsing is modeled as a named entity recognition problem. We use a deep machine learning technique, specifically the bidirectional long short-term memory networks, as the underlying architecture for this purpose. Unlike existing tools, nerlogparser …

The Impact Of Personality Traits On User’S Susceptibility To Social Engineering Attacks, Brian Cusack, Kemi Adedokun

Australian Information Security Management Conference

Phishing attacks and other social manipulation attacks are an everyday occurrence for most workers in their email boxes. Others experience social engineering tricks to take and divert payments on legitimate electronic commerce transactions. This exploratory pilot study aims to examine the impact of user’s personality on the likelihood of user’s susceptibility to social engineering attacks. Five expert interviews were conducted to investigate what traits makes some individuals more or sometimes less susceptible to social engineering attack than others. The personality traits were obtained using the big five personality model for correlation with interview data. The result suggests that users with …

Tracing Water Masses With 129i And 236u In The Subpolar North Atlantic Along The Geotraces Ga01 Section, Maxi Castrillijo, Núria Casacuberta, Marcus Christl, Christoph Vockenhuber, Hans A. Synall, Maribel I. García-Ibáñez, Pascale Lherminier, Géraldine Sarthou, Jordi García-Orellana, Pere Masqué

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Pathways and timescales of water mass transport in the subpolar North Atlantic Ocean (SPNA) have been investigated by many studies due to their importance for the meridional overturning circulation and thus for the global ocean. In this sense, observational data on geochemical tracers provide complementary information to improve the current understanding of the circulation in the SPNA. To this end, we present the first simultaneous distribution of artificial 129I and 236U in 14 depth profiles and in surface waters along the GEOVIDE section covering a zonal transect through the SPNA in spring 2014. Our results show that the two tracers …

Is Working With What We Have Enough?, Brian Cusack, Bryce Antony

Australian Digital Forensics Conference

Augmented reality (AR) digital environments have introduced a new complexity to digital investigation where augmented overlays of real objects may be momentary, changed, distorted and evade the usual methods for evidence collection. It is possible an investigator applying standard investigation methods factually reports a real situation and its digital context but has none of the relevant evidence. In this situation the potential for a fair hearing is low and the chance of retrial high. Such situations are unacceptably dangerous and require redress. In this paper the AR condition is considered in terms of its complexity and management during an investigation. …

Digital Forensics Investigative Framework For Control Rooms In Critical Infrastructure, Brian Cusack, Amr Mahmoud

Australian Digital Forensics Conference

In this paper a cyber-forensic framework with a detailed guideline for protecting control systems is developed to improve the forensic capability for big data in critical infrastructures. The main objective of creating a cyber-forensic plan is to cover the essentials of monitoring, troubleshooting, data reconstruction, recovery, and the safety of classified information. The problem to be addressed in control rooms is the diversity and quantity of data, and for investigators, bringing together the different skill groups for managing data and device diversity. This research embraces establishing of a new digital forensic model for critical infrastructures that supports digital forensic investigators …

Ransomware Behavioural Analysis On Windows Platforms, Nikolai Hampton, Zubair A. Baig, Sherali Zeadally

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Ransomware infections have grown exponentially during the recent past to cause major disruption in operations across a range of industries including the government. Through this research, we present an analysis of 14 strains of ransomware that infect Windows platforms, and we do a comparison of Windows Application Programming Interface (API) calls made through ransomware processes with baselines of normal operating system behaviour. The study identifies and reports salient features of ransomware as referred through the frequencies of API calls

Emotions Predict Policy Support: Why It Matters How People Feel About Climate Change, Susie Wang, Zoe Leviston

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Current research shows that emotions can motivate climate engagement and action, but precisely how has received scant attention. We propose that strong emotional responses to climate change result from perceiving one's “objects of care” as threatened by climate change, which motivates caring about climate change itself, and in turn predicts behaviour. In two studies, we find that climate scientists (N = 44) experience greater emotional intensity about climate change than do students (N = 94) and the general population (N = 205), and that patterns of emotional responses explain differences in support for climate change policy. Scientists tied their emotional …

Guidelines And Considerations For The Use Of System Suitability And Quality Control Samples In Mass Spectrometry Assays Applied In Untargeted Clinical Metabolomic Studies, David Broadhurst, Royston Goodacre, Stacey N. Reinke, Julia Kuligowski, Ian Wilson, Matthew Lewis, Warwick Dunn

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Background

Quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) are two quality management processes that are integral to the success of metabolomics including their application for the acquisition of high quality data in any high-throughput analytical chemistry laboratory. QA defines all the planned and systematic activities implemented before samples are collected, to provide confidence that a subsequent analytical process will fulfil predetermined requirements for quality. QC can be defined as the operational techniques and activities used to measure and report these quality requirements after data acquisition.

Aim of review

This tutorial review will guide the reader through the use of system …

Properties Of Ferrite Garnet (Bi, Lu, Y)3(Fe, Ga)5o12 Thin Film Materials Prepared By Rf Magnetron Sputtering, Mohammad Nur-E-Alam, Mikhail Vasiliev, Vladimir Belotelov, Kamal Alameh

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This work is devoted to physical vapor deposition synthesis, and characterisation of bismuth and lutetium-substituted ferrite-garnet thin-film materials for magneto-optic (MO) applications. The properties of garnet thin films sputtered using a target of nominal composition type Bi_0.9Lu_1.85Y_0.25Fe_4.0Ga₁O₁₂ are studied. By measuring the optical transmission spectra at room temperature, the optical constants and the accurate film thicknesses can be evaluated using Swanepoel’s envelope method. The refractive index data are found to be matching very closely to these derived from Cauchy’s dispersion formula for the entire spectral range between 300 and …

President Trump Tweets Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Un On Nuclear Weapons: A Comparison With Climate Change, David E. Allen, Michael Mcaleer

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

A set of 125 tweets about North Korea's Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Un by President Trump from 2013 to 2018 are analysed by means of the data mining technique, sentiment analysis. The intention is to explore the contents and sentiments of the messages contained, the degree to which they differ, and their implications about President Trump's understanding and approach to international diplomacy. The results suggest a predominantly positive emotion in relation to tweets about North Korea, despite the use of questionable nicknames such as "Little Rocket Man". A comparison is made between the tweets on North Korea and climate change, madefrom …

Importance Of Hydrothermal Vents In Scavenging Removal Of 230th In The Nansen Basin, O. Valk, M. M. Rutgers Van Der Loeff, W. Geibert, S. Gdaniec, M. J.A. Rijkenberg, S. B. Moran, K. Lepore, R. L. Edwards, Y. Lu, Viena Puigcorbe

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

In this study we present dissolved and particulate ²³⁰Th and ²³²Th results, as well as particulate ²³⁴Th data, obtained as part of the GEOTRACES central Arctic Ocean sections GN04 (2015) and IPY11 (2007). Samples were analyzed following GEOTRACES methods and compared to previous results from 1991. We observe significant decreases in ²³⁰Th concentrations in the deep waters of the Nansen Basin. We ascribe this nonsteady state removal process to a variable release and scavenging of trace metals near an ultraslow spreading ridge. This finding demonstrates that hydrothermal scavenging in the deep‐sea may vary on annual time …

The Design And Evaluation Of A User-Centric Information Security Risk Assessment And Response Framework, Manal Alohali, Nathan Clarke, Steven Furnell

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Abstract: The risk of sensitive information disclosure and modification through the use of online services has increased considerably and may result in significant damage. As the management and assessment of such risks is a well-known discipline for organizations, it is a challenge for users from the general public. Users have difficulties in using, understanding and reacting to security-related threats. Moreover, users only try to protect themselves from risks salient to them. Motivated by the lack of risk assessment solutions and limited impact of awareness programs tailored for users of the general public, this paper aims to develop a structured approach …

Mobile Device Wardriving Tools’ Comparison: Nuku’Alofa As Case Study, Raymond Lutui, ‘Osai Tete’Imoana, George Maeakafa

Australian Information Security Management Conference

This paper describes the justification for a project to assess the security status of wireless networks usage in Nuku’alofa, the CBD of Tonga, By War Driving these suburbs, actual data was gathered to indicate the security status of wireless networks and provide an understanding of the users’ level of awareness and attitudes towards wireless security. This paper also takes the opportunity to compare the performance of the War driving tools that this study employed – GMoN, SWardriving, and Wi-Fi Scan. Wireless network communication remains a challenging and critical issue. This study takes an exploratory approach in which it allows the …

Vulnerability Analysis: Protecting Information In The Iot, Brian Cusack, Feiqiu Zhuang

Australian Information Security Management Conference

The research was designed to study IoT security vulnerabilities and how to better protect IoT communications. By researching the system a Fitbit uses for communications, this research analyzes and reveals security defects in the IoT architecture. The research first uses a man-in the middle (MITM) attack to intercept and analyze the Fitbit system traffic to identify security weakness. Then uses a replay attack to further validate these flaws. Finally, countermeasures against these security threats are proposed. The research findings show the Fitbit’s IoT communication architecture has serious information security risks. Firstly, the Fitbit tested does not encrypt the raw data …

Detection Techniques In Operational Technology Infrastructure, Glenn Murray, Matthew Peacock, Priya Rabadia, Paresh Kerai

Australian Information Security Management Conference

In previous decades, cyber-attacks have not been considered a threat to critical infrastructure. However, as the Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT) domains converge, the vulnerability of OT infrastructure is being exploited. Nation-states, cyber criminals and hacktivists are moving to benefit from economic and political gains. The OT network, i.e. Industrial Control System (ICS) is referred to within OT infrastructure as Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA). SCADA systems were introduced primarily to optimise the data transfer within OT network infrastructure. The introduction of SCADA can be traced back to the 1960’s, a time where cyber-attacks were not considered. …

The Relevance Of A Good Internal Control System In A Computerised Accounting Information System, Raymond Lutui, Tau’Aho ‘Ahokovi

Australian Information Security Management Conference

Advancements in information technology (IT) have enabled companies to use computers to carry out their activities that were previously performed manually. Accounting systems that were previously performed manually can now be performed with the help of computers. With all the advantages of computerized accounting software, business owners need to realize that problems do arise for a variety of reasons. Dependence on computers sometimes leads to bigger problems. This paper, therefore provide a detail information about the concept of internal control to its relevance in a computerised accounting information. This study also considers the trend between manual and computerised accounting system. …

Minimally Actuated Walking: Identifying Core Challenges To Economical Legged Locomotion Reveals Novel Solutions, Ryan T. Schroeder, John Ea Bertram

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Terrestrial organisms adept at locomotion employ strut-like legs for economical and robust movement across the substrate. Although it is relatively easy to observe and analyze details of the solutions these organic systems have arrived at, it is not as easy to identify the problems these movement strategies have solved. As such, it is useful to investigate fundamental challenges that effective legged locomotion overcomes in order to understand why the mechanisms employed by biological systems provide viable solutions to these challenges. Such insight can inform the design and development of legged robots that may eventually match or exceed animal performance. In …

Effects Of -No2 And -Nh2 Functional Groups In Mixed-Linker Zr-Based Mofs On Gas Adsorption Of Co2 And Ch4, Zana Hassan Rada, Hongqi Sun, Jin Shang, Jiaye Li, Yingdian He, Shaomin Liu, Shaobin Wang

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This study was undertaken to evaluate the effects of mixing BDC-NO₂ and BDC-NH₂ linkers in the synthesis of Zr-based metal organic frameworks (Zr-MOFs) on their adsorption and separation of CO₂ and CH₄. UiO-66 with single or binary -NO₂ and -NH₂ samples were synthesized under solvothermal conditions and activated by solvent exchanging using methanol. Structural analyses of the materials were conducted using FTIR, XRD, TGA, SEM, ¹HNMR and N₂ adsorption/desorption techniques and adsorption of CO₂ and CH₄ at high pressures and different temperatures (273 and 298 K) was investigated. It …

Ferromagnetic Shape Memory Heusler Materials: Synthesis, Microstructure Characterization And Magnetostructural Properties, Riaz Ahamed Ahamed Khan, Reza Ghomashchi, Zonghan Xie, Lei Chen

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

An overview of the processing, characterization and magnetostructural properties of ferromagnetic NiMnX (X = group IIIA-VA elements) Heusler alloys is presented. This type of alloy is multiferroic-exhibits more than one ferroic property-and is hence multifunctional. Examples of how different synthesis procedures influence the magnetostructural characteristics of these alloys are shown. Significant microstructural factors, such as the crystal structure, atomic ordering, volume of unit cell, grain size and others, which have a bearing on the properties, have been reviewed. An overriding factor is the composition which, through its tuning, affects the martensitic and magnetic transitions, the transformation temperatures, microstructures and, consequently, …

Biometrics Based Privacy-Preserving Authentication And Mobile Template Protection, Wencheng Yang, Jiankun Hu, Song Wang, Qianhong Wu

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Smart mobile devices are playing a more and more important role in our daily life. Cancelable biometrics is a promising mechanism to provide authentication to mobile devices and protect biometric templates by applying a noninvertible transformation to raw biometric data. However, the negative effect of nonlinear distortion will usually degrade the matching performance significantly, which is a nontrivial factor when designing a cancelable template. Moreover, the attacks via record multiplicity (ARM) present a threat to the existing cancelable biometrics, which is still a challenging open issue. To address these problems, in this paper, we propose a new cancelable fingerprint template …

Forensic Analysis Of A Crash-Damaged Cheerson Cx-20 Auto Pathfinder Drone, Ian Noel Mcateer, Peter Hannay, Muhammad Imran Malik, Zubair Baig

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Long gone are the days when Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and drones (multirotor UAVs) were the exclusive domain of the military for surveillance or tactical strike purposes. For relatively little money mainly due to high-tech progression in microprocessor design, anyone can now purchase a drone with GNSS-tracking capabilities and can support a live high-resolution video feed to its flight controller. The global population of drones has sky- rocketed in recent years as this new technology has been embraced for both its recreational and commercial applications. However, the more nefarious members of society have also recognized the potential for using drones …

Forest Die-Off Following Global-Change-Type Drought Alters Rhizosphere Fungal Communities, Anna J. M. Hopkins, Katinka X. Ruthrof, Joseph B. Fontaine, George Matusick, Shannon J. Dundas, Giles E. St J. Hardy

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Globally, forest die-off from global-change-type drought events (hotter droughts) are of increasing concern, with effects reported from every forested continent. While implications of global-change-type drought events have been explored for above-ground vegetation, below-ground organisms have received less attention, despite their essential contributions to plant growth, survival, and ecosystem function. We investigated rhizosphere fungal communities in soils beneath trees affected by a global-change-type drought in a Mediterranean climate-type ecosystem in southwestern Australia, quantifying how fungal richness, composition and functional groups varied along a drought impact gradient. Following a forest die-off three years previously, we collected soils beneath dead and alive trees …