Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

A Novel Malware Target Recognition Architecture For Enhanced Cyberspace Situation Awareness, Thomas E. Dube

Theses and Dissertations

The rapid transition of critical business processes to computer networks potentially exposes organizations to digital theft or corruption by advanced competitors. One tool used for these tasks is malware, because it circumvents legitimate authentication mechanisms. Malware is an epidemic problem for organizations of all types. This research proposes and evaluates a novel Malware Target Recognition (MaTR) architecture for malware detection and identification of propagation methods and payloads to enhance situation awareness in tactical scenarios using non-instruction-based, static heuristic features. MaTR achieves a 99.92% detection accuracy on known malware with false positive and false negative rates of 8.73e-4 and 8.03e-4 respectively. …

Network Security: A Review Of Salient Security Aspects Of The Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (Umts), F. Imran, M. Hussain

International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies

Wireless communication is known as key to global development. Wireless and mobile communication is gaining more importance in our life. Protecting information is one the aspects which we need to focus on the wireless networks. Universal mobile telecommunication system (UMTS) is evolution of the third generation mobile communication system. It was built on the success of global system for mobile communication (GSM). Universal mobile telecommunication system's security is also built on global system for mobile communication (GSM). The paper reviews the literature of the security aspects of the Universal mobile telecommunication system. A critical evaluation of the proposed solutions is …

Networks - Ii: Modified On Demand Transmission Power Control For Wireless Sensor Networks, Mirza M Yasir Masood, Ghufran Ahmed, Noor M. Khan

International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies

On Demand Transmission Power Control (ODTPC) is a well known transmission power control strategy that is used to reduce high power consumption in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). In this paper, we propose an extension to ODTPC and thus, a modified version of ODTPC is proposed named MODTPC. Simulation results show that performance of MODTPC is better than ODTPC in terms of efficiency and energy saving.

Network Security: A Secure Architecture For Open Source Voip Solutions, Fahad Sattar, M. Hussain, Kashif Nisar

International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies

Voice over IP “VoIP” is a form of voice speech that uses data networks, for transmission of voice traffic over IP-based networks to transmit voice signals. The signal is correctly encoded at one end of the communication channel, sent as packets through the data network, then decoded at the receiving end and transformed back into a voice signal. It has a potential and offering a choice to the traditional telephony systems due to its high resource utilization and cost efficiency. Meanwhile, Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) have become an ever present networking technology that has been deployed around the world. …

Networks - I: Interference Mitigation In 4g System Using Smart Antenna, Asad Ali Siddiqui, Muhammad Mazhar Manzoor, Aamir Ijaz, Adnan Umar Khan, Imran Ahmed Awan, Sangita Lal Chand

International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies

Emerging trends of mobile communication and ever growing demand of mobile users with high speed data requirements and migrating towards 4G, Co-Channel interference and multipath in urban/dense urban environment will limit the capacity of the network. Smart antenna is now recognized by its higher user capacity in 4G wireless networks by efficiently reducing multipath and co-channel interference. Smart Antenna use adaptive beam forming algorithms in a dynamic environment continuously adjusting the weight of antenna arrays for creating a beam to track desired users automatically, and minimize interference from other users by placing nulls in their directions. This research work provides …

Artificial Intelligence – I: A Preliminary Framework For Human-Agent Communication In Electronic Negotiations, Moez Ur Rehman, Nosheen Riaz

International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies

Electronic negotiations are business negotiations conducted via electronic means using information and communications technologies (ICT). Two dominant types of electronic negotiation systems are automated negotiation systems for software agents and negotiation support systems (NSSs) for humans. However, the integration of two types for human-agent negotiations is an important task. In this paper, an extended communication model for human-agent business negotiations is presented. For this purpose, the underlying communication models of automated negotiations and NSSs are analyzed. The extended communication model is based on a common negotiation ontology which captures the negotiation agenda and paves the way for such hybrid communication, …

Using The Web Infrastructure For Real Time Recovery Of Missing Web Pages, Martin Klein

Computer Science Theses & Dissertations

Given the dynamic nature of the World Wide Web, missing web pages, or "404 Page not Found" responses, are part of our web browsing experience. It is our intuition that information on the web is rarely completely lost, it is just missing. In whole or in part, content often moves from one URI to another and hence it just needs to be (re-)discovered. We evaluate several methods for a \justin- time" approach to web page preservation. We investigate the suitability of lexical signatures and web page titles to rediscover missing content. It is understood that web pages change over time …

A Framework For Dynamic Traffic Monitoring Using Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks, Mohammad Hadi Arbabi

Computer Science Theses & Dissertations

Traffic management centers (TMCs) need high-quality data regarding the status of roadways for monitoring and delivering up-to-date traffic conditions to the traveling public. Currently this data is measured at static points on the roadway using technologies that have significant maintenance requirements. To obtain an accurate picture of traffic on any road section at any time requires a real-time probe of vehicles traveling in that section. We envision a near-term future where network communication devices are commonly included in new vehicles. These devices will allow vehicles to form vehicular networks allowing communication among themselves, other vehicles, and roadside units (RSUs) to …

Understanding User Generated Content Characteristics : A Hot-Event Perspective, Miao Wang, Guodong Li, Jie Feng, Lisong Xu, Byrav Ramamurthy, Wei Li, Xiaohong Guan

CSE Conference and Workshop Papers

Nowadays, millions of Internet users watch and upload a large number of videos on User Generated Content (UGC) sites (e.g., Youtube) everyday. Moreover, online videos about hot events, such as breaking news and Olympic games, attract lots of users. In this paper, we study the characteristics of hot-event videos by collecting video traces of the largest UGC site in China for 28 days. We first empirically study statistical properties of such videos and find that hot-event videos contribute a large number of views, even though the total number of hotevent videos is relatively small. In addition, there exist extremely active …

A High-Throughput Routing Metric For Reliable Multicast In Multi-Rate Wireless Mesh Networks, Xin Zhao, Jun Guo, Chun Tung Chou, Archan Misra, Sanjay Jha

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

We propose a routing metric for enabling highthroughput reliable multicast in multi-rate wireless mesh networks. This new multicast routing metric, called expected multicast transmission time (EMTT), captures the combined effects of 1) MAC-layer retransmission-based reliability, 2) transmission rate diversity, 3) wireless broadcast advantage, and 4) link quality awareness. The EMTT of one-hop transmission of a multicast packet minimizes the amount of expected transmission time (including that required for retransmissions). This is achieved by allowing the sender to adapt its bit-rate for each ongoing transmission/retransmission, optimized exclusively for its nexthop receivers that have not yet received the multicast packet. We model …

Data Aggregation And Dissemination In Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks, Khaled Ibrahim

Computer Science Theses & Dissertations

Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks (VANETs) are a fast growing technology that many governments and automobile manufacturers are investing in to provide not only safer and more secure roads, but also informational and entertainment-based applications for drivers. The applications developed for VANETs can be classified into multiple categories (safety, informational, entertainment). Most VANET applications, regardless of their category, depend on having certain vehicular data(vehicular speed, X position and Y position) available. Although these applications appear to use the same vehicular data, the characteristics of this data (i.e., amount, accuracy, and update rate) will vary based on the application category. For …

Solving The Vehicle Re-Identification Problem By Using Neural Networks, Tanweer Rashid

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Vehicle re-identification is the process by which vehicle attributes measured at one point on a road network are compared to vehicle attributes measured at another point in an effort to match vehicles without using any unique identifiers such as license plate numbers. A match is made if the two measurements are estimated to belong to the same vehicle. Vehicle attributes can be sensor readings such as loop induction signatures, or they can also be actual vehicle characteristics such as length, weight, number of axles, etc. This research makes use of vehicle length, travel time, axle spacing and axle weights for …

Malicious And Malfunctioning Node Detection Via Observed Physical Layer Data, Tyler J. Hardy

Theses and Dissertations

There are many mechanisms that can cause inadequate or unreliable information in sensor networks. A user of the network might be interested in detecting and classifying specific sensors nodes causing these problems. Several network layer based trust methods have been developed in previous research to assess these issues; in contrast this work develops a trust protocol based on observations of physical layer data collected by the sensors. Observations of physical layer data are used for decisions and calculations, and are based on just the measurements collected by the sensors. Although this information is packaged and distributed on the network layer, …

A Multi Agent System For Flow-Based Intrusion Detection Using Reputation And Evolutionary Computation, David Hancock

Theses and Dissertations

The rising sophistication of cyber threats as well as the improvement of physical computer network properties present increasing challenges to contemporary Intrusion Detection (ID) techniques. To respond to these challenges, a multi agent system (MAS) coupled with flow-based ID techniques may effectively complement traditional ID systems. This paper develops: 1) a scalable software architecture for a new, self-organized, multi agent, flow-based ID system; and 2) a network simulation environment suitable for evaluating implementations of this MAS architecture and for other research purposes. Self-organization is achieved via 1) a reputation system that influences agent mobility in the search for effective vantage …

Holistic Network Defense: Fusing Host And Network Features For Attack Classification, Jenny W. Ji

Theses and Dissertations

This work presents a hybrid network-host monitoring strategy, which fuses data from both the network and the host to recognize malware infections. This work focuses on three categories: Normal, Scanning, and Infected. The network-host sensor fusion is accomplished by extracting 248 features from network traffic using the Fullstats Network Feature generator and from the host using text mining, looking at the frequency of the 500 most common strings and analyzing them as word vectors. Improvements to detection performance are made by synergistically fusing network features obtained from IP packet flows and host features, obtained from text mining port, processor, logon …

Spear Phishing Attack Detection, David T. Merritt

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis addresses the problem of identifying email spear phishing attacks, which are indicative of cyber espionage. Spear phishing consists of targeted emails sent to entice a victim to open a malicious file attachment or click on a malicious link that leads to a compromise of their computer. Current detection methods fail to detect emails of this kind consistently. The SPEar phishing Attack Detection system (SPEAD) is developed to analyze all incoming emails on a network for the presence of spear phishing attacks. SPEAD analyzes the following file types: Windows Portable Executable and Common Object File Format (PE/COFF), Adobe Reader, …

Evaluating Information Assurance Control Effectiveness On An Air Force Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (Scada) System, Jason R. Nielsen

Theses and Dissertations

Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems are increasingly being connected to corporate networks which has dramatically expanded their attack surface to remote cyber attack. Adversaries are targeting these systems with increasing frequency and sophistication. This thesis seeks to answer the research question addressing which Information Assurance (IA) controls are most significant for network defenders and SCADA system managers/operators to focus on in order to increase the security of critical infrastructure systems against a Stuxnet-like cyber attack. This research applies the National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) IA controls to an attack tree modeled on a remote Stuxnet-like cyber …

Polarimetric Enhancements To Electro-Optical Aided Navigation Techniques, Jeremiah D. Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

Navigation in indoor and urban environments by small unmanned systems is a topic of interest for the Air Force. The Advanced Navigation Technology Center at the Air Force Institute of Technology is continually looking for novel approaches to navigation in GPS deprived environments. Inertial sensors have been coupled with image aided concepts, such as feature tracking, with good results. However, feature density in areas with large, flat, smooth surfaces tends to be low. Polarimetric sensors have been used for surface reconstruction, surface characterization and outdoor navigation. This thesis combines aspects of some of these algorithms along with a realistic, micro-facet …

Reactive Routing In Hidra Networks, Scott Michael Marshall

Computer Engineering

In recent years, the Internet has grown so large that the future scalability of the Internet has become a major concern. The two primary scalability concerns are the size of the forwarding table and the ability for BGP to converge while distributing hundreds of thousands of routes.

HIDRA is a new Internet routing architecture that is backwards-compatible with existing routing technologies and protocols that focuses on feasibility-of-implementation. HIDRA remedies the first Internet scalability concern by proposing a means to reduce the number of entries in the default-free zone (DFZ) forwarding table.

This project extends HIDRA by designing a complete reactive …

Pgtp: Power Aware Game Transport Protocol For Multi-Player Mobile Games, Bhojan Anand, Jeena Sebastian, Soh Yu Ming, Akhihebbal L. Ananda, Mun Choon Chan, Rajesh Krishna Balan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Applications on the smartphones are able to capitalize on the increasingly advanced hardware to provide a user experience reasonably impressive. However, the advancement of these applications are hindered battery lifetime of the smartphones. The battery technologies have a relatively low growth rate. Applications like mobile multiplayer games are especially power hungry as they maximize the use of the network, display and CPU resources. The PGTP, presented in this paper is aware of both the transport requirement of these multiplayer mobile games and the limitation posed by battery resource. PGTP dynamically controls the transport based on the criticality of game state …

Strategic Assessment Of Information Security Maturity, Arcot Desai Narasimhalu, Dayasindhu Nagarajan, Raghavan Subramanian

Arcot Desai NARASIMHALU

CXOs are becoming increasingly interested in the information security maturity of their enterprises. This paper presents a CXO dashboard that will allow better management of the information security resources in an enterprise.

Infosemm: Infosys It Security Maturity Model: A Report, Arcot Desai Narasimhalu, N. Dayasindhu, Raghavan Subramanian

Arcot Desai NARASIMHALU

Businesses are faced with a continuing battle related to cyber security related issues ranging from cyber attacks all the way to cyber (information) war. These issues affect result in information, system, reputation, and revenue related risks. These risks arise because of vulnerabilities introduced in three major parts of the enterprise – infrastructure, intelligence and practices. This report provides a rating system for representing the security health of enterprises.

Understanding The Influence Of Blog On The Development Of Social Capital, Reza Vaezi, Gholamreza Torkzadeh, Jerry Cha-Jan Chang

Management, Entrepreneurship and Technology Faculty Publications

The rapid use and application of blogs in diverse areas such as education, marketing, journalism, and human resource management in recent years underlines the need for a better understanding of the impact of this new technology on social capital. Social capital reflects the norm of reciprocity and the level of trust among individuals who connect, interact, and benefit from one another. Blog is expected to influence the extent and the scope of this interaction by providing new means of networking among people. This paper examines the relationship between blog use and social capital and reports on the results of an …

Development Of Visualization Facility At The Gis And Remote Sensing Core Lab, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas, Haroon Stephen, William J. Smith, Zhongwei Liu

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Presentations

Visualization using advanced computational and graphic equipment has become a standard way of present day research. Availability of low cost and fast processing units, high resolution displays with graphic processing units, and specialized software has brought complex visualization capabilities to an office desktop. Nevertheless, when dealing with large datasets such as, global climate, geospatial, and social data the office desktop falls short and calls for a centralized visualization facility with high end computing and graphics equipment.

Visualization Facility at GIS and Remote Sensing Core Lab would be a useful and important addition to the UNLV IT infrastructure. It would provide …

On The Applications Of Deterministic Chaos For Encrypting Data On The Cloud, Jonathan Blackledge, Nikolai Ptitsyn

Conference papers

Cloud computing is expected to grow considerably in the future because it has so many advantages with regard to sale and cost, change management, next generation architectures, choice and agility. However, one of the principal concerns for users of the Cloud is lack of control and above all, data security. This paper considers an approach to encrypting information before it is ‘placed’ on the Cloud where each user has access to their own encryption algorithm, an algorithm that is based on a set of iterated function systems that outputs a chaotic number stream, designed to produce a cryptographically secure cipher. …

Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks, Syed R. Rizvi, Stephan Olariu, Christina M. Oinotti, Shaharuddin Salleh, Mona E. Rizvi, Zainab Zaidi

Computer Science Faculty Publications

(First paragraph) Vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) have recently been proposed as one of the promising ad hoc networking techniques that can provide both drivers and passengers with a safe and enjoyable driving experience. VANETs can be used for many applications with vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications. In the United States, motor vehicle traffic crashes are the leading cause of death for all motorists between two and thirty-four years of age. In 2009, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reported that 33,808 people were killed in motor vehicle traffic crashes. The US Department of Transportation (US-DOT) estimates that …

Evidence Supporting Measure Of Similarity For Reducing The Complexity In Information Fusion, Florentin Smarandache, Jean Dezert, Xinde Li, Xinhan Huang

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

This paper presents a new method for reducing the number of sources of evidence to combine in order to reduce the complexity of the fusion processing. Such a complexity reduction is often required in many applications where the real-time constraint and limited computing resources are of prime importance. The basic idea consists in selecting, among all sources available, only a subset of sources of evidence to combine. The selection is based on an evidence supporting measure of similarity (ESMS) criterion which is an efficient generic tool for outlier sources identification and rejection. The ESMS between two sources of evidence can …

Evidence Supporting Measure Of Similarity For Reducing The Complexity In Information Fusion, Xinde Li, Jean Dezert, Florentin Smarandache, Xinhan Huang

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

This paper proposes a new solution for reducing the number of sources of evidence to be combined in order to diminish the complexity of the fusion process required in some applications where the real-time constraint and strong computing resource limitation are of prime importance. The basic idea consists in selecting, among the whole set of sources of evidence, only the biggest subset of sources which are not too contradicting based on a criterion of Evidence Supporting Measure of Similarity (ESMS) in order to process solely the coherent information received. The ESMS criterion serves actually as a generic tool for outlier …

Special Issue On Information Dissemination And New Services In P2p Systems, Min Song, Sachin Shetty, Wenbin Jiang, E. K. Park

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Information dissemination is an important P2P application that has received considerable research attention in recent years. P2P information dissemination systems range from simple file sharing applications to more complex systems that allows users to securely and efficiently publish, organize, index, search, update and retrieve data in a distributed storage medium. For complex P2P information dissemination systems, there is a need for features which include security, anonymity, fairness, scalability, resource management, and organization capabilities. For effective information dissemination, following features of P2P systems and infrastructure need to be updated: distributed object location and routing mechanisms, novel approaches to content replication, caching …