Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Attribute-Hiding Fuzzy Encryption For Privacy-Preserving Data Evaluation, Zhenhua Chen, Luqi Huang, Guomin Yang, Willy Susilo, Xingbing Fu, Xingxing Jia

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Privacy-preserving data evaluation is one of the prominent research topics in the big data era. In many data evaluation applications that involve sensitive information, such as the medical records of patients in a medical system, protecting data privacy during the data evaluation process has become an essential requirement. Aiming at solving this problem, numerous fuzzy encryption systems for different similarity metrics have been proposed in literature. Unfortunately, the existing fuzzy encryption systems either fail to achieve attribute-hiding or achieve it, but are impractical. In this paper, we propose a new fuzzy encryption scheme for privacy-preserving data evaluation based on overlap …

Stealthy Backdoor Attack For Code Models, Zhou Yang, Bowen Xu, Jie M. Zhang, Hong Jin Kang, Jieke Shi, Junda He, David Lo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Code models, such as CodeBERT and CodeT5, offer general-purpose representations of code and play a vital role in supporting downstream automated software engineering tasks. Most recently, code models were revealed to be vulnerable to backdoor attacks. A code model that is backdoor-attacked can behave normally on clean examples but will produce pre-defined malicious outputs on examples injected with that activate the backdoors. Existing backdoor attacks on code models use unstealthy and easy-to-detect triggers. This paper aims to investigate the vulnerability of code models with backdoor attacks. To this end, we propose A (dversarial eature as daptive Back). A achieves stealthiness …

Designing High-Performance Identity-Based Quantum Signature Protocol With Strong Security, Sunil Prajapat, Pankaj Kumar, Sandeep Kumar, Ashok Kumar Das, Sachin Shetty, M. Shamim Hossain

VMASC Publications

Due to the rapid advancement of quantum computers, there has been a furious race for quantum technologies in academia and industry. Quantum cryptography is an important tool for achieving security services during quantum communication. Designated verifier signature, a variant of quantum cryptography, is very useful in applications like the Internet of Things (IoT) and auctions. An identity-based quantum-designated verifier signature (QDVS) scheme is suggested in this work. Our protocol features security attributes like eavesdropping, non-repudiation, designated verification, and hiding sources attacks. Additionally, it is protected from attacks on forgery, inter-resending, and impersonation. The proposed scheme benefits from the traditional designated …

A Conceptual Decentralized Identity Solution For State Government, Martin Duclos

Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, state governments, exemplified by Mississippi, have significantly expanded their online service offerings to reduce costs and improve efficiency. However, this shift has led to challenges in managing digital identities effectively, with multiple fragmented solutions in use. This paper proposes a Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) framework based on distributed ledger technology. SSI grants individuals control over their digital identities, enhancing privacy and security without relying on a centralized authority. The contributions of this research include increased efficiency, improved privacy and security, enhanced user satisfaction, and reduced costs in state government digital identity management. The paper provides background on digital …

Integrity, Confidentiality, And Equity: Using Inquiry-Based Labs To Help Students Understand Ai And Cybersecurity, Richard C. Alexander, Liran Ma, Ze-Li Dou, Zhipeng Cai, Yan Huang

Journal of Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

Recent advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) have brought society closer to the long-held dream of creating machines to help with both common and complex tasks and functions. From recommending movies to detecting disease in its earliest stages, AI has become an aspect of daily life many people accept without scrutiny. Despite its functionality and promise, AI has inherent security risks that users should understand and programmers must be trained to address. The ICE (integrity, confidentiality, and equity) cybersecurity labs developed by a team of cybersecurity researchers addresses these vulnerabilities to AI models through a series of hands-on, inquiry-based labs. Through …

Quantifying And Enhancing The Security Of Federated Learning, Virat Vishnu Shejwalkar

Doctoral Dissertations

Federated learning is an emerging distributed learning paradigm that allows multiple users to collaboratively train a joint machine learning model without having to share their private data with any third party. Due to many of its attractive properties, federated learning has received significant attention from academia as well as industry and now powers major applications, e.g., Google's Gboard and Assistant, Apple's Siri, Owkin's health diagnostics, etc. However, federated learning is yet to see widespread adoption due to a number of challenges. One such challenge is its susceptibility to poisoning by malicious users who aim to manipulate the joint machine learning …

Privacy-Preserving Bloom Filter-Based Keyword Search Over Large Encrypted Cloud Data, Yanrong Liang, Jianfeng Ma, Yinbin Miao, Da Kuang, Xiangdong Meng, Robert H. Deng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

To achieve the search over encrypted data in cloud server, Searchable Encryption (SE) has attracted extensive attention from both academic and industrial fields. The existing Bloom filter-based SE schemes can achieve similarity search, but will generally incur high false positive rates, and even leak the privacy of values in Bloom filters (BF). To solve the above problems, we first propose a basic Privacy-preserving Bloom filter-based Keyword Search scheme using the Circular Shift and Coalesce-Bloom Filter (CSC-BF) and Symmetric-key Hidden Vector Encryption (SHVE) technology (namely PBKS), which can achieve effective search while protecting the values in BFs. Then, we design a …

Decentralized Multimedia Data Sharing In Iov: A Learning-Based Equilibrium Of Supply And Demand, Jiani Fan, Minrui Xu, Jiale Guo, Lwin Khin Shar, Jiawen Kang, Dusit Niyato, Kwok-Yan Lam

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The Internet of Vehicles (IoV) has great potential to transform transportation systems by enhancing road safety, reducing traffic congestion, and improving user experience through onboard infotainment applications. Decentralized data sharing can improve security, privacy, reliability, and facilitate infotainment data sharing in IoVs. However, decentralized data sharing may not achieve the expected efficiency if there are IoV users who only want to consume the shared data but are not willing to contribute their own data to the community, resulting in incomplete information observed by other vehicles and infrastructure, which can introduce additional transmission latency. Therefore, in this paper, by modeling the …

Future Trends And Directions For Secure Infrastructure Architecture In The Education Sector: A Systematic Review Of Recent Evidence, Isaac Atta Senior Ampofo, Isaac Atta Junior Ampofo

Journal of Research Initiatives

The most efficient approach to giving large numbers of students’ access to computational resources is through a data center. A contemporary method for building the data center's computer infrastructure is the software-defined model, which enables user tasks to be processed in a reasonable amount of time and at a reasonable cost. The researcher examines potential directions and trends for a secured infrastructure design in this article. Additionally, interoperable, highly reusable modules that can include the newest trends in the education industry are made possible by cloud-based educational software. The Reference Architecture for University Education System Using AWS Services is presented …

A Novel Authentication Method That Combines Honeytokens And Google Authenticator, Vassilis Papaspirou, Maria Papathanasaki, Leandros Maglaras, Ioanna Kantzavelou, Christos Douligeris, Mohamed A. Ferrag, Helge Janicke

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Despite the rapid development of technology, computer systems still rely heavily on passwords for security, which can be problematic. Although multi-factor authentication has been introduced, it is not completely effective against more advanced attacks. To address this, this study proposes a new two-factor authentication method that uses honeytokens. Honeytokens and Google Authenticator are combined to create a stronger authentication process. The proposed approach aims to provide additional layers of security and protection to computer systems, increasing their overall security beyond what is currently provided by single-password or standard two-factor authentication methods. The key difference is that the proposed system resembles …

Phishing, Irda Voli

Mathematics and Computer Science Capstones

Phishing is a cybercrime that involves a hacker identifying as a real person or institution that targets people over text message, phone calls, and emails. The hacker tries to scam the target into giving up personal information. People are targeted through text messages, phone calls, and emails. More recently in 2020 when covid became a major issue, phishing started becoming more and more popular for ways to scam. The messages became more specific, and job sites became more believable. According to article “Phishing Attacks Soar 220% During COVID-19 Peak as Cybercriminal Opportunism Intensifies”, David Warburton says:

COVID-19 continues to significantly …

Using Probabilistic Context-Free Grammar To Create Password Guessing Models, Isabelle Hjelden

Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal

This paper will discuss two versions of probabilistic context-free grammar password-guessing models. The first model focuses on using English semantics to break down passwords and identify patterns. The second model identifies repeating chunks in passwords and uses this information to create possible passwords. Then, we will show the performance of each model on leaked password databases, and finally discuss the observations made on these tests.

An Efficient Lightweight Provably Secure Authentication Protocol For Patient Monitoring Using Wireless Medical Sensor Networks, Garima Thakur, Sunil Prajapat, Pankaj Kumar, Ashok Kumar Das, Sachin Shetty

VMASC Publications

The refurbishing of conventional medical network with the wireless medical sensor network has not only amplified the efficiency of the network but concurrently posed different security threats. Previously, Servati and Safkhani had suggested an Internet of Things (IoT) based authentication scheme for the healthcare environment promulgating a secure protocol in resistance to several attacks. However, the analysis demonstrates that the protocol could not withstand user, server, and gateway node impersonation attacks. Further, the protocol fails to resist offline password guessing, ephemeral secret leakage, and gateway-by-passing attacks. To address the security weaknesses, we furnish a lightweight three-factor authentication framework employing the …

Apt Adversarial Defence Mechanism For Industrial Iot Enabled Cyber-Physical System, Safdar Hussain Javed, Maaz Bin Ahmad, Muhammad Asif, Waseem Akram, Khalid Mahmood, Ashok Kumar Das, Sachin Shetty

VMASC Publications

The objective of Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) attacks is to exploit Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) in combination with the Industrial Internet of Things (I-IoT) by using fast attack methods. Machine learning (ML) techniques have shown potential in identifying APT attacks in autonomous and malware detection systems. However, detecting hidden APT attacks in the I-IoT-enabled CPS domain and achieving real-time accuracy in detection present significant challenges for these techniques. To overcome these issues, a new approach is suggested that is based on the Graph Attention Network (GAN), a multi-dimensional algorithm that captures behavioral features along with the relevant information that other methods …

Unmasking Deception In Vanets: A Decentralized Approach To Verifying Truth In Motion, Susan Zehra, Syed R. Rizvi, Steven Olariu

College of Sciences Posters

VANET, which stands for "Vehicular Ad Hoc Network," is a wireless network that allows vehicles to communicate with each other and with infrastructure, such as Roadside Units (RSUs), with the aim of enhancing road safety and improving the overall driving experience through real-time exchange of information and data. VANET has various applications, including traffic management, road safety alerts, and navigation. However, the security of VANET can be compromised if a malicious user alters the content of messages transmitted, which can harm both individual vehicles and the overall trust in VANET technology. Ensuring the correctness of messages is crucial for the …

Verifytl: Secure And Verifiable Collaborative Transfer Learning, Zhuoran Ma, Jianfeng Ma, Yinbin Miao, Ximeng Liu, Wei Zheng, Kim-Kwang Raymond Choo, Robert H. Deng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Getting access to labeled datasets in certain sensitive application domains can be challenging. Hence, one may resort to transfer learning to transfer knowledge learned from a source domain with sufficient labeled data to a target domain with limited labeled data. However, most existing transfer learning techniques only focus on one-way transfer which may not benefit the source domain. In addition, there is the risk of a malicious adversary corrupting a number of domains, which can consequently result in inaccurate prediction or privacy leakage. In this paper, we construct a secure and Verif iable collaborative T ransfer L earning scheme, VerifyTL, …

Insecure Deserialization Detection In Python, Aneesh Verma

Master's Projects

The importance of Cyber Security is increasing every single day. From the emergence of new ransomware to major data breaches, the online world is getting dangerous. A multinational non- profit group devoted to online application security is called OWASP, or the Open Web Application Security Project. The OWASP Top 10 is a frequently updated report that highlights the ten most important vulnerabilities to web application security. Among these 10 vulnerabilities, there exists a vulnerability called Software and Data Integrity Failures. A subset of this vulnerability is Insecure Deserialization. An object is transformed into a stream of bytes through the serialization …

Reks: Role-Based Encrypted Keyword Search With Enhanced Access Control For Outsourced Cloud Data, Yibin Miao, Feng Li, Xiaohua Jia, Huaxiong Wang, Ximeng Liu, Kim-Kwang Raymond Choo, Robert H. Deng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Keyword-based search over encrypted data is an important technique to achieve both data confidentiality and utilization in cloud outsourcing services. While commonly used access control mechanisms, such as identity-based encryption and attribute-based encryption, do not generally scale well for hierarchical access permissions. To solve this problem, we propose a Role-based Encrypted Keyword Search (REKS) scheme by using the role-based access control and broadcast encryption. Specifically, REKS allows owners to deploy hierarchical access control by allowing users with parent roles to have access permissions from child roles. Using REKS, we further facilitate token generation preprocessing and efficient user management, thereby significantly …

Mitigation Of Cache Attacks On Cloud Services, Mudassiruddin Mohammed

All Student Theses

Cloud computing is frequently used due to its low cost and flexibility, but it also raises security issues to cloud service providers and customers. Cache attacks are a critical security risk in cloud computing. Cache attacks use weaknesses in cloud servers' cache memory to steal sensitive information, interrupt services, and decrease cloud performance. This study examines the many forms of cache attacks, their possible effects, and known mitigation measures. The study approach includes a review of current methods and their effectiveness in combating cache attack. The report also suggests future research topics for developing more effective and economical methods for …

Unlocking User Identity: A Study On Mouse Dynamics In Dual Gaming Environments For Continuous Authentication, Marcho Setiawan Handoko

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

With the surge in information management technology reliance and the looming presence of cyber threats, user authentication has become paramount in computer security. Traditional static or one-time authentication has its limitations, prompting the emergence of continuous authentication as a frontline approach for enhanced security. Continuous authentication taps into behavior-based metrics for ongoing user identity validation, predominantly utilizing machine learning techniques to continually model user behaviors. This study elucidates the potential of mouse movement dynamics as a key metric for continuous authentication. By examining mouse movement patterns across two contrasting gaming scenarios - the high-intensity "Team Fortress" and the low-intensity strategic …

Ranked Keyword Search Over Encrypted Cloud Data Through Machine Learning Method, Yinbin Miao, Wei Zheng, Xiaohua Jia, Ximeng Liu, Kim-Kwang Raymond Choo, Robert H. Deng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Ranked keyword search over encrypted data has been extensively studied in cloud computing as it enables data users to find the most relevant results quickly. However, existing ranked multi-keyword search solutions cannot achieve efficient ciphertext search and dynamic updates with forward security simultaneously. To solve the above problems, we first present a basic Machine Learning-based Ranked Keyword Search (ML-RKS) scheme in the static setting by using the k-means clustering algorithm and a balanced binary tree. ML-RKS reduces the search complexity without sacrificing the search accuracy, but is still vulnerable to forward security threats when applied in the dynamic setting. Then, …

A Review Of Iot Security And Privacy Using Decentralized Blockchain Techniques, Vinay Gugueoth, Sunitha Safavat, Sachin Shetty, Danda Rawat

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

IoT security is one of the prominent issues that has gained significant attention among the researchers in recent times. The recent advancements in IoT introduces various critical security issues and increases the risk of privacy leakage of IoT data. Implementation of Blockchain can be a potential solution for the security issues in IoT. This review deeply investigates the security threats and issues in IoT which deteriorates the effectiveness of IoT systems. This paper presents a perceptible description of the security threats, Blockchain based solutions, security characteristics and challenges introduced during the integration of Blockchain with IoT. An analysis of different …

Design Of Robust Blockchain-Envisioned Authenticated Key Management Mechanism For Smart Healthcare Applications, Siddhant Thapiyal, Mohammad Wazid, Devesh Pratap Singh, Ashok Kumar Das, Sachin Shetty

VMASC Publications

The healthcare sector is a very crucial and important sector of any society, and with the evolution of the various deployed technologies, like the Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning and blockchain it has numerous advantages. However, in this section, the data is much more vulnerable than others, because the data is strictly private and confidential, and it requires a highly secured framework for the transmission of data between entities. In this article, we aim to design a blockchain-envisioned authentication and key management mechanism for the IoMT-based smart healthcare applications (in short, we call it SBAKM-HS). We compare the various …

Security Of Internet Of Things (Iot) Using Federated Learning And Deep Learning — Recent Advancements, Issues And Prospects, Vinay Gugueoth, Sunitha Safavat, Sachin Shetty

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

There is a great demand for an efficient security framework which can secure IoT systems from potential adversarial attacks. However, it is challenging to design a suitable security model for IoT considering the dynamic and distributed nature of IoT. This motivates the researchers to focus more on investigating the role of machine learning (ML) in the designing of security models. A brief analysis of different ML algorithms for IoT security is discussed along with the advantages and limitations of ML algorithms. Existing studies state that ML algorithms suffer from the problem of high computational overhead and risk of privacy leakage. …

Witness-Authenticated Key Exchange, Kelsey G. Melissaris

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this dissertation we investigate Witness-Authenticated Key Exchange (WAKE), a key agreement protocol in which each party is authenticated through knowledge of a witness to an arbitrary NP statement. We provide both game-based and universally composable definitions. Thereby, this thesis presents solutions for the most flexible and general method of authentication for group key exchange, providing simple constructions from (succinct) signatures of knowledge (SOK) and a two round UC-secure protocol.

After a discussion of flaws in previous definitions for WAKE we supply a new and improved game-based definition along with the first definition for witness-authenticated key exchange between groups of …

Code Cyber: A Curated Collection Of Cybersecurity Career Learning And Preparation Resources, Kazi Tasin, Ethan Pruzhansky, Jason Lin, Tanvir Rahman, Patrick J. Slattery

Publications and Research

Since we are living in a digital age, the need to protect ourselves and those who are vulnerable to cyber-attacks is paramount to prevent cyber attacks that steal information such as banking accounts and important sensitive information.

Our research team extensively investigated the five aspects of cybersecurity such as identity, protection, detection, and response. By conducting various interviews with cybersecurity professionals, we gathered information about these five aspects for example security intelligence or security operations and response, (thread hunting, response orchestration) identity access management, (identity management, and data protection), and risks (risk perspective). Our main goal is to look into …

Formal Verification Applications For The Treekem Continuous Group Key Agreement Protocol, Alexander J. Washburn

Theses and Dissertations

The features of Secure Group Messaging, the security guarantees of Message Layer Security, and the TreeKEM protocol designed to satisfy these guarantees and features are explored. A motivation and methodology for verification via explicit model checking is presented. Subsequently, a translation of the TreeKEM protocol into a Promela reference model is described, examining the nuances explicit model checking brings. Finally the results of the formal verification methods are discussed.

Security Simulations In Undergraduate Education: A Review, Joseph Simpson, Aaron Brantly

Journal of Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

Several decades of research in simulation and gamification in higher education shows that simulations are highly effective in improving a range of outcomes for students including declarative knowledge and interest in the topic being taught. While there appears to be a broad array of options to provide education in an undergraduate setting related to security, no previous reviews have explored computer-based simulations covering all facets of security. Given the increasing importance and adoption of interdisciplinary educational programs, it is important to take stock of simulations as a tool to broaden the range of problems, perspectives, and solutions presented to students. …

Using Blockchain To Improve Security Of The Internet Of Things, Joshua W. Quist

Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal

The Internet of Things has increased in popularity in recent years, with daily life now being surrounded by “smart devices.” This network of smart devices, such as thermostats, refrigerators, and even stationary bikes affords us convenience, but at a cost. Security measures are typically inferior on these devices; considering that they collect our data around the clock, this is a big reason for concern. Recent research shows that blockchain technology may be one way to address these security concerns. This paper discusses the Internet of Things and the current issues with how security is handled, discusses how blockchain can shore …

Online Privacy Challenges And Their Forensic Solutions, Bandr Fakiha

Journal of the Arab American University مجلة الجامعة العربية الامريكية للبحوث

In the digital age, internet users are exposed to privacy issues online. Few rarely know when someone else is eavesdropping or about to scam them. Companies, governments, and individual internet users are all vulnerable to security breaches due to the challenges of online privacy ranging from trust and hierarchical control to financial losses. As systems advance, people are optimistic that forensic science will provide long-term interventions that surpass the current solutions, including setting stronger passwords and firewall protection. The future of online privacy is changing, and more practical interventions, such as email, malware, mobile, and network forensics, must be integrated, …