Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Unleashing The Power Of Internet Of Things And Blockchain: A Comprehensive Analysis And Future Directions, Abderahman Rejeb, Karim Rejeb, Andrea Appolloni, Sandeep Jagtap, Mohammad Iranmanesh, Salem Alghamdi, Yaser Alhasawi, Yasanur Kayikci

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

As the fusion of the Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain technology advances, it is increasingly shaping diverse fields. The potential of this convergence to fortify security, enhance privacy, and streamline operations has ignited considerable academic interest, resulting in an impressive body of literature. However, there is a noticeable scarcity of studies employing Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) to dissect and categorize this field. This review paper endeavours to bridge this gap by meticulously analysing a dataset of 4455 journal articles drawn solely from the Scopus database, cantered around IoT and blockchain applications. Utilizing LDA, we have extracted 14 distinct topics …

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 …

A Provable Secure And Efficient Authentication Framework For Smart Manufacturing Industry, Muhammad Hammad, Akhtar Badshah, Ghulam Abbas, Hisham Alasmary, Muhammad Waqas, Wasim A. Khan

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Smart manufacturing is transforming the manufacturing industry by enhancing productivity and quality, driving growth in the global economy. The Internet of Things (IoT) has played a crucial role in realizing Industry 4.0, where machines can communicate and interact in real-time. Despite these advancements, security remains a major challenge in developing and deploying smart manufacturing. As cyber-attacks become more prevalent, researchers are making security a top priority. Although IoT and Industrial IoT (IIoT) are used to establish smart industries, these systems remain vulnerable to various types of attacks. To address these security issues, numerous authentication methods have been proposed. However, many …

A Review On Security Issues And Solutions Of The Internet Of Drones, Wencheng Yang, Song Wang, Xuefei Yin, Xu Wang, Jiankun Hu

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The Internet of Drones (IoD) has attracted increasing attention in recent years because of its portability and automation, and is being deployed in a wide range of fields (e.g., military, rescue and entertainment). Nevertheless, as a result of the inherently open nature of radio transmission paths in the IoD, data collected, generated or handled by drones is plagued by many security concerns. Since security and privacy are among the foremost challenges for the IoD, in this paper we conduct a comprehensive review on security issues and solutions for IoD security, discussing IoD-related security requirements and identifying the latest advancement in …

Edge-Iiotset: A New Comprehensive Realistic Cyber Security Dataset Of Iot And Iiot Applications For Centralized And Federated Learning, Mohamed A. Ferrag, Othmane Friha, Djallel Hamouda, Leandros Maglaras, Helge Janicke

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

In this paper, we propose a new comprehensive realistic cyber security dataset of IoT and IIoT applications, called Edge-IIoTset, which can be used by machine learning-based intrusion detection systems in two different modes, namely, centralized and federated learning. Specifically, the dataset has been generated using a purpose-built IoT/IIoT testbed with a large representative set of devices, sensors, protocols and cloud/edge configurations. The IoT data are generated from various IoT devices (more than 10 types) such as Low-cost digital sensors for sensing temperature and humidity, Ultrasonic sensor, Water level detection sensor, pH Sensor Meter, Soil Moisture sensor, Heart Rate Sensor, Flame …

Digital Forensic Readiness In Operational Cloud Leveraging Iso/Iec 27043 Guidelines On Security Monitoring, Sheunesu Makura, H. S. Venter, Victor R. Kebande, Nickson M. Karie, Richard A. Ikuesan, Sadi Alawadi

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

An increase in the use of cloud computing technologies by organizations has led to cybercriminals targeting cloud environments to orchestrate malicious attacks. Conversely, this has led to the need for proactive approaches through the use of digital forensic readiness (DFR). Existing studies have attempted to develop proactive prototypes using diverse agent-based solutions that are capable of extracting a forensically sound potential digital evidence. As a way to address this limitation and further evaluate the degree of PDE relevance in an operational platform, this study sought to develop a prototype in an operational cloud environment to achieve DFR in the cloud. …

Biometrics For Internet‐Of‐Things Security: A Review, Wencheng Yang, Song Wang, Nor Masri Sahri, Nickson M. Karie, Mohiuddin Ahmed, Craig Valli

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The large number of Internet‐of‐Things (IoT) devices that need interaction between smart devices and consumers makes security critical to an IoT environment. Biometrics offers an interesting window of opportunity to improve the usability and security of IoT and can play a significant role in securing a wide range of emerging IoT devices to address security challenges. The purpose of this review is to provide a comprehensive survey on the current biometrics research in IoT security, especially focusing on two important aspects, authentication and encryption. Regarding authentication, contemporary biometric‐based authentication systems for IoT are discussed and classified based on different biometric …

A Review Of Security Standards And Frameworks For Iot-Based Smart Environments, Nickson M. Karie, Nor Masri Sahri, Wencheng Yang, Craig Valli, Victor R. Kebande

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Assessing the security of IoT-based smart environments such as smart homes and smart cities is becoming fundamentally essential to implementing the correct control measures and effectively reducing security threats and risks brought about by deploying IoT-based smart technologies. The problem, however, is in finding security standards and assessment frameworks that best meets the security requirements as well as comprehensively assesses and exposes the security posture of IoT-based smart environments. To explore this gap, this paper presents a review of existing security standards and assessment frameworks which also includes several NIST special publications on security techniques highlighting their primary areas of …

Denial Of Service Attack Detection Through Machine Learning For The Iot, Naeem Firdous Syed, Zubair Baig, Ahmed Ibrahim, Craig Valli

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Sustained Internet of Things (IoT) deployment and functioning are heavily reliant on the use of effective data communication protocols. In the IoT landscape, the publish/subscribe-based Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) protocol is popular. Cyber security threats against the MQTT protocol are anticipated to increase at par with its increasing use by IoT manufacturers. In particular, IoT is vulnerable to protocol-based Application layer Denial of Service (DoS) attacks, which have been known to cause widespread service disruption in legacy systems. In this paper, we propose an Application layer DoS attack detection framework for the MQTT protocol and test the scheme on …

Intelligent Building Systems: Security And Facility Professionals’ Understanding Of System Threats,Vulnerabilities And Mitigation Practice, David J. Brooks, Michael Coole, Paul Haskell-Dowland

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Intelligent Buildings or Building Automation and Control Systems (BACS) are becoming common in buildings, driven by the commercial need for functionality, sharing of information, reduced costs and sustainable buildings. The facility manager often has BACS responsibility; however, their focus is generally not on BACS security. Nevertheless, if a BACS-manifested threat is realised, the impact to a building can be significant, through denial, loss or manipulation of the building and its services, resulting in loss of information or occupancy. Therefore, this study garnered a descriptive understanding of security and facility professionals’ knowledge of BACS, including vulnerabilities and mitigation practices. Results indicate …

Security And Accuracy Of Fingerprint-Based Biometrics: A Review, Wencheng Yang, Song Wang, Jiankun Hu, Guanglou Zhang, Craig Valli

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Biometric systems are increasingly replacing traditional password- and token-based authentication systems. Security and recognition accuracy are the two most important aspects to consider in designing a biometric system. In this paper, a comprehensive review is presented to shed light on the latest developments in the study of fingerprint-based biometrics covering these two aspects with a view to improving system security and recognition accuracy. Based on a thorough analysis and discussion, limitations of existing research work are outlined and suggestions for future work are provided. It is shown in the paper that researchers continue to face challenges in tackling the two …

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 …

An Investigation Into Trust And Security In The Mandatory And Imposed Use Of Financial Icts Upon Older People, David Michael Cook

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Care needs to be taken to reduce the number of people who are fearful and mistrustful of using ICT where that usage is forced upon them without choice or alternative. The growing incidence of mandatory and imposed online systems can result in confusion, misuse, fear, and rejection by people with only rudimentary ICT skills. A cohort where a high percentage of such people occur is older people, defined in this study as people over the age of 60 Examples of compulsory ICT interactions include some banks limiting bank statement access through online rather than paper-based options. Other examples include the …

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 …

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 …

Evaluating Ip Surveillance Camera Vulnerabilities, Brian Cusack, Zhuang Tian

Australian Information Security Management Conference

Hacking of IP surveillance camera systems came to public attention in 2016 when the high bandwidth and resources were exploited for a massive DDoS attack that affected one third of all US Internet services. A review of previous studies show that a vast number of IP cameras have been hacked because the default usernames and passwords have not been changed from the factory defaults. In this research we asked, What are the vulnerabilities of an IP surveillance camera? The purpose of the study was to provide identification of vulnerabilities and guidance for the protection of surveillance camera systems. The research …

Neurosecurity For Brainware Devices, Brian Cusack, Kaushik Sundararajan, Reza Khaleghparast

Australian Information Security Management Conference

Brainware has a long history of development down into the present day where very simple and usable devices are available to train for the control of games and services. One of the big areas of application has been in the health sciences to provide compensatory control to humans who may lack the usual capabilities. Our concern has been the protection of information in brainware so that a human intention may have confidentiality, integrity, and accessibility to the required implementation mechanisms for services. The research question was: What are the consequences of security failure in brainware? Our research tested a brainware …

The Proceedings Of 15th Australian Information Security Management Conference, 5-6 December, 2017, Edith Cowan University, Perth, Australia, Craig Valli (Ed.)

Australian Information Security Management Conference

Conference Foreword

The annual Security Congress, run by the Security Research Institute at Edith Cowan University, includes the Australian Information Security and Management Conference. Now in its fifteenth year, the conference remains popular for its diverse content and mixture of technical research and discussion papers. The area of information security and management continues to be varied, as is reflected by the wide variety of subject matter covered by the papers this year. The papers cover topics from vulnerabilities in “Internet of Things” protocols through to improvements in biometric identification algorithms and surveillance camera weaknesses. The conference has drawn interest and …

A Survey Of Social Media Users Privacy Settings & Information Disclosure, Mashael Aljohani, Alastair Nisbet, Kelly Blincoe

Australian Information Security Management Conference

This research utilises a comprehensive survey to ascertain the level of social networking site personal information disclosure by members at the time of joining the membership and their subsequent postings to the sites. Areas examined are the type of information they reveal, their level of knowledge and awareness regarding how their information is protected by SNSs and the awareness of risks that over-sharing may pose. Additionally, this research studies the effect of gender, age, education, and level of privacy concern on the amount and kind of personal information disclosure and privacy settings applied. A social experiment was then run for …

A Forensic Examination Of Several Mobile Device Faraday Bags & Materials To Test Their Effectiveness, Ashleigh Lennox-Steele, Alastair Nisbet

Australian Digital Forensics Conference

A Faraday bag is designed to shield a mobile phone or small digital device from radio waves entering the bag and reaching the device, or to stop radio waves escaping through the bag from the device. The effectiveness of these shields is vital for security professionals and forensic investigators who seize devices and wish to ensure that their contents are not read, modified or deleted prior to a forensic examination. This research tests the effectiveness of several readily available Faraday bags. The Faraday bags tested are all available through online means and promise complete blocking of all signals through the …

An Analysis Of Chosen Alarm Code Pin Numbers & Their Weakness Against A Modified Brute Force Attack, Alastair Nisbet, Maria Kim

Australian Information Security Management Conference

Home and commercial alarms are an integral physical security measure that have become so commonplace that little thought is given to the security that they may or may not provide. Whilst the focus has shifted from physical security in the past to cyber security in the present, physical security for protecting assets may be just as important for many business organisations. This research looks at 700 genuine alarm PIN codes chosen by users to arm and disarm alarm systems in a commercial environment. A comparison is made with a study of millions of PIN numbers unrelated to alarms to compare …

A Privacy Gap Around The Internet Of Things For Open-Source Projects, Brian Cusack, Reza Khaleghparast

Australian Information Security Management Conference

The Internet of Things (IoT) is having a more important role in the everyday lives of people. The distribution of connectivity across social and personal interaction discloses personalised information and gives access to a sphere of sensitivities that were previously masked. Privacy measures and security to protect personal sensitivities are weak and in their infancy. In this paper we review the issue of privacy in the context of IoT open-source projects, and the IoT security concerns. A proposal is made to create a privacy bubble around the interoperability of devices and systems and a filter layer to mitigate the exploitation …

Optical Fiber Sensors In Physical Intrusion Detection Systems: A Review, Gary Andrew Allwood, Graham Wild, Steven Hinkley

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Fiber optic sensors have become a mainstream sensing technology within a large array of applications due to their inherent benefits. They are now used significantly in structural health monitoring, and are an essential solution for monitoring harsh environments. Since their first development over 30 years ago, they have also found promise in security applications. This paper reviews all of the optical fiber-based techniques used in physical intrusion detection systems. It details the different approaches used for sensing, interrogation, and networking, by research groups, attempting to secure both commercial and residential premises from physical security breaches. The advantages and the disadvantages …

Using Graphic Methods To Challenge Cryptographic Performance, Brian Cusack, Erin Chapman

Australian Information Security Management Conference

Block and stream ciphers have formed the traditional basis for the standardisation of commercial ciphers in the DES, AES, RC4, and so on. More recently alternative graphic methods such as Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) have been adopted for performance gains. In this research we reviewed a range of graphic and non-graphic methods and then designed our own cipher system based on several graphic methods, including Visual Cryptography (VC). We then tested our cipher against RC4 and the AES algorithms for performance and security. The results showed that a graphics based construct may deliver comparable or improved security and performance in …

Establishing Effective And Economical Traffic Surveillance In Tonga, Brian Cusack, George Maeakafa

Australian Digital Forensics Conference

The Pacific Islands are seriously challenged by the growth in wealth and the expansion of international material possessions. On the roads traffic has grown dramatically and the types of vehicles now using Island roads has greatly changed. With the importation of cheap second hand vehicles designed for freeway speeds serious safety issues have grown proportionally with the increasing numbers. In this research we consider the prohibitive costs of traditional traffic controls to economy and propose a light weight highly mobile aerial surveillance system that integrates with ground policing capability. Our research question was: How can road safety and security be …

The Corporate Security Stratum Of Work: Identifying Levels Of Work In The Domain, Codee Roy Ludbey

Theses : Honours

Corporate security is a practicing domain and developing academic discipline that provides for the protection of people, information and assets, as well as the self-protection of organisations. Fayol (1949) articulated such an activity within organisations to be a core business function of significant importance; embedding security operations within all aspects of organisational work. This embedded nature of security within organisations has led to difficulty in the literature delineating roles and responsibilities of security practitioners; consequently leading to a nebulous understanding of security as a whole. Therefore, an investigation of the corporate security stratum of work has been undertaken to address …

Evaluating Single Sign On Security Failure In Cloud Services, Brian Cusack, Eghbal Zadeh

Australian Information Security Management Conference

The business use of cloud computing services is motivated by the ease of use and the potential financial cost reductions. Service failure may occur when the service provider does not protect information or when the use of the services becomes overly complex and difficult. The benefits also bring optimisation challenges for the information owners who must assess the service security risk and the degree to which new human behaviours are required. In this research we look at the risk of identity theft when ease of service access is provided through a Single Sign On (SSO) authorisation and ask: What are …

The Challeges In Implementing Security In Spontaneous Ad Hoc Networks, Alastair Nisbet

Australian Information Security Management Conference

Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETS) promise much in the ability to rapidly deploy a wireless network in a fashion where no prior planning is needed and the network can be running efficiently and with high security within minutes. Natural disaster response, military, education and business provide areas where MANETS can offer significant advantages in communication where infrastructure networks may take days to set up or may be impossible to implement. This research reviews a selection of MANET protocols to show the progression of the research and the issues that are yet to be addressed. It discusses the challenges to researchers …

Evaluating Policy Layer Security Controls For Value Realisation In Secure Systems, Brian Cusack, Maher Al-Khazrajy

Australian Information Security Management Conference

A strategic question for any business is: What value do control frameworks give? The question concerns the costs associated with implementing and maintaining control frameworks compared with the benefits gained. Each control framework contains many controls that may or may not benefit a situation and this research is aimed at testing different selections and combinations of controls to forecast probable impacts on business outcomes. The scope of the research is limited to a representative set of security controls and the lesser question: What are the criteria for selecting the most effective and efficient security control configurations for best business value? …

Ransomware: Emergence Of The Cyber-Extortion Menace, Nikolai Hampton, Zubair A. Baig

Australian Information Security Management Conference

Ransomware is increasingly posing a threat to the security of information resources. Millions of dollars of monetary loss have been afflicted on end-users and corporations alike through unlawful deployment of ransomware. Through malware injection into end-user devices and subsequent extortion of their system or data, ransomware has emerged as a threat requiring immediate attention and containment by the cyber-security community. We conduct a detailed analysis of the steps of execution involved in ransomware deployment to facilitate readiness of the cyber-security community in containing the rapid proliferation of ransomware. This paper examines the evolution of malware over a period of 26 …