Information Security Commons^™

An Optimized And Scalable Blockchain-Based Distributed Learning Platform For Consumer Iot, Zhaocheng Wang, Xueying Liu, Xinming Shao, Abdullah Alghamdi, Md. Shirajum Munir, Sujit Biswas

School of Cybersecurity Faculty Publications

Consumer Internet of Things (CIoT) manufacturers seek customer feedback to enhance their products and services, creating a smart ecosystem, like a smart home. Due to security and privacy concerns, blockchain-based federated learning (BCFL) ecosystems can let CIoT manufacturers update their machine learning (ML) models using end-user data. Federated learning (FL) uses privacy-preserving ML techniques to forecast customers' needs and consumption habits, and blockchain replaces the centralized aggregator to safeguard the ecosystem. However, blockchain technology (BCT) struggles with scalability and quick ledger expansion. In BCFL, local model generation and secure aggregation are other issues. This research introduces a novel architecture, emphasizing …

Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Exploratory Cyber-Physical Safety Analyzer Framework For Civilian Urban Air Mobility, Md. Shirajum Munir, Sumit Howlader Dipro, Kamrul Hasan, Tariqul Islam, Sachin Shetty

VMASC Publications

Urban air mobility (UAM) has become a potential candidate for civilization for serving smart citizens, such as through delivery, surveillance, and air taxis. However, safety concerns have grown since commercial UAM uses a publicly available communication infrastructure that enhances the risk of jamming and spoofing attacks to steal or crash crafts in UAM. To protect commercial UAM from cyberattacks and theft, this work proposes an artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled exploratory cyber-physical safety analyzer framework. The proposed framework devises supervised learning-based AI schemes such as decision tree, random forests, logistic regression, K-nearest neighbors (KNN), and long short-term memory (LSTM) for predicting and …

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. …

A Survey Of Using Machine Learning In Iot Security And The Challenges Faced By Researchers, Khawlah M. Harahsheh, Chung-Hao Chen

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

The Internet of Things (IoT) has become more popular in the last 15 years as it has significantly improved and gained control in multiple fields. We are nowadays surrounded by billions of IoT devices that directly integrate with our lives, some of them are at the center of our homes, and others control sensitive data such as military fields, healthcare, and datacenters, among others. This popularity makes factories and companies compete to produce and develop many types of those devices without caring about how secure they are. On the other hand, IoT is considered a good insecure environment for cyber …

Divide-And-Conquer Distributed Learning: Privacy-Preserving Offloading Of Neural Network Computations, Lewis C.L. Brown

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Machine learning has become a highly utilized technology to perform decision making on high dimensional data. As dataset sizes have become increasingly large so too have the neural networks to learn the complex patterns hidden within. This expansion has continued to the degree that it may be infeasible to train a model from a singular device due to computational or memory limitations of underlying hardware. Purpose built computing clusters for training large models are commonplace while access to networks of heterogeneous devices is still typically more accessible. In addition, with the rise of 5G networks, computation at the edge becoming …

Right To Know, Right To Refuse: Towards Ui Perception-Based Automated Fine-Grained Permission Controls For Android Apps, Vikas Kumar Malviya, Chee Wei Leow, Ashok Kasthuri, Naing Tun Yan, Lwin Khin Shar, Lingxiao Jiang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

It is the basic right of a user to know how the permissions are used within the Android app’s scope and to refuse the app if granted permissions are used for the activities other than specified use which can amount to malicious behavior. This paper proposes an approach and a vision to automatically model the permissions necessary for Android apps from users’ perspective and enable fine-grained permission controls by users, thus facilitating users in making more well-informed and flexible permission decisions for different app functionalities, which in turn improve the security and data privacy of the App and enforce apps …

Dataset Evaluation For Data Trading Using Expected Loss And Homomorphic Encryption, Minsung Joo

Senior Honors Papers / Undergraduate Theses

Supervised machine learning suffers from the ``garbage-in garbage-out" phenomenon where the performance of a model is limited by the quality of the data. While a myriad of data is collected every second, there is no general rigorous method of evaluating the quality of a given dataset. This hinders fair pricing of data in scenarios where a buyer may look to buy data for use with machine learning. In this work, I propose using the expected loss corresponding to a dataset as a measure of its quality, relying on Bayesian methods for uncertainty quantification. Furthermore, I present a secure multi-party computation …

Structure-Aware Visualization Retrieval, Haotian Li, Yong Wang, Aoyu Wu, Huan Wei, Huamin. Qu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

With the wide usage of data visualizations, a huge number of Scalable Vector Graphic (SVG)-based visualizations have been created and shared online. Accordingly, there has been an increasing interest in exploring how to retrieve perceptually similar visualizations from a large corpus, since it can benefit various downstream applications such as visualization recommendation. Existing methods mainly focus on the visual appearance of visualizations by regarding them as bitmap images. However, the structural information intrinsically existing in SVG-based visualizations is ignored. Such structural information can delineate the spatial and hierarchical relationship among visual elements, and characterize visualizations thoroughly from a new perspective. …

Deapsecure Computational Training For Cybersecurity: Third-Year Improvements And Impacts, Bahador Dodge, Jacob Strother, Rosby Asiamah, Karina Arcaute, Wirawan Purwanto, Masha Sosonkina, Hongyi Wu

Modeling, Simulation and Visualization Student Capstone Conference

The Data-Enabled Advanced Training Program for Cybersecurity Research and Education (DeapSECURE) was introduced in 2018 as a non-degree training consisting of six modules covering a broad range of cyberinfrastructure techniques, including high performance computing, big data, machine learning and advanced cryptography, aimed at reducing the gap between current cybersecurity curricula and requirements needed for advanced research and industrial projects. By its third year, DeapSECURE, like many other educational endeavors, experienced abrupt changes brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. The training had to be retooled to adapt to fully online delivery. Hands-on activities were reformatted to accommodate self-paced learning. In this paper, …

Automated Reverse Engineering Of Role-Based Access Control Policies Of Web Applications, Ha Thanh Le, Lwin Khin Shar, Domenico Bianculli, Lionel C. Briand, Cu Duy Nguyen

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Access control (AC) is an important security mechanism used in software systems to restrict access to sensitive resources. Therefore, it is essential to validate the correctness of AC implementations with respect to policy specifications or intended access rights. However, in practice, AC policy specifications are often missing or poorly documented; in some cases, AC policies are hard-coded in business logic implementations. This leads to difficulties in validating the correctness of policy implementations and detecting AC defects.In this paper, we present a semi-automated framework for reverse-engineering of AC policies from Web applications. Our goal is to learn and recover role-based access …

A Predictive Model To Predict Cyberattack Using Self-Normalizing Neural Networks, Oluwapelumi Eniodunmo

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Cyberattack is a never-ending war that has greatly threatened secured information systems. The development of automated and intelligent systems provides more computing power to hackers to steal information, destroy data or system resources, and has raised global security issues. Statistical and Data mining tools have received continuous research and improvements. These tools have been adopted to create sophisticated intrusion detection systems that help information systems mitigate and defend against cyberattacks. However, the advancement in technology and accessibility of information makes more identifiable elements that can be used to gain unauthorized access to systems and resources. Data mining and classification tools …

Post-Quantum Secure Identity-Based Encryption Scheme Using Random Integer Lattices For Iot-Enabled Ai Applications, Dharminder Dharminder, Ashok Kumar Das, Sourav Saha, Basudeb Bera, Athanasios V. Vasilakos

VMASC Publications

Identity-based encryption is an important cryptographic system that is employed to ensure confidentiality of a message in communication. This article presents a provably secure identity based encryption based on post quantum security assumption. The security of the proposed encryption is based on the hard problem, namely Learning with Errors on integer lattices. This construction is anonymous and produces pseudo random ciphers. Both public-key size and ciphertext-size have been reduced in the proposed encryption as compared to those for other relevant schemes without compromising the security. Next, we incorporate the constructed identity based encryption (IBE) for Internet of Things (IoT) applications, …

Faking Sensor Noise Information, Justin Chang

Master's Projects

Noise residue detection in digital images has recently been used as a method to classify images based on source camera model type. The meteoric rise in the popularity of using Neural Network models has also been used in conjunction with the concept of noise residuals to classify source camera models. However, many papers gloss over the details on the methods of obtaining noise residuals and instead rely on the self- learning aspect of deep neural networks to implicitly discover this themselves. For this project I propose a method of obtaining noise residuals (“noiseprints”) and denoising an image, as well as …

Camouflaged Poisoning Attack On Graph Neural Networks, Chao Jiang, Yi He, Richard Chapman, Hongyi Wu

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Graph neural networks (GNNs) have enabled the automation of many web applications that entail node classification on graphs, such as scam detection in social media and event prediction in service networks. Nevertheless, recent studies revealed that the GNNs are vulnerable to adversarial attacks, where feeding GNNs with poisoned data at training time can lead them to yield catastrophically devastative test accuracy. This finding heats up the frontier of attacks and defenses against GNNs. However, the prior studies mainly posit that the adversaries can enjoy free access to manipulate the original graph, while obtaining such access could be too costly in …

Privacy-Preserving Cloud-Assisted Data Analytics, Wei Bao

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Nowadays industries are collecting a massive and exponentially growing amount of data that can be utilized to extract useful insights for improving various aspects of our life. Data analytics (e.g., via the use of machine learning) has been extensively applied to make important decisions in various real world applications. However, it is challenging for resource-limited clients to analyze their data in an efficient way when its scale is large. Additionally, the data resources are increasingly distributed among different owners. Nonetheless, users' data may contain private information that needs to be protected.

Cloud computing has become more and more popular in …

Achieving Differential Privacy And Fairness In Machine Learning, Depeng Xu

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Machine learning algorithms are used to make decisions in various applications, such as recruiting, lending and policing. These algorithms rely on large amounts of sensitive individual information to work properly. Hence, there are sociological concerns about machine learning algorithms on matters like privacy and fairness. Currently, many studies only focus on protecting individual privacy or ensuring fairness of algorithms separately without taking consideration of their connection. However, there are new challenges arising in privacy preserving and fairness-aware machine learning. On one hand, there is fairness within the private model, i.e., how to meet both privacy and fairness requirements simultaneously in …

Deapsecure Computational Training For Cybersecurity Students: Improvements, Mid-Stage Evaluation, And Lessons Learned, Wirawan Purwanto, Yuming He, Jewel Ossom, Qiao Zhang, Liuwan Zhu, Karina Arcaute, Masha Sosonkina, Hongyi Wu

University Administration Publications

DeapSECURE is a non-degree computational training program that provides a solid high-performance computing (HPC) and big-data foundation for cybersecurity students. DeapSECURE consists of six modules covering a broad spectrum of topics such as HPC platforms, big-data analytics, machine learning, privacy-preserving methods, and parallel programming. In the second year of this program, to improve the learning experience, we implemented a number of changes, such as grouping modules into two broad categories, "big-data" and "HPC"; creating a single cybersecurity storyline across the modules; and introducing post-workshop (optional) "hackshops." Two major goals of these changes are, firstly, to effectively engage students to maintain …

A Methodology For Detecting Credit Card Fraud, Kayode Ayorinde

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Fraud detection has appertained to many industries such as banking, retails, financial services, healthcare, etc. As we know, fraud detection is a set of campaigns undertaken to avert the acquisition of illegal means to obtain money or property under false pretense. With an unlimited and growing number of ways fraudsters commit fraud crimes, detecting online fraud was so tricky to achieve. This research work aims to examine feasible ways to identify credit card fraudulent activities that negatively impact financial institutes. In the United States, an average of U.S consumers lost a median of $429 from credit card fraud in 2017, …

Improving A Wireless Localization System Via Machine Learning Techniques And Security Protocols, Zachary Yorio

Masters Theses, 2020-current

The recent advancements made in Internet of Things (IoT) devices have brought forth new opportunities for technologies and systems to be integrated into our everyday life. In this work, we investigate how edge nodes can effectively utilize 802.11 wireless beacon frames being broadcast from pre-existing access points in a building to achieve room-level localization. We explain the needed hardware and software for this system and demonstrate a proof of concept with experimental data analysis. Improvements to localization accuracy are shown via machine learning by implementing the random forest algorithm. Using this algorithm, historical data can train the model and make …

Walls Have Ears: Eavesdropping User Behaviors Via Graphics-Interrupt-Based Side Channel, Haoyu Ma, Jianwen Tian, Debin Gao, Jia Chunfu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) are now playing a vital role in many devices and systems including computing devices, data centers, and clouds, making them the next target of side-channel attacks. Unlike those targeting CPUs, existing side-channel attacks on GPUs exploited vulnerabilities exposed by application interfaces like OpenGL and CUDA, which can be easily mitigated with software patches. In this paper, we investigate the lower-level and native interface between GPUs and CPUs, i.e., the graphics interrupts, and evaluate the side channel they expose. Being an intrinsic profile in the communication between a GPU and a CPU, the pattern of graphics interrupts …

Superb: Superior Behavior-Based Anomaly Detection Defining Authorized Users' Traffic Patterns, Daniel Karasek

Master of Science in Computer Science Theses

Network anomalies are correlated to activities that deviate from regular behavior patterns in a network, and they are undetectable until their actions are defined as malicious. Current work in network anomaly detection includes network-based and host-based intrusion detection systems. However, network anomaly detection schemes can suffer from high false detection rates due to the base rate fallacy. When the detection rate is less than the false positive rate, which is found in network anomaly detection schemes working with live data, a high false detection rate can occur. To overcome such a drawback, this paper proposes a superior behavior-based anomaly detection …

The Future Of Work Now: Cyber Threat Attribution At Fireeye, Thomas H. Davenport, Steven M. Miller

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

One of the most frequently-used phrases at business events these days is “the future of work.” It’s increasingly clear that artificial intelligence and other new technologies will bring substantial changes in work tasks and business processes. But while these changes are predicted for the future, they’re already present in many organizations for many different jobs. The job and incumbent described below is an example of this phenomenon. It’s a clear example of an existing job that’s been transformed by AI and related tools.

Applications Of Machine Learning To Threat Intelligence, Intrusion Detection And Malware, Charity Barker

Senior Honors Theses

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are emerging technologies with applications to many fields. This paper is a survey of use cases of ML for threat intelligence, intrusion detection, and malware analysis and detection. Threat intelligence, especially attack attribution, can benefit from the use of ML classification. False positives from rule-based intrusion detection systems can be reduced with the use of ML models. Malware analysis and classification can be made easier by developing ML frameworks to distill similarities between the malicious programs. Adversarial machine learning will also be discussed, because while ML can be used to solve problems or …

Data Mining Of Chinese Social Networks: Factors That Indicate Post Deletion, Meisam Navaki Arefi

Computer Science ETDs

Widespread Chinese social media applications such as Sina Weibo (Chinese Twitter), the most popular social network in China, are widely known for monitoring and deleting posts to conform to Chinese government requirements. Censorship of Chinese social media is a complex process that involves many factors. There are multiple stakeholders and many different interests: economic, political, legal, personal, etc., which means that there is not a single strategy dictated by a single government authority. Moreover, sometimes Chinese social media do not follow the directives of government, out of concern that they are more strictly censoring than their competitors.

One crucial question …

Countering Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities In The Power System, Fengli Zhang

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Security vulnerabilities in software pose an important threat to power grid security, which can be exploited by attackers if not properly addressed. Every month, many vulnerabilities are discovered and all the vulnerabilities must be remediated in a timely manner to reduce the chance of being exploited by attackers. In current practice, security operators have to manually analyze each vulnerability present in their assets and determine the remediation actions in a short time period, which involves a tremendous amount of human resources for electric utilities. To solve this problem, we propose a machine learning-based automation framework to automate vulnerability analysis and …

Intelligent Log Analysis For Anomaly Detection, Steven Yen

Master's Projects

Computer logs are a rich source of information that can be analyzed to detect various issues. The large volumes of logs limit the effectiveness of manual approaches to log analysis. The earliest automated log analysis tools take a rule-based approach, which can only detect known issues with existing rules. On the other hand, anomaly detection approaches can detect new or unknown issues. This is achieved by looking for unusual behavior different from the norm, often utilizing machine learning (ML) or deep learning (DL) models. In this project, we evaluated various ML and DL techniques used for log anomaly detection. We …

Machine Learning Versus Deep Learning For Malware Detection, Parth Jain

Master's Projects

It is often claimed that the primary advantage of deep learning is that such models can continue to learn as more data is available, provided that sufficient computing power is available for training. In contrast, for other forms of machine learning it is claimed that models ‘‘saturate,’’ in the sense that no additional learning can occur beyond some point, regardless of the amount of data or computing power available. In this research, we compare the accuracy of deep learning to other forms of machine learning for malware detection, as a function of the training dataset size. We experiment with a …

Multifamily Malware Models, Samanvitha Basole

Master's Projects

When training a machine learning model, there is likely to be a tradeoff between the accuracy of the model and the generality of the dataset. Previous research has shown that if we train a model to detect one specific malware family, we obtain stronger results as compared to a case where we train a single model on multiple diverse families. During the detection phase, it would be more efficient to have a single model that could detect multiple families, rather than having to score each sample against multiple models. In this research, we conduct experiments to quantify the relationship between …

Evaluating Machine Learning Techniques For Smart Home Device Classification, Angelito E. Aragon Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

Smart devices in the Internet of Things (IoT) have transformed the management of personal and industrial spaces. Leveraging inexpensive computing, smart devices enable remote sensing and automated control over a diverse range of processes. Even as IoT devices provide numerous benefits, it is vital that their emerging security implications are studied. IoT device design typically focuses on cost efficiency and time to market, leading to limited built-in encryption, questionable supply chains, and poor data security. In a 2017 report, the United States Government Accountability Office recommended that the Department of Defense investigate the risks IoT devices pose to operations security, …