Information Security Commons^™

Electronic Voting Service Using Block-Chain, Kibin Lee, Joshua I. James, Tekachew G. Ejeta, Hyoung J. Kim

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Cryptocurrency, and its underlying technologies, has been gaining popularity for transaction management beyond financial transactions. Transaction information is maintained in the block-chain, which can be used to audit the integrity of the transaction. The focus on this paper is the potential availability of block-chain technology of other transactional uses. Block-chain is one of the most stable open ledgers that preserves transaction information, and is difficult to forge. Since the information stored in block-chain is not related to personally identify information, it has the characteristics of anonymity. Also, the block-chain allows for transparent transaction verification since all information in the block-chain …

Exploring Deviant Hacker Networks (Dhn) On Social Media Platforms, Samer Al-Kateeb, Kevin Conlan, Nitin Agarwal, Ibrahim Baggili, Frank Breitinger

Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

Online Social Networks (OSNs) have grown exponentially over the past decade. The initial use of social media for benign purposes (e.g., to socialize with friends, browse pictures and photographs, and communicate with family members overseas) has now transitioned to include malicious activities (e.g., cybercrime, cyberterrorism, and cyberwarfare). These nefarious uses of OSNs poses a signi_cant threat to society, and thus requires research attention. In this exploratory work, we study activities of one deviant groups: hacker groups on social media, which we term Deviant Hacker Networks (DHN). We investigated the connection between different DHNs on Twitter: how they are connected, identified …

Towards Syntactic Approximate Matching-A Pre-Processing Experiment, Doowon Jeong, Frank Breitinger, Hari Kang, Sangjin Lee

Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

Over the past few years, the popularity of approximate matching algorithms (a.k.a. fuzzy hashing) has increased. Especially within the area of bytewise approximate matching, several algorithms were published, tested, and improved. It has been shown that these algorithms are powerful, however they are sometimes too precise for real world investigations. That is, even very small commonalities (e.g., in the header of a file) can cause a match. While this is a desired property, it may also lead to unwanted results. In this paper, we show that by using simple pre-processing, we significantly can influence the outcome. Although our test set …

Find Me If You Can: Mobile Gps Mapping Applications Forensic Analysis & Snavp The Open Source, Modular, Extensible Parser, Jason Moore, Ibrahim Baggili, Frank Breitinger

Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

The use of smartphones as navigation devices has become more prevalent. The ubiquity of hand-held navigation devices such as Garmins or Toms Toms has been falling whereas the ownership of smartphones and their adoption as GPS devices is growing. This work provides a comprehensive study of the most popular smartphone mapping applications, namely Google Maps, Apple Maps, Waze, MapQuest, Bing, and Scout, on both Android and iOS. It details what data was found, where it was found, and how it was acquired for each application. Based on the findings, the work allowed for the construction of a tool capable of …

The Effect Of Using Wlans On Data Breaches: The Examination Of The Moderating Role Of Meaningful-Use Attestation, Dheyaaldin Alsalman, Insu Park

Research & Publications

Organizations have increasingly deployed wireless local area networks (WLANs) due to the benefits they can have such as mobility and flexibility. Unfortunately, the usage of wireless networks has raised many security concerns due to its capability of mobility. For instance, wireless networks are susceptible to many attacks such as eavesdropping, traffic analysis, data tampering and denial of service (DoS). Our study aims to identify a variable that moderates the effect of the usage of wireless local area networks (WLANs) on the occurrence of data breaches. Therefore, we propose a model that provides a basis for identifying the impact of meaningful-use …

Regulatory Approaches For Cyber Security Of Critical Infrastructures: The Case Of Turkey, Bilge Karabacak, Sevgi Ozkan Yildirim, Nazife Baykal

All Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Critical infrastructures are vital assets for public safety, economic welfare and/or national security of countries. Today, cyber systems are extensively used to control and monitor critical infrastructures. A considerable amount of the infrastructures are connected to the Internet over corporate networks. Therefore, cyber security is an important item for the national security agendas of several countries. The enforcement of security principles on the critical infrastructure operators through the regulations is a still-debated topic. There are several academic and governmental studies that analyze the possible regulatory approaches for the security of the critical infrastructures. Although most of them favor the market-oriented …

A Vulnerability-Driven Cyber Security Maturity Model For Measuring National Critical Infrastructure Protection Preparedness, Bilge Karabacak, Sevgi Ozkan Yildirim, Nazife Baykal

All Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Critical infrastructures are vital assets for the public safety, economic welfare and national security of countries. Cyber systems are used extensively to monitor and control critical infrastructures. A number of infrastructures are connected to the Internet via corporate networks. Cyber security is, therefore, an important item of the national security agenda of a country. The intense interest in cyber security has initiated research focusing on national cyber security maturity assessments. However, little, if any, research is dedicated to maturity assessments of national critical infrastructure protection efforts. Instead, the vast majority of studies merely examine diverse national-level security best practices ranging …

An Assessment Model To Improve National Cyber Security Governance, Bilge Karabacak, Unal Tatar, Adrian Gheorghe

All Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Today, cyber space has been embraced by individuals, organizations and nations as an indispensable instrument of daily life. Accordingly, impact of cyber threats has continuously been increasing. Critical infrastructure protection and fighting against cyber threats are crucial elements of national security agendas of governments. In this regard, governments need to assess the roles and responsibilities of public and private organizations to address the problems of current cyber protection postures and to respond with reorganization and reauthorization of these postures. A risk management approach is critical in placing these efforts in an ongoing lifecycle process. In this paper, a model is …

Privacy-Preserving And Verifiable Data Aggregation, Ngoc Hieu Tran, Robert H. Deng, Hwee Hwa Pang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

There are several recent research studies on privacy-preserving aggregation of time series data, where an aggregator computes an aggregation of multiple users' data without learning each individual's private input value. However, none of the existing schemes allows the aggregation result to be verified for integrity. In this paper, we present a new data aggregation scheme that protects user privacy as well as integrity of the aggregation. Towards this end, we first propose an aggregate signature scheme in a multi-user setting without using bilinear maps. We then extend the aggregate signature scheme into a solution for privacy-preserving and verifiable data aggregation. …

Hidden Ciphertext Policy Attribute-Based Encryption Under Standard Assumptions, Tran Viet Xuan Phuong, Guomin Yang, Willy Susilo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

We propose two new ciphertext policy attributebased encryption (CP-ABE) schemes where the access policy is defined by AND-gate with wildcard. In the first scheme, we present a new technique that uses only one group element to represent an attribute, while the existing ABE schemes of the same type need to use three different group elements to represent an attribute for the three possible values (namely, positive, negative, and wildcard). Our new technique leads to a new CP-ABE scheme with constant ciphertext size, which, however, cannot hide the access policy used for encryption. The main contribution of this paper is to …

Controlled Access To Cloud Resources For Mitigating Economic Denial Of Sustainability (Edos) Attacks, Zubair A. Baig, Sadiq M. Sait, Farid Binbeshr

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Cloud computing is a paradigm that provides scalable IT resources as a service over the Internet. Vulnerabilities in the cloud infrastructure have been readily exploited by the adversary class. Therefore, providing the desired level of assurance to all stakeholders through safeguarding data (sensitive or otherwise) which is stored in the cloud, is of utmost importance. In addition, protecting the cloud from adversarial attacks of diverse types and intents, cannot be understated. Economic Denial of Sustainability (EDoS) attack is considered as one of the concerns that has stalled many organizations from migrating their operations and/or data to the cloud. This is …

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 …

An Investigation Into Off-Link Ipv6 Host Enumeration Search Methods, Clinton Carpene

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This research investigated search methods for enumerating networked devices on off-link 64 bit Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) subnetworks. IPv6 host enumeration is an emerging research area involving strategies to enable detection of networked devices on IPv6 networks. Host enumeration is an integral component in vulnerability assessments (VAs), and can be used to strengthen the security profile of a system. Recently, host enumeration has been applied to Internet-wide VAs in an effort to detect devices that are vulnerable to specific threats. These host enumeration exercises rely on the fact that the existing Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) can be exhaustively …

Front Matter

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

No abstract provided.

Back Matter

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

No abstract provided.

Masthead

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

No abstract provided.

Extracting Windows Event Logs Using Memory Forensics, Matthew Veca

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Abstract Microsoft’s Windows Operating System provides a logging service that collects, filters and stores event messages from the kernel and applications into log files (.evt and .evtx). Volatility, the leading open source advanced memory forensic suite, currently allows users to extract these events from memory dumps of Windows XP and Windows 2003 machines. Currently there is no support for users to extract the event logs (.evtx) from Windows Vista, Win7 or Win8 memory dumps, and Volatility users have to rely on outside software in order to do this. This thesis discusses a newly developed evtxlogs.py plugin for Volatility, which allows …

Web Based Cyber Forensics Training For Law Enforcement, Nick Sturgeon

Purdue Polytechnic Masters Theses

Training and education are two of the most important aspects within cyber forensics. These topics have been of concern since the inception of the field. Training law enforcement is particularly important to ensure proper execution of the digital forensics process. It is also important because the proliferation of technology in to society continues to grow at an exponential rate. Just as technology is used for good there are those that will choose to use it for criminal gains. It is critical that Law Enforcement have the tools and training in cyber forensics. This research looked to determine if web based …

Capstone Revival, Mary Mesele, Ruochen Lu, Quilin Jiang

School of Professional Studies

The capstone project is a culminating experience whereby students choose to research a topic that is relevant in their field of study and have been highly regarded as important learning activities. The capstone allows students to use research, analytical, problem solving and evaluation skills they have learned in the course of the graduate program. McGill indicates the benefit of the completion of a capstone project not only in gaining knowledge in capstone but also in learning how to apply the knowledge gained in other courses in the major (McGill, 2012). Currently, COPACE (College of Professional and Continuing Education) has three …

An Immersive Telepresence System Using Rgb-D Sensors And Head-Mounted Display, Xinzhong Lu, Ju Shen, Saverio Perugini, Jianjun Yang

Computer Science Faculty Publications

We present a tele-immersive system that enables people to interact with each other in a virtual world using body gestures in addition to verbal communication. Beyond the obvious applications, including general online conversations and gaming, we hypothesize that our proposed system would be particularly beneficial to education by offering rich visual contents and interactivity. One distinct feature is the integration of egocentric pose recognition that allows participants to use their gestures to demonstrate and manipulate virtual objects simultaneously. This functionality enables the instructor to effectively and efficiently explain and illustrate complex concepts or sophisticated problems in an intuitive manner. The …

Assessing The Physical Security Of Idfs With Psatool: A Case Study, Sulabh Bista

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

PSATool is a checklist-based, web-based application for assessing the physical security of Intermediate Distribution Frameworks. IDFs, or wiring closets, are an integral if often neglected component of information security. Earlier work by Timbs (2013) identified 52 IDF-related security requirements based on federal and international standards for physical security. PSATool refines Timbs’ prototype application for IDF assessment, extending it with support for mobile-device-based data entry.

PSATool was used to assess 25 IDFs at a regional university, a college and a manufacturing corporation, with an average of 9 minutes per assessment. Network managers and assessors involved in the assessments characterized PSATool as …

On The Unreliability Of Bug Severity Data, Yuan Tian, Nasir Ali, David Lo, Ahmed E. Hassan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Severity levels, e.g., critical and minor, of bugs are often used to prioritize development efforts. Prior research efforts have proposed approaches to automatically assign the severity label to a bug report. All prior efforts verify the accuracy of their approaches using human-assigned bug reports data that is stored in software repositories. However, all prior efforts assume that such human-assigned data is reliable. Hence a perfect automated approach should be able to assign the same severity label as in the repository – achieving a 100% accuracy. Looking at duplicate bug reports (i.e., reports referring to the same problem) from three open-source …

Bl-Mle: Block-Level Message-Locked Encryption For Secure Large File Deduplication, Rongmao Chen, Yi Mu, Guomin Yang, Fuchun Guo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Deduplication is a popular technique widely used to save storage spaces in the cloud. To achieve secure deduplication of encrypted files, Bellare et al. formalized a new cryptographic primitive named message-locked encryption (MLE) in Eurocrypt 2013. Although an MLE scheme can be extended to obtain secure deduplication for large files, it requires a lot of metadata maintained by the end user and the cloud server. In this paper, we propose a new approach to achieve more efficient deduplication for (encrypted) large files. Our approach, named block-level message-locked encryption (BL-MLE), can achieve file-level and block-level deduplication, block key management, and proof …

Lossy Projective Hashing And Its Applications, Haiyang Xue, Yamin Liu, Xianhui Lu, Bao Li

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this paper, we introduce a primitive called lossy projective hashing. It is unknown before whether smooth projective hashing (Cramer-Shoup, Eurocrypt’02) can be constructed from dual projective hashing (Wee, Eurocrypt’12). The lossy projective hashing builds a bridge between dual projective hashing and smooth projective hashing. We give instantiations of lossy projective hashing from DDH, DCR, QR and general subgroup membership assumptions (including 2k-th residue, p-subgroup and higher residue assumptions). We also show how to construct lossy encryption and fully IND secure deterministic public key encryption from lossy projective hashing. – We give a construction of lossy projective hashing via dual …

The Role Of Cryptography In Security For Electronic Commerce, Ann Murphy, David Murphy

The ITB Journal

Many businesses and consumers are wary of conducting business over the Internet due to a perceived lack of security. Electronic business is subject to a variety of threats such as unauthorised access, misappropriation, alteration and destruction of both data and systems. This paper explores the major security concerns of businesses and users and describes the cryptographic techniques used to reduce such risks.

Credit Information System In Albania, Valbona Çinaj, Bashkim Ruseti

UBT International Conference

The booming lending period and many lenders (16 banks and 21 non-bank financial Institutions in Albania) brought about unprecedented competition in credit markets within Albania. Economists usually view lending and competition favorably, but in Albania resulted in a number of unforeseen non-performing loans. Findings report increased problems of borrower over-indebtedness, reduced loan repayment incentives, and growing debts for lenders (Campion 2001; McIntosh and Wydick 2005). The weakening performance of lenders is due in part to the absence of information sharing in these markets. Because growing numbers of lenders (banks and non-bank financial Institutions in Albania) increase the level of asymmetric …

It Outsourcing, Besnik Skenderi, Diamanta Skenderi

UBT International Conference

Businesses, shareholders and all other interested parties (Custom, Tax Administration and Customers) require just in time information regarding profit, price, stock and support. Businesses have responded to those requests with implementation of IT (Information Technology) infrastructure, but implementation of advanced IT system infrastructure has created cost for shareholder and there was immediate need to recruit and to train existing staff. With this step, management focus was oriented in non-strategic processes, and for the implementation and managing of those processes, the management did not have necessary skills, due to this reason many companies in US, Europe and Asia have started to …

Modelling Business And Management Systems Using Fuzzy Cognitive Maps: A Critical Overview, Peter P. Groumpos

UBT International Conference

A critical overview of modelling Business and Management (B&M) Systems using Fuzzy Cognitive Maps is presented. A limited but illustrative number of specific applications of Fuzzy Cognitive Maps in diverse B&M systems, such as e business, performance assessment, decision making, human resources management, planning and investment decision making processes is provided and briefly analyzed. The limited survey is given in a table with statics of using FCMs in B&M systems during the last 15 years. The limited survey shows that the applications of Fuzzy Cognitive Maps to today’s Business and Management studies has been steadily increased especially during the last …

Some Principles For Banks’ Internal Control System In Albania, Artur Ribaj

UBT International Conference

Internal control involves everything that controls risks to a bank. The objectives of internal control as a system relate to the reliability of financial reporting, timely feedback on the achievement of operational or strategic goals, and compliance with laws and regulations. The objectives of internal control at a specific transaction level refer to the actions taken to achieve the target within the allowed limit of risk. An effective internal control system reduces process variation, leading to more predictable outcomes. There are some important documents for regulating the internal control system as such: The Directive 2006/43/EC “On statutory audits of annual …

Performance Indicators Analysis Inside A Call Center Using A Simulation Program, Ditila Ekmekçiu, Markela Muça, Adrian Naço

UBT International Conference

This paper deals with and shows the results of different performance indicators analyses made utilizing the help of Simulation and concentrated on dimensioning problems of handling calls capacity in a call center. The goal is to measure the reactivity of the call center’s performance to potential changes of critical variables. The literature related to the employment of this kind of instrument in call centers is reviewed, and the method that this problem is treated momentarily is precisely described. The technique used to obtain this paper’s goal implicated a simulation model using Arena Contact Center software that worked as a key …