Network, Volume 2, Issue 1 (March 2022) – 13 articles

Implicit authentication (IA) transparently authenticates users by utilizing their behavioral data sampled from various sensors. Identifying the illegitimate user through constantly analyzing current users’ behavior, IA adds another layer of protection to the smart device. Due to the diversity of human behavior, existing research tends to utilize multiple features to identify users, which is less efficient. Irrelevant features may increase the system delay and reduce the authentication accuracy. However, dynamically choosing the best suitable features for each user (personal features) requires a massive calculation, making it infeasible in the real environment. In this paper, we propose EchoIA to find personal features with a small amount of calculation by leveraging user feedback derived from the correct rate of inputted passwords. By analyzing the feedback, EchoIA can deduce the true identities of current users and achieve a human-centered implicit authentication. In the authentication phase, our approach maintains transparency, which is the major advantage of IA. In the past two years, we conducted a comprehensive experiment to evaluate EchoIA. We compared it with four state-of-the-art IA schemes in the aspect of authentication accuracy and efficiency. The experiment results show that EchoIA has better authentication accuracy (93%) and less energy consumption (23-h battery lifetimes) than other IA schemes. Full article

Intra-vehicular communication is an emerging technology explored spontaneously due to higher wireless sensor-based application demands. To meet the upcoming market demands, the current intra-vehicular communication transmission reliability and latency should be improved significantly to fit with the existing 5G and upcoming 6G communication domains. Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communication (URLLC) can be widely used to enhance the quality of communication and services of 5G and beyond. The 5G URLLC service is highly dependable for transmission reliability and minimizing data transmission latency. In this paper, a multiple-access scheme named Cluster-based Orthogonal Frequency Subcarrier-based Multiple Access (C-OFSMA) is proposed with 5G URLLC’s high requirement adaptation for intra-vehicular data transmission. The URLLC demanded high reliability of approximately 99.999% of the data transmission within the extremely short latency of less than 1 ms. C-OFSMA enhanced the transmission diversity, which secured more successful data transmission to fulfill these high requirements and adapt to such a network environment. In C-OFSMA, the available sensors transmit data over specific frequency channels where frequency selection is random and special sensors (audio and video) transmit data over dedicated frequency channels. The minimum number of subcarrier channels was evaluated for different arrival rates and different packet duplication conditions in order to achieve 99.999% reliability within an air-interface latency of 0.2 ms. For the fixed frequency channel condition, C-OFSMA and OFSMA were compared in terms of reliability response and other packet duplication. Moreover, the optimal number of clusters was also evaluated in the aspects of the reliability response for the C-OFSMA system. Full article

This article reveals an adequate comprehension of basic defense, security challenges, and attack vectors in deploying multi-network slicing. Network slicing is a revolutionary concept of providing mobile network on-demand and expanding mobile networking business and services to a new era. The new business paradigm and service opportunities are encouraging vertical industries to join and develop their own mobile network capabilities for enhanced performances that are coherent with their applications. However, a number of security concerns are also raised in this new era. In this article, we focus on the deployment of multi-network slicing with multi-tenancy. We identify the security concerns and discuss the defense approaches such as network slice isolation and insulation in a multi-layer network slicing security model. Furthermore, we identify the importance to appropriately select the network slice isolation points and propose a generic framework to optimize the isolation policy regarding the implementation cost while guaranteeing the security and performance requirements. Full article

Given the enormous interest shown by customers as well as industry in autonomous vehicles, the concept of Internet of Vehicles (IoV) has evolved from Vehicular Ad hoc NETworks (VANETs). VANETs are likely to play an important role in Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). VANETs based on fixed infrastructures, called Road Side Units (RSUs), have been extensively studied. Efficient, authenticated message dissemination in VANETs is important for the timely delivery of authentic messages to vehicles in appropriate regions in the VANET. Many of the approaches proposed in the literature use RSUs to collect events (such as accidents, weather conditions, etc.) observed by vehicles in its region, authenticate them, and disseminate them to vehicles in appropriate regions. However, as the number of messages received by RSUs increases in the network, the computation and communication overhead for RSUs related to message authentication and dissemination also increases. We address this issue and propose a low-overhead message authentication and dissemination scheme in this paper. We compare the overhead, related to authentication and message dissemination, of our approach with an existing approach and also present an analysis of privacy and security implications of our approach. Full article

Cyberattacks have been rapidly increasing over the years, resulting to big financial losses to businesses for recovery, regulatory sanctions, as well as collateral damages, such as reputation and trust. In this respect, the maritime sector, which until now was considered safe due to the lack of Internet connectivity and the isolated nature of ships in the sea, is showing a 900% increase in cybersecurity breaches on operational technology as it enters the digital era. Although some research is being conducted in this area, maritime cybersecurity has not been deeply investigated. Hence, this paper provides a close investigation of the landscape of cybersecurity in the maritime sector with the aim of highlighting security problems and challenges. First, it explores the systems available on ships that could be targeted by attackers, their possible vulnerabilities that an attacker could exploit, the consequences if the system is accessed, and actual incidents. Then, it describes and analyses possible mitigation actions that can be utilised in advance to prevent such attacks. Finally, several challenges and open problems are discussed for future research. Full article

Mobile edge computing is an emerging paradigm that supplies computation, storage, and networking resources between end devices and traditional cloud data centers. With increased investment of resources, users demand a higher quality-of-service (QoS). However, it is nontrivial to maintain service performance under the erratic activities of end-users. In this paper, we focus on the service placement problem under the continuous provisioning scenario in mobile edge computing for multiple mobile users. We propose a novel dynamic placement framework based on deep reinforcement learning (DSP-DRL) to optimize the total delay without overwhelming the constraints on physical resources and operational costs. In the learning framework, we propose a new migration conflicting resolution mechanism to avoid the invalid state in the decision module. We first formulate the service placement under the migration confliction into a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) problem. Then, we propose a new migration conflict resolution mechanism to avoid the invalid state and approximate the policy in the decision modular according to the introduced migration feasibility factor. Extensive evaluations demonstrate that the proposed dynamic service placement framework outperforms baselines in terms of efficiency and overall latency. Full article

This paper proposes a routing protocol for wireless sensor networks to deal with energy-depleting vampire attacks. This resource-conserving protection against energy-draining (RCPED) protocol is compatible with existing routing protocols to detect abnormal signs of vampire attacks and identify potential attackers. It responds to attacks by selecting routes with the maximum priority, where priority is an indicator of energy efficiency and estimation of security level calculated utilizing an analytic hierarchy process (AHP). RCPED has no dependence on cryptography, which consumes less energy and hardware resources than previous approaches. Simulation results show the benefits of RCPED in terms of energy efficiency and security awareness. Full article

With the rapid advancement and wide application of blockchain technology, blockchain consensus protocols, which are the core part of blockchain systems, along with the privacy issues, have drawn much attention from researchers. A key aspect of privacy in the blockchain is the sensitive content of transactions in the permissionless blockchain. Meanwhile, some blockchain applications, such as cryptocurrencies, are based on low-efficiency and high-cost consensus protocols, which may not be practical and feasible for other blockchain applications. In this paper, we propose an efficient and privacy-preserving consensus protocol, called Delegated Proof of Secret Sharing (DPoSS), which is inspired by secure multiparty computation. Specifically, DPoSS first uses polynomial interpolation to select a dealer group from many nodes to maintain the consensus of the blockchain system, in which the dealers in the dealer group take turns to pack the new block. In addition, since the content of transactions is sensitive, our proposed design utilizes verifiable secret sharing to protect the privacy of transmission and defend against the malicious attacks. Extensive experiments show that the proposed consensus protocol achieves fairness during the process of reaching consensus. Full article

This article highlights challenges associated with securing visible light communication (VLC) systems by using physical layer security (PLS) techniques. Motivated by the achievements in PLS studies for radio frequency (RF) communication, many PLS techniques for VLC systems were also rigorously investigated by tailoring the RF techniques to the VLC environment. However, careful consideration of the inherent differences between RF and VLC systems is still needed. By disregarding these differences, an eavesdropper could be given an opportunity to wiretap the VLC systems, even when PLS techniques are employed to protect them. Crucially, the fact that it is often not possible to know the number and locations of eavesdroppers in real VLC systems may allow eavesdroppers to devise various cooperative eavesdropping methods. By examining a few examples of the possible eavesdropper threats that can occur in VLC systems, this article offers novel insights into the vulnerabilities of state-of-the-art PLS schemes for VLC systems. Although the focus of the paper is mostly on these weaknesses, some potential solutions are also briefly proposed with a view to stimulating discourse in the community. Full article

The constant evolution in communication infrastructures will enable new Internet of Things (IoT) applications, particularly in areas that, up to today, have been mostly enabled by closed or proprietary technologies. Such applications will be enabled by a myriad of wireless communication technologies designed for all types of IoT devices, among which are the Long-Range Wide-Area Network (LoRaWAN) or other Low-power and Wide-Area Networks (LPWAN) communication technologies. This applies to many critical environments, such as industrial control and healthcare, where wireless communications are yet to be broadly adopted. Two fundamental requirements to effectively support upcoming critical IoT applications are those of energy management and security. We may note that those are, in fact, contradictory goals. On the one hand, many IoT devices depend on the usage of batteries while, on the other hand, adequate security mechanisms need to be in place to protect devices and communications from threats against their stability and security. With thismotivation in mind, we propose a solution to address the management, in tandem, of security and energy in LoRaWAN IoT communication environments. We propose and evaluate an architecture in the context of which adaptation logic is used to manage security and energy dynamically, with the goal of guaranteeing appropriate security, while promoting the lifetime of constrained sensing devices. The proposed solution was implemented and experimentally evaluated and was observed to successfully manage security and energy. Security and energy are managed in line with the requirements of the application at hand, the characteristics of the constrained sensing devices employed and the detection, as well as the threat, of particular types of attacks. Full article

Due to the rapid change of population structure, leading to lower birth rates and quick aging rates, the demand for blood supply is increasing significantly. In most countries, blood quality and origin are managed by blood management information systems, such as national authorities. Nevertheless, the traditional system has limitations in this field, such as a lack of detailed blood information, making it challenging to manage blood quality, supply, and demand. Hence, to solve these issues, this paper proposes a blockchain-based system called BloodChain, an improved system to support blood information management, providing more detailed information about blood, such as blood consumption and disposal. BloodChain exploits private blockchain techniques with a limited number of relatively fast and reliable participants, making them suitable for B2B (Business to Business) transactions. In this paper, we also develop a proposed system based on the architecture of Hyperledger Fabric. The evaluation of BloodChain is performed in several scenarios to prove our proposed model’s effectiveness. Full article

The need for high-quality communications networks is urgent in data-based farming. A particular challenge is how to achieve reliable, cost-efficient, secure, and broadband last-mile data transfer to enable agricultural machine control. The trialed ad hoc private communications networks built and interconnected with different alternative wireless technologies, including 4G, 5G, satellite and tactical networks, provide interesting practical solutions for connectivity. A remotely controlled tractor is exemplified as a use case of machine control in the demonstrated private communication network. This paper describes the results of a comparative technology analysis and a field trial in a realistic environment. The study includes the practical implementation of video monitoring and the optimization of the control channel for remote-controlled unmanned agricultural tractors. The findings from this study verify and consolidate the requirements for network technologies and for cybersecurity enablers. They highlight insights into the suitability of different wireless technologies for smart farming and tractor scenarios and identify potential paths for future research. Full article