Active Defense Research Articles

Agonism does not covary with territoriality in a gregarious reptile

Natural selection for territoriality is theorised to occur under conditions favouring intra-sexual phenotypic variation in physiology, morphology, and behaviour. In this context, certain suites of behavioural traits associated with territoriality are expected to consistently covary among individuals (sometimes referred to as ‘behavioural syndromes’) within sexes. Agonism (conflict-associated behaviours that may or may not be associated with physical aggression) and movement—for example, ranging, or relocation within or across seasons—are two behavioural components that are associated with territoriality and may be expected to covary in this context. Territorial males are expected to employ agonistic behaviours to actively establish and defend areas and resources and show more stability in their location across the landscape. However, the interaction between agonism and movement especially for wild reptiles has rarely been tested. We investigated whether agonistic and movement behaviours correlate at the individual level both within one year and across multiple years, in a wild population of Australian eastern water dragons, Intellagama lesueurii. Although both types of behaviours exhibited among-individual repeatability over year and multi-year scales, we found no evidence of an agonistic-movement behavioural syndrome. These findings indicate that agonistic and movement behaviours are likely independent traits, and thus, territoriality may not drive shared selective pressures for both. It is possible that other social behaviours and strategies are in place to maintain social structure in this wild population.Significance statementMales of many animals establish and maintain or defend territories. Territory defence is expected to be associated with behaviours associated with conflict or expressions of dominance, to signal territory boundaries to encroaching individuals, or more aggressive approaches for active defence. We investigated whether such agonistic behaviours correlated with the distances individuals ranged or dispersed within and between years, as an indicator of territoriality. Through thousands of observations of a wild population of Australian eastern water dragons, Intellagama lesueurii, we found that although individuals showed repeatable patterns of both agonistic and movement behaviours, we found no evidence that these were correlated. It appears that territory establishment and defence may therefore not rely on agonistic signals in this species in direct contrast to other taxa, indicating that other systems are in place to maintain social structures.

A Port-Hopping Technology against Remote Attacks and Its Effectiveness Evaluation

Traditional network defense approaches are insufficient to deal with new types of network threats. Active defense approaches based on software-defined networks helps to solve this problem, which includes random port-hopping technology. Existing port-hopping approaches have problems such as the inability to completely hide the service port and the complicated hopping mechanism. What is more, there is no strict demonstration of the security effectiveness evaluation of random port hopping and its influencing factors. In this paper, a hidden services port-hopping approach and several models are proposed to solve these existing problems. Firstly, the algorithm, protocol, and flow update process of the method are presented. Secondly, according to the conceptual model of network attack and the network attack and defense model, the mathematical model of network attack is proposed to evaluate the security effectiveness of random port hopping. Furthermore, the resource layer and attack surface are redefined and the conceptual model of random port hopping is proposed to reveal the security mechanism of random port hopping more figuratively. After that, the factors that influence the security effectiveness of random port hopping are analyzed. Finally, both experiments and theoretical analysis show that hidden services port hopping is an effective active defense technology and the factors that influence the probability of a successful attack include the time interval of port hopping, the size of port-hopping space, and the number of vulnerable ports.

Active resilient defense control against false data injection attacks in smart grids

Active resilient defense control against false data injection attacks in smart grids

Integrated Security Control for Nonlinear CPS with Actuator Fault and FDI Attack: An Active Attack-Tolerant Approach

This paper investigated the co-design problem of less conservative integrated security control and communication for a nonlinear cyber-physical system (CPS) with an actuator fault and false data injection (FDI) attacks. Firstly, considering the efficient utilisation and allocation of computing and communication resources, an integrated framework was proposed from the perspective of active defence against FDI attacks. Secondly, the actuator fault and FDI attacks were augmented as a vector, and a robust observer was proposed to estimate the system state, actuator fault and FDI attacks. Furthermore, based on the obtained estimation results and the location of the FDI attack in the dual-end network, we designed an integrated security control strategy of active attack tolerance and active fault tolerance and, by constructing Lyapunov–Krasovskii functions and using time-delay system theory and the affine Bessel–Legendre inequality, a less conservative co-design method for integrated security control and network communication resource saving was developed. Finally, a simulation experiment of a quadruple tank was carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Integrating an In‐Plane Electron‐Conductive Separator to Enable Short‐Circuit Warning in Lithium–Sulfur Batteries

AbstractLithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries are one of the most competitive candidates for high‐energy‐density batteries. However, the high energy density and high reactivity of the lithium anode and sulfur cathode make the safety issues of Li–S batteries particularly prominent. Herein, an early warning strategy for the short circuits in Li–S batteries is explored by integrating an in‐plane electron‐conductive separator. The internal short circuits caused by lithium dendrites or manufacturing defects can be quickly and accurately predicted before catastrophic thermal runaway, with enough time to take rescue measures. The separator with high thermal conductivity also facilitates the heat dissipation of the cell, thus reducing the risk of thermal runaway under abuse. The fast and reliable early warning strategy based on the in‐plane electron‐conductive separator builds the Great Wall of active defense against inherently unsafe Li–S batteries.

DLP: towards active defense against backdoor attacks with decoupled learning process

Deep learning models are well known to be susceptible to backdoor attack, where the attacker only needs to provide a tampered dataset on which the triggers are injected. Models trained on the dataset will passively implant the backdoor, and triggers on the input can mislead the models during testing. Our study shows that the model shows different learning behaviors in clean and poisoned subsets during training. Based on this observation, we propose a general training pipeline to defend against backdoor attacks actively. Benign models can be trained from the unreliable dataset by decoupling the learning process into three stages, i.e., supervised learning, active unlearning, and active semi-supervised fine-tuning. The effectiveness of our approach has been shown in numerous experiments across various backdoor attacks and datasets.

A study on the breeding habits of Red-wattled Lapwing Vanellus indicus Boddaert, 1783 (Aves: Charadriformes: Charadridae) in the agricultural landscape of Muzaffarnagar District, Uttar Pradesh, India

This study investigated the breeding biology of Red-wattled Lapwing Vanellus indicus in the agricultural landscape of district Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, India, during three consecutive breeding sessions (2019–2021). A maximum of 25 nests and average clutch sizes of 3.64 ± 0.49 were recorded in 2021. Hatching success estimated using the Mayfield method was 55% in 2019, 64% in 2020, and 65% in 2021; values obtained using the traditional method were 42%, 58%, and 53%, respectively. During 2019 and 2021, 3.8% and 3.3% (respectively) of eggs did not successfully develop, while no hatching failures were recorded in 2020. In total, 32% of eggs were destroyed during the study period by predators (cats, dogs, and foxes), and an average of 15% of eggs were destroyed due to anthropogenic activities such as agricultural practices. Red-wattled Lapwings displayed cryptic behavior and active defense against predators making them a successful open nesting species.

MiR-124 mediates the expression of ccBax to regulate Cyprinid herpesvirus 2 (CyHV-2)-induced apoptosis and viral replication.

Cyprinid herpesvirus 2 (CyHV-2), the etiological agent of herpesvirus haematopoietic necrosis (HVHN) in carp and goldfish, has caused significant economic losses in the aquaculture industry. During viral infection, the host initiates a series of active or passive defences to regulate the process of virus infection. Apoptosis is a key component of active cellular defence, and members of the Bcl-2 family have been shown to play a critical role in the apoptotic process. However, the mechanism of action of the Bcl-2 family in inducing apoptosis during CyHV-2 infection remains unclear. In this study, we revealed the molecular mechanism of miRNA-mediated silver crucian carp BAX (ccBax) in CyHV-2-induced apoptosis for the first time and demonstrated that the overexpression of miR-124 suppressed ccBax expression and significantly down-regulated apoptosis in caudal fin cells of Carassius auratus gibelio (GiCF), while miR-124 inhibitors were the opposite. These studies indicated that miR-124 inhibits CyHV-2-induced apoptosis by reducing the expression of ccBax. Furthermore, the fact that transfection of miR-124 mimics promoted CyHV-2 replication, whereas miR-124 inhibitors inhibited CyHV-2 replication, indicated that miR-124 inhibited CyHV-2-induced apoptosis and contributed to viral replication. All these results suggested that miR-124 suppresses virus-induced apoptosis and promotes viral replication by targeting and regulating ccBax expression.

Cytoplasmic Kinase Network Mediates Defense Response to Spodoptera litura in Arabidopsis.

Plants defend against folivores by responding to folivore-derived elicitors following activation of signaling cascade networks. In Arabidopsis, HAK1, a receptor-like kinase, responds to polysaccharide elicitors (Frα) that are present in oral secretions of Spodoptera litura larvae to upregulate defense genes (e.g., PDF1.2) mediated through downstream cytoplasmic kinase PBL27. Here, we explored whether other protein kinases, including CPKs and CRKs, function with PBL27 in the intracellular signaling network for anti-herbivore responses. We showed that CRK2 and CRK3 were found to interact with PBL27, but CPKs did not. Although transcripts of PDF1.2 were upregulated in leaves of wild-type Arabidopsis plants in response to mechanical damage with Frα, this failed in CRK2- and PBL27-deficient mutant plants, indicating that the CRK2/PBL27 system is predominantly responsible for the Frα-responsive transcription of PDF1.2 in S. litura-damaged plants. In addition to CRK2-phosphorylated ERF13, as shown previously, ethylene signaling in connection to CRK2-phosphorylated PBL27 was predicted to be responsible for transcriptional regulation of a gene for ethylene response factor 13 (ERF13). Taken together, these findings show that CRK2 regulates not only ERF13 phosphorylation but also PBL27-dependent de novo synthesis of ERF13, thus determining active defense traits against S. litura larvae via transcriptional regulation of PDF1.2.

SR2APT: A Detection and Strategic Alert Response Model against Multistage APT Attacks

Advanced persistent threats are an emerging cyber threat to cyber-physical systems (CPS), especially those comprising mission-critical physical assets. However, defense against such attacks is challenging, due to their sophistication, stealthiness, and zero-day exploitation. Existing works in this area mainly focus on the detection of APT, but it might be too late or too costly to impede APT when it is detected with high confidence. Therefore, this work focuses on CPS intrusion detection and prevention against APT attacks and aims at preventing such attacks in earlier stages through a strategic response policy to imperfect APT alerts by leveraging the multistage characteristic of APT and a deep reinforcement learning formulation. A novel host-based APT detection and response model called SR2APT is proposed, which consists of a detection engine and a decision engine. The detection engine is based on graph convolutional network, which classifies a stream of system log provenance subgraphs as an APT stage or benign. Then, the detection results are transmitted to the decision engine sequentially, which is trained based on deep reinforcement learning and outputs the optimal response actions to APT alerts. Experimental results show that the GCN-based detection engine obtains 94% classification accuracy on a semisynthetic dataset of system logs and outperforms classification models based on SVM, CNN, and LSTM. The strategic alert response policy from the decision engine is compared with two baseline fixed response policies, and it achieves the best trade-off between preventing APT attacks and minimizing the impediments of mistaken active defense actions to benign activities that generate false alerts, thus obtaining the highest total rewards in the defense against APT attacks.

Linear-quadratic and norm-bounded differential game combined guidance strategy against active defense aircraft in three-player engagement

A new type of guidance strategy, combining linear quadratic and norm-bounded game theory, is proposed for the scenario of an attacker against active defense aircraft in three-player engagement. The problem involves three players, an attacker, a defender and a target. The differential game theory and the solution of Hamiltonian equation are utilized to obtain the combined guidance strategy for each player with arbitrary-order dynamics. The game process is divided into 4 phases, C1-C4, according to the switching time. The linear quadratic differential game guidance scheme is employed to reduce the fuel cost in the game parts of C1 and C3. The norm-bounded game guidance strategy is adopted to satisfy the constraint of control input in the game stages C2 and C4. Furthermore, zero-effort miss distance is introduced to meet the constraints of game space and defender’s killing radius in the guidance strategy, which guarantees that the attacker is able to avoid the interception of the defender and hit the target with lower fuel cost and maximum acceleration. And it is proved that the proposed guidance strategy satisfies the Nash equilibrium condition. Finally, the feasibility and superiority of combined guidance strategy are respectively illustrated by nonlinear numerical simulation and verified by comparing with linear quadratic and norm-bounded differential game guidance strategies.

Canine umbilical cord tissue derived mesenchymal stem cells naturally express mRNAs of some antimicrobial peptides.

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are naturally produced by all living organisms at a constitutive rate. They represent the first line of active defence systems against invading microorganisms, helping in innate immunity. Besides their therapeutic applications, great attention has also been given to the mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) due to their antimicrobial activities. The study aimed to observe the mRNA expression profile of few antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) in canine MSCs during standard in vitro culture. MSCs were isolated from canine umbilical cord tissue, propagated and characterized by morphology, surface markers and tri-lineage differentiation capability. The mRNA expression of eleven commonly known antimicrobial peptides was checked by Reverse Transcriptase PCR. It has been found for the first time that canine MSCs naturally express the mRNAs of AMPs like C-X-C motif chemokine ligand 8 (CXCL8), Elafin (PI3), Hepcidin (HAMP), Lipocalin 2 (LCN2) and Secretory leukocyte protease inhibitor (SLPI). However, their expressions at protein level and, relation with antimicrobial effect of canine MSCs need to be explored.

‘Annoyed Every Inch of Their Passage’: Admiral Lord Keith’s counter-invasion campaign, May 1803–August 1805

Defence against invasion is a prime Royal Navy task, but arguably the campaign of 1803 to 1805 has been overshadowed to the point of neglect. Here, Admiral Keith directed a detailed plan of defence which stretched from the harbour of Boulogne to the Thames estuary and encompassed craft from 74-gun ships of the line to oared boats owned and manned by civilian volunteers. This was supported by a network of communications that would give the government and army the earliest possible notice of impending attack and also facilitate an active naval defence that had been developed with advice from civilian pilots to allow craft defending effectively inshore to operate to best advantage. In essence Keith built a defence force from Havre to Texel that, although not called upon, provided an effective counter while supporting the battle squadrons blockading the main French fleets.

Views on the social aspects of the emergence of martial arts as the basis of the development of combat sports - the basis of students’ special physical training for self-defense

The subject of this work is specific aspects of the formation of the psychological, intellectual, and physical readiness of a civilian for adversity and adequate actions in risk situations in the context of systematic preparation for self-defense. The purpose of the study was to clarify the views of the authors on the peculiarities of the development of martial arts and the adaptation of their elements into the system of combat sports as part of special physical training for self-defense. The content of the work complements the range of views on the conditions and content of physical training of students in the process of studying the educational discipline "basics of self-defense" and objectively draws attention to the topic of the origin and development of martial arts as the basis for an in-depth study of the forms, methods and means of self-defense and the creation of motivational components for mastering their wide spectrum of possibilities. The article presents the historical stages of the birth of martial arts as a social necessity to maintain military affairs at a high level.
 The work substantiates the relevance of studies of students’ training in the formation of readiness for self-defense in moments of rapid emergence of negative problems associated with an extreme situation, the need for active defense against criminal actions. The views of the authors of scientific and pedagogical literature on the sociological features of the emergence of martial arts, the implementation of their methodical foundations in the context of training for combat sports and, as a result, special physical training for self-defense, are considered. The outline of the essence of the scientific novelty of the research is to direct attention to the study of social and historical prerequisites for the emergence of existing methods of self-defense and the vision of their deterministic options for development in the conditions of martial law. The conclusions emphasize the need to introduce aspects of the study of the causes and consequences of the emergence of certain forms, methods and means of ensuring special personal safety in terms of active physical defense into the educational material "the basis of self-defense".

An Optimal Active Defensive Security Framework for the Container-Based Cloud with Deep Reinforcement Learning

Due to the complexity of attack scenarios in the container-based cloud environment and the continuous changes in the state of microservices, the effectiveness of active defense strategies decreases with the cloud environment and microservice change. To tackle it, the main focus is how to establish a comprehensive threat model and adaptive active defense deployment strategy. In this study, we present an optimal active defensive security framework (OADSF) for a container-based cloud with deep reinforcement learning. Firstly, based on the characteristics of container clouds and microservices, the security threats and attack paths of attackers are analyzed from the application layer and container layer. Then, we propose a Holistic System Attack Graph to quantitatively analyze the security gain, quality of service (QOS) and defense efficiency in the container-based cloud scenarios. Finally, the optimization of a moving target defense (MTD) strategy is modeled as a Markov decision process. Deep reinforcement learning is proposed to handle the state space explosion under large-scale cloud applications, thus solving the optimal defense configuration strategy for the orchestration platform. We use Kubernetes to build container-based clusters. The algorithm is implemented in Python 3.7 based on Tensorflow 1.14. Simulation results show that the proposed method can quickly converge under large-scale cloud applications and increase defensive efficiency. Compared with DSEOM and SmartSCR, the defense efficiency is increased by 35.19% and 12.09%, respectively.

A Highly Interactive Honeypot-Based Approach to Network Threat Management

In this paper, considering the problem that the common defensive means in the current cyber confrontation often fall into disadvantage, honeypot technology is adopted to turn reactive into proactive to deal with the increasingly serious cyberspace security problem. We address the issue of common defensive measures in current cyber confrontations that frequently lead to disadvantages. To tackle the progressively severe cyberspace security problem, we propose the adoption of honeypot technology to shift from a reactive to a proactive approach. This system uses honeypot technology for active defense, tempting attackers into a predetermined sandbox to observe the attacker’s behavior and attack methods to better protect equipment and information security. During the research, it was found that due to the singularity of traditional honeypots and the limitations of low-interactivity honeypots, the application of honeypot technology has difficulty in achieving the desired protective effect. Therefore, the system adopts a highly interactive honeypot and a modular design idea to distinguish the honeypot environment from the central node of data processing, so that the honeypot can obtain more sufficient information and the honeypot technology can be used more easily. By managing honeypots at the central node, i.e., adding, deleting, and modifying honeypots and other operations, it is easy to maintain and upgrade the system, while reducing the difficulty of using honeypots. The high-interactivity honeypot technology not only attracts attackers into pre-set sandboxes to observe their behavior and attack methods, but also performs a variety of advanced functions, such as network threat analysis, virtualization, vulnerability perception, tracing reinforcement, and camouflage detection. We have conducted a large number of experimental comparisons and proven that our method has significant advantages compared to traditional honeypot technology and provides detailed data support. Our research provides new ideas and effective methods for network security protection.

They mostly come at night: Predation on sleeping insects by introduced candy-striped spiders in North America.

They mostly come at night: Predation on sleeping insects by introduced candy-striped spiders in North America.

The tarantula Grammostola anthracina uses type IV urticating setae in passive defence: evidence from its presence on the ootheca

New World tarantulas present a unique and conspicuous defensive mechanism: the release of urticating setae. The morphological differentiation of the types of setae suggests their distinct use, with two defensive mechanisms proposed: active defence against potential predators and passive defence against other arthropods, through the incorporation of setae into the moulting mat and/or ootheca. Tarantulas from Uruguay present three types of urticating setae with different morphologies (types I, III, and IV). It has been proposed that type I is used in passive defence and that type III in active defence; however, the use of type IV remains enigmatic. This study aims to elucidate the use of the type IV urticating setae. For this, we analysed oothecae of Grammostola anthracina, a species that presents type III and IV setae, quantifying them, and comparing the proportions between each type. Differences were found in the number of setae incorporated into the ootheca: type IV urticating setae are present in a higher proportion compared to type III, which suggests their use mainly in passive defence. We also tested the effects of type IV urticating setae incorporated on oothecae on phorid larvae and ants.

A differential privacy based multi-stage network fingerprinting deception game method

As an active deception defense mechanism, network fingerprint obfuscation plays an important role in deceiving the attacker's fingerprinting actions. However, the existing methods show increasing limitations in coping with strategic multi-stage fingerprinting behavior in resource constrained situations. In order to solve this problem, we propose a Differential Privacy based Multi-stage fingerprinting deception Game method (DPMG). DPMG uses the multi-stage game model and the belief update mechanism to give a better description on the continuous fingerprinting interaction process. Besides, the equilibrium existence of such a game model is analyzed. Then a defender strategy optimization mechanism under the resource constraints is designed and a Recursive Algorithm Solving Equilibrium algorithm (RASE) to solve the equilibrium strategy is implemented. Experiment results show that DPMG can deceive the network fingerprinting behavior effectively under the defense resources constraints, and scale well to different network size.

Research on Security Defense of Coupled Transportation and Cyber-Physical Power System Based on the Static Bayesian Game

The driving and charging behavior of an increasing number of electric vehicles (EVs) have strengthened the connection between transportation network (TN) and cyber-physical power system (CPPS). Cyber-attacks imposed on the coupled system will cause a big disturbance to the power network (PN), which will further affect the travel behavior of EVs in the TN. To improve the ability of the coupled system to resist attacks, this paper presents the framework of coupled transportation and cyber-physical power system with a defense mechanism. From a defense perspective, considering comprehensive load shedding loss of load buses, an active defense model driven by static Bayesian game theory is built at the information network (IN) level of CPPS, which provides a defense strategy selection method against attacks at a certain moment. Moreover, a charging guidance model for EVs based on dynamic vehicles travel simulation is developed to describe the impact of charging station (CS) outage induced by the unsuccessful defense, and to mitigate disturbance on the TN. Simulation experiments with a modified Sioux Falls traffic network and IEEE 30-bus power grid coupled system verify the effectiveness of the proposed method and model.