Complex Security Research Articles

A Generic Secure Transmission Scheme Based on Random Linear Network Coding

Unlike general routing strategies, network coding (NC) can combine encoding functions with multi-path propagation over a network. This allows network capacity to be achieved to support complex security solutions. Moreover, NC has intrinsic security advantages against passive attacks over traditional routing techniques. However, due to the transmission of the global encoding kernels, the system is fragile to eavesdropping attacks with multiple probes. This paper proposes a generic unicast secure transmission scheme based on random linear network coding (RLNC). Specifically, the intended receiver generates a random matrix upon receiving the request from the source node, and then transmits each row vector of this matrix over a link reversely to the source node. Each intermediate node rearranges all received vectors to form a matrix by row, and then post-multiplies its local encoding kernel by this matrix to obtain a new matrix. Similarly, each row vector of the new matrix is reversely transmitted over a link to the source node. This procedure is performed until we have the source node, where the generalized inverse of the received matrix (or part of it) can be used as its local encoding kernel. Hence, the intended receiver can use the generated matrix (or the corresponding part) to decode the received data packets directly. We also analyze the security to demonstrate that the proposed scheme is at least as secure as other methods against wiretapping attacks. We also evaluate the performance of the proposed scheme to demonstrate its utility.

China and Gulf Cooperation Council Countries: From Economic Deals to Strategic Partnerships

The Middle East in general and the Persian Gulf sub-region in particular are becoming increasingly strategic for China. The sub-region is not only rich in natural resources, primarily energy, and to a large extent provides them to the dynamically developing Chinese economy, but also opens up access to main global maritime and land routes, as well as African and European markets. The study focuses on Chinas interaction with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries in the field of energy, trade, and investment in the context of growing economic interdependence that elevates Beijings relations with the Arab countries of the sub-region to the level of strategic partnership. Thus, Chinas relations with this group of states go beyond purely economic interests and affect the strategic interests of Beijing, such as active promotion of the large-scale Belt and Road Initiative, which implies the intensification of Chinas policy in the Middle East. The methodological basis of the study is an interdisciplinary approach. The authors adhere to the neorealism, particularly the theory of the balance of power and regional security complexes, the principle according to which the foreign policy of a state is heavily dictated by the logic of the international system and the distribution of power among states. The power transit theory allows us to understand better the current role of China becoming a superpower in world politics. The research also applies such methods of historical science as chronological, genetic, systemic-structural, and comparative methods. The collection and processing of a significant layer of statistical data makes it possible to highlight the emergence of new powerful political actors in the Middle East.

Toward Prevention of Parasite Chain Attack in IOTA Blockchain Networks by Using Evolutionary Game Model

IOTA is a new cryptocurrency system designed for the Internet of Things based on directed an acyclic graph structure. It has the advantages of supporting high concurrency, scalability, and zero transaction fees; however, due to the particularity of the directed acyclic graph structure, IOTA faces more complex security threats than the sequence blockchain, in which a parasite chain attack is a common double-spending attack. In this work, we propose a scheme that can effectively prevent parasite chain attacks to improve the security of the IOTA ledger. Our main idea is to analyze the behavior strategies of IOTA nodes based on evolutionary game theory and determine the key factors affecting the parasite chain attack and the restrictive relationship between them. Based on the above research, we provide a solution to resist the parasite chain attack and further prove the effectiveness of the scheme by numerical simulation. Finally, we propose the parasite chain attack prevention algorithms based on price splitting to effectively prevent the formation of the parasite chain.

Improving Diagnosis Through Digital Pathology: Proof-of-Concept Implementation Using Smart Contracts and Decentralized File Storage.

BackgroundRecent advancements in digital pathology resulting from advances in imaging and digitization have increased the convenience and usability of pathology for disease diagnosis, especially in oncology, urology, and gastroenteric diagnosis. However, despite the possibilities to include low-cost diagnosis and viable telemedicine, digital pathology is not yet accessible owing to expensive storage, data security requirements, and network bandwidth limitations to transfer high-resolution images and associated data. The increase in storage, transmission, and security complexity concerning data collection and diagnosis makes it even more challenging to use artificial intelligence algorithms for machine-assisted disease diagnosis. We designed and prototyped a digital pathology system that uses blockchain-based smart contracts using the nonfungible token (NFT) standard and the Interplanetary File System for data storage. Our design remediates shortcomings in the existing digital pathology systems infrastructure, which is centralized. The proposed design is extendable to other fields of medicine that require high-fidelity image and data storage. Our solution is implemented in data systems that can improve access quality of care and reduce the cost of access to specialized pathological diagnosis, reducing cycle times for diagnosis.ObjectiveThe main objectives of this study are to highlight the issues in digital pathology and suggest that a software architecture–based blockchain and the Interplanetary File System create a low-cost data storage and transmission technology.MethodsWe used the design science research method consisting of 6 stages to inform our design overall. We innovated over existing public-private designs for blockchains but using a 2-layered approach that separates actual file storage from metadata and data persistence.ResultsHere, we identified key challenges to adopting digital pathology, including challenges concerning long-term storage and the transmission of information. Next, using accepted frameworks in NFT-based intelligent contracts and recent innovations in distributed secure storage, we proposed a decentralized, secure, and privacy-preserving digital pathology system. Our design and prototype implementation using Solidity, web3.js, Ethereum, and node.js helped us address several challenges facing digital pathology. We demonstrated how our solution, which combines NFT smart contract standard with persistent decentralized file storage, solves most of the challenges of digital pathology and sets the stage for reducing costs and improving patient care and speed of diagnosis.ConclusionsWe identified technical limitations that increase costs and reduce the mass adoption of digital pathology. We presented several design innovations using NFT decentralized storage standards to prototype a system. We also presented the implementation details of a unique security architecture for a digital pathology system. We illustrated how this design can overcome privacy, security, network-based storage, and data transmission limitations. We illustrated how improving these factors sets the stage for improving data quality and standardized application of machine learning and artificial intelligence to such data.

The European Union as a Maritime Security Provider – The Naval Diplomacy Perspective

The aim of this article is to assess how the European Union advances its role as a global security actor and how it deploys the military forces provided by the member states. Tracing the current debate of the identity and means of the European Union, we analyze the two maritime operations, EU NAVFOR Somalia (Operation Atalanta) and EUNAVFOR MED (Operation Sophia) from a naval diplomacy perspective. Naval diplomacy acknowledge a more versatile role for naval forces, not just military advancement and force projection. For this purpose, we need to go beyond mission descriptions and operational mandates in order to analyze and assess the two operations from within, relying on internal reports and interviews with senior officers who have participated in the operations. Results show that naval forces seeks cooperation with International organizations, NGOs, and third countries in order to facilitate security and good order of the global common of international water. Still, complex security problems are not resolved in this manner and EU maritime operations are highly political, thus facing an uncertain future as a tool of CSDP.

IoT-DeepSense: Behavioral Security Detection of IoT Devices Based on Firmware Virtualization and Deep Learning

Recently, IoT devices have become the targets of large-scale cyberattacks, and their security issues have been increasingly serious. However, due to the limited memory and battery power of IoT devices, it is hardly possible to install traditional security software, such as antivirus software for security defense. Meanwhile, network-based traffic detection is difficult to obtain the internal behavior states and conduct in-depth security analysis because more and more IoT devices use encrypted traffic. Therefore, how to obtain complex security behaviors and states inside IoT devices and perform security detection and defense is an issue that needs to be solved urgently. Aiming at this issue, we propose IoT-DeepSense, a behavioral security detection system of IoT devices based on firmware virtualization and deep learning. IoT-DeepSense constructs the real operating environment of the IoT device system to capture the fine-grained system behaviors and then leverages an LSTM-based IoT system behavior abnormality detection approach to effectively extract the hidden features of the system’s behavior sequence and enforce the security detection of the abnormal behavior of the IoT devices. The design and implementation of IoT-DeepSense are carried out on an independent Internet of things behavior detection server, without modifying the limited resources of IoT devices, and have strong scalability. The evaluation results show that IoT-DeepSense achieves a high behavioral detection rate of 92%, with negligible impact on the performance of IoT devices.

The Use of Statistic Complexity for Security and Performance Analysis in Autonomic Component Ensembles

The paper proposes a new technique for detecting malware threats in autonomic component ensembles. The technique is based on the statistic complexity metrics, which relate objects to random variables and (unlike other complexity measures considering objects as individual symbol strings) are ensemble based. This transforms the classic problem of assessing the complexity of an object into the realm of statistics. The proposed technique requires implementation of the process X (which generates ‘healthy’ flows containing no malware threats) and objects generated by the actual (possible infected) process Y. The component flows files are used as objects of the processes X and Y. The result of the proposed procedure gives us the distribution of probabilities of malware infection among autonomic components. The possibility to use the results obtained to perform quantitative probabilistic verification and analysis of ASEs using the probabilistic model checking tool PRISM is demonstrated.

Learning Algorithm Recommendation Framework for IS and CPS Security

Artificial intelligence and machine learning have recently made outstanding contributions to the performance of information system and cyber--physical system security. There has been a plethora of research in this area, resulting in an outburst of publications over the past two years. Choosing the right algorithm to solve a complex security problem in a very precise industrial context is a challenging task. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a Learning Algorithm Recommendation Framework that, for a clearly defined situation, guides the selection of learning algorithm and scientific discipline (e.g. RNN, GAN, RL, CNN,...) which have sparked great interest to the scientific community and which therefore offers preponderant elements and benefits for further deployments. This framework has the advantage of having been generated from an extensive analysis of the literature, as illustrated by this paper for the recurrent neural networks and their variations.

Security assessment of electricity-gas-heat integrated energy systems based on the vulnerability index

Integrated energy systems (IES) realize the coupling of different energy flows and help to improve energy efficiency and increase renewable energy consumption. However, due to the coupling effect, variation of operation parameters in one energy flow can be propagated to other ones through the coupling equipment, which results in complex security problems of IES. Here, we propose a security assessment method based on the vulnerability index (VI) for electricity-gas-heat IES. The vulnerability index combines the current values of state variables, operation limits, and sensitivity factors between state variables and control variables simultaneously. Current values are obtained by the solution of the steady-state IES model by the decomposed Newton-Raphson method. Sensitivity factors are derived based on the Jacobian matrix in the IES model. VI matrixes for IES with different control modes are formulated and deduced. The vulnerable state variables and the key control variables are identified based on the VI matrixes. A case study is conducted to validate the proposed method. Vulnerable state variables and key control variables are identified by the absolute value of vulnerability index with the upward and downward adjustment of control variables. These results are verified by energy flow calculations, which show that vulnerable state variables and key control variables derived by vulnerability index are more accurate than those identified by sensitivity factors. In the situations of determining electricity based on heat and determining heat based on electricity, the method proposed herein is 1.73 and 22.45 times faster than energy flow calculations respectively.

ОБ УСТОЙЧИВОСТИ ЛОГИСТИЧЕСКИХ СТРУКТУР НА ОСНОВЕ СМАРТ-КОНТРАКТОВ

One of the most promising solutions for optimizing logistics processes is the creation of automated supply management systems based on distributed registry technology, in particular a smart contract. However, in addition to the well-known economic advantages of such a technology, the expediency of its practical application will largely be determined by the stability of the functioning of these control systems in modern conditions of the threat of destabilizing influences. Currently, the solution to the security issues of smart contracts as programs are reduced to checking the source code of applications. Obviously, this is clearly not enough to ensure the reliability of logistics management, the stability of which can be determined on the basis of known methods for assessing the complex security of the corresponding IT system. This study adapts existing methods for auditing and assessing information security risks for an IT system using a smart contract, and the subject is to substantiate the applicability of such an approach to assessing the security of logistics processes, considering the features of smart contracts. The paper considers the features of the use of smart contracts in logistics processes, outlines appropriate approaches to audit and risk assessment of the functioning of the logistics management system based on smart contracts. Recommendations have been developed for the practical implementation of specific methods for assessing the security of an IT system using a smart contract, which is set by the authors as the goal of further work. The results of the study can be useful to specialists in the field of optimization of logistics processes and information security when developing new logistics schemes based on smart contracts.

SECURITY DYNAMICS OF SOUTHEAST ASIA: THE ROLE OF THE UK AND ITS IMPLICATIONS ON REGIONAL SECURITY

Post-Brexit, Britain completely overhauled its foreign policy framework by adopting a 'Global Britain' strategy with the aim of demonstrating global leadership. The UK said that there had been geopolitical and geoeconomics shifts, including the rise of China's power and the increasing importance of the Indo-Pacific for global prosperity and security as well as the potential for new markets to emerge and the growth of the global middle class. In realizing the UK's existence in the world, especially in the Indo-Pacific region, the UK considers the strategic position of the Southeast Asia region which is included as part of the four pillars of British foreign policy. Southeast Asia has become an arena for the struggle for the influence of global powers, especially China and the United States. Changes in British Foreign Policy which focuses on the Southeast Asia region will certainly have strategic consequences in the region, especially regional security, especially the South China Sea Dispute which involves most of the ASEAN member countries. The problem raised in this study is how the dynamics of security in the Southeast Asia region after the change in the focus of British foreign policy to Southeast Asia and its impact on regional security. The writing of this article uses qualitative research methods to write to describe the complexity of regional security through patterns of relations between countries in the region and countries outside the region, as well as the role of global powers.

Special issue on ‘Shifting Borders of European (In)Securities: Human Security, Border (In)Security and Mobility in Security’

Over the past decade, the European Union (EU) has faced a severe migration crisis that brought to the fore the issues of borders and security—including security at borders and the borders of security. This article introduces the special issue ‘Shifting Borders of European (In)Securities: Human Security, Border (In)Security and Mobility in Security’ going beyond the traditional dichotomy vision of borders, namely inclusion versus exclusion (Panebianco 2016). It sets the scene to examine the proliferating insecurities at and in reference to EU borders, suggesting a migrant-centred understanding of human security and mobility and its complex relations to—and tensions with—more traditional conceptions of border security. In particular, this introductory paper opens up the possibility of disentangling the complexity of (in)securities and (im)mobilities. Like the rest of the special issue, it shows that state security and human security are not mutually exclusive and can in fact be mutually reinforcing, even if this unfortunately remains the exception rather than the norm in practice. The paper (and the special issue) seeks to elaborate a more comprehensive and nuanced understanding of the challenges of shifting borders of European (in)securities, thus shedding light on complex migration phenomena and contributing to better understanding of these issues and what can be done about them in, but also beyond, academia.

DECOMPOSITION OF THE EUROPEAN REGIONAL SECURITY COMPLEX: THE NEW IRON CURTAIN

The theory of regional security complexes was developed by the Copenhagen School of Security from the end of the last century and the beginning of this century. Although this theory was partially abandoned by its creators, it has received considerable attention in modern security studies to this day. The European security complex was the focus of the Copenhagen School, and it occupies a significant place in the theories created in the later period. This paper is an attempt to analyze the European security complex in the conditions of new geopolitical turmoil in the world and Europe after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, especially on the example of the Western Balkan security sub-complex. The basic hypothesis from which the paper was based is that after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a new world order is being created, which will especially affect the European security complex and the Western Balkan regional security sub-complex, as part of it. The key claims and unique conclusion of the work is that a new „iron curtain” is being created in Europe from the Atlantic to the Baltic and the Black Sea, which will primarily determine the position of the Western Balkan regional security sub-complex.

Cooperative and feedback based authentic routing protocol for energy efficient IoT systems

AbstractThe open communication medium of the Internet of Things (IoT) is more vulnerable to security attacks. As the IoT environment consists of distributed power limited units, the routing protocol used for distributed routing should be light‐weighted compared to other centralized networks. In this situation, complex security algorithms and routing mechanisms affect the generic data communications in IoT platforms. To handle this problem, this proposed system develops a cooperative and feedback‐based trustable energy‐efficient routing protocol (CFTEERP). This protocol calculates local trust value (LTV) and global trust value (GTV) of each node using node attributes and K‐means‐based feedback evaluation procedures. The K‐means clustering algorithm leaves out the distorted node routing metrics and misbehaving node metrics for all channels. This proposed CFTEERP uses the nearest secure node costs to increase the network lifetime without selecting the nearest nodes for routing the data. In this work, secure routing is initiated using multipath routing strategy that analyses LTV, GTV, next trustable node, average throughput, energy consumption, average packet delivery ratio (PDR) and traffic various metrics of entire IoT communication. The technical aspects of proposed system are implemented to solve different existing techniques' limitations. In the comparative experiment, the proposed method provides 90% of PDR and a minimal energy consumption rate of 25% lesser than the existing systems against different malicious attacks.

CHALLENGES AND VULNERABILITIES OF EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES AND MIGRATION IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

Respect for equal opportunities and control of migration are the basis for the development of any democratic society, the magnitude of these phenomena and their importance on the state balance determining an analysis consistent with the very identity of states and the European Union as a whole, especially as they can influence the values and cohesion of a state. The objective of the research is to present the challenges and vulnerabilities identified in relation to equal opportunities and migration from the perspective of education, their impact on the environment, but also the challenges that may arise in the current global context, caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The article starts from the exposition of the importance of equal opportunities and migration in a complex security environment with rapid evolutions and significant implications on multiple levels of social, economic, political and security life, and the main conclusion is that at EU level joint efforts must be made to adopt and respect unitary measures to ensure respect for human rights, in order to ensure security.

A comprehensive and critical analysis of TLS 1.3

The TLS 1.3 protocol is a new and an enhanced version of TLS and TLS 1.2 protocols. This protocol assures a secure communication between the client and the server over the internet, that gives an end-to-end security to the seamless cyber-physical system communication. Most of the browsers which have been using TLS 1.2, compromises on several security constraints. In order to address this issue, the TLS 1.3 is defined by the IETF group through multiple improved iterations, which in turn empowers the TLS 1.3 to satisfy complex security requirements for robust communication. According to several research studies, we identified the various scenarios that ascribe the performance of TLS 1.3, its advantage over TLS 1.2 and also the scope of improvement in TLS 1.3 as it is still evolving. As per various research, TLS 1.3 possesses several shortcomings in the areas of Zero Round Trip Time (a.k.a 0-RTT), Fault Tolerance, and Forward Secrecy which leads to security issues. In this paper, we thoroughly examine the shortcoming and scope of improvement in TLS1.3 as presented by various researchers and also study the error alerts defined in it. We propose the requirement of three new error alerts in the current version of TLS 1.3 which are Cookies Extension, Deadlocked Connection and Integrity Algorithm Storage in order to have a smooth communication.

Vietnam’s Perception and Response to the Emerging Indo-Pacific Regional Security Architecture

With the rising of the two emerging great power - China and India, the "Indo-Pacific" has already possessed the fundamental conditions of the regional security complex, while the United States as the hegemonic state intervenes in security affairs which takes advantage of characteristics of the identity structure and power structure of regional security complexes by penetration mechanism. Buzan's theory has shown us the contour of the emerging security architecture in the Indo-Pacific region. After applying the regional security complex theory to analyze the security of the region, this article analyzes Vietnam’s perception and response to the emerging Indo-Pacific security architecture. The article points out that the perception of regional security structure expressed through foreign policy adjustment can be basically divided into two layers: regional and extra-regional. In which the regional layer with the focus on ASEAN; and the extra-regional is ASEAN-centered multilateral groups. Since then, Vietnam has tried to incorporate its foreign policy calculations into the multilateral and multi-dimensional Indo-Pacific agenda. Vietnam's response manifests itself mainly in strengthening economic and trade cooperation with China, deepening security cooperation with the US and its network of allies, and with the help of the power of ASEAN to restrain the US and China. In addition, with its favorable geographical position and strong rise in recent years, Vietnam expects India to become an indispensable "security supplier" and an indispensable "balancing force" in Indo-Pacific regional security architecture.

Blueprint for Security: Designing Secure Cloud Architectures

The research paper delves into the imperative of robust security frameworks within cloud computing environments, addressing the prevalent challenges and vulnerabilities that accompany the cloud's expansive utilization across industries. This study underscores the necessity of foundational security principles, such as least privilege, role-based access control, and comprehensive data encryption, aiming to fortify cloud infrastructures against escalating cyber threats. The paper provides a thorough analysis of contemporary security practices, including network segmentation, the deployment of intrusion detection systems, and rigorous compliance protocols, to ensure resilient and secure cloud operations. Additionally, it evaluates cutting-edge tools and technologies, like automated security solutions and AI-driven threat detection systems, which are pivotal in enhancing security postures and mitigating risks in dynamic cloud ecosystems. Through a series of case studies, the paper highlights successful implementations and extracts critical lessons from historical security breaches, offering actionable insights and strategies to design inherently secure cloud architectures. This study not only synthesizes complex security requirements into actionable architecture blueprints but also anticipates future challenges and technological advancements, making it a vital resource for professionals and organizations aiming to leverage cloud computing securely and efficiently.

Internet of vehicles security situation awareness based on intrusion detection protection systems

With the rise of technologies such as mobile Internet, 5G networks and artificial intelligence, the development of Internet of Vehicle Information Security (ICVS) has become the mainstream and direction for the future development of the automotive industry. ICVS, people, roads, clouds, and APP constitute a complex network of vehicles. As part of the Internet, vehicle networking will inevitably face various complex information security threats and risks. This paper aims to design a kind of security situation awareness of Internet of vehicles based on intrusion detection protection systems (IDPS). By collecting the security data of car, app and private cloud for big data analysis, the whole smart car security situation awareness system is constructed. The system can be used to analyze potential threats, send out warnings, and carry out emergency responses.

Subwersja w polityce (nie)bezpieczeństwa w Europie Wschodniej: wybrane problemy

In the 21st century, subversion understood as a foreign disruptive activity, has become an element of security policy and power politics in an environment where the direct use of force may be too risky. Though this term is well-known in humanities in Poland, it hasn’t yet been translated and literally applied by Polish political scholars. However, states’ repertoire includes measures that are a continuation or even a substitute of “war”, and their very objectives are consistent with the logic of subversive strategies known in arts. As opposed to direct violence, such operations aim at maintaining conditions between political weakness and failure by targeting fragile areas. In this vein, subversion appears to become the first strategic choice of many states, including world powers. The author introduces the term to the taxonomy of security studies as he starts from a semantic theoretical reasoning (subversion as a covert and indirect strategy) and later answers how subversive strategies are implemented in Eastern Europe. In a specific geopolitical context, i.e. in the intersection of transatlantic/European security complex and post-Soviet area, subversion is part and parcel of the Kremlin policy towards Georgia and Ukraine, and recently the Republic of Belarus towards Poland. Therefore, subversive, “short of war” measures are intended to force competitors to make political concessions, which defines the Russian (in)security policy in its “near (and a bit further) abroad”.