Defensive Measures Research Articles

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.

Security Monitoring System of Ideological Guiding Network Environment Based on DDOS Offense And Defense

This article is based on DDos offense and defense, taking the security monitoring mechanism of college network ideological and political management as the research object, starting with the analysis of the basic connotation of college network ideological and political education management mechanism, and expounding the definition, characteristics and functions of college network ideological and political education management mechanism. Through demand analysis, the design idea of the network information security monitoring system is given, and the system design framework and functional module division are described. Secondly, taking the security attack of the ideological network as an example, the security defense measures for constructing the ideological education network are proposed from the practical level.

Characteristic Analysis of Four Major Nighttime Fire Cases on Fire Safety of Long-Term Care Institutions Using Fire Protection Defense-In-Depth Strategy

Providing high-quality care services and fire safety for long-term care institutions is an important issue in Taiwan, which became an aging society in 2018. The fire incidents in Taiwan over the years show that nighttime fires in care institutions often cause serious casualties. It is necessary not only to understand the causes of serious nighttime fire incidents that have occurred but also to draw lessons from the fires that have been put out without causing injuries. In this study, the top two serious nighttime fire accidents in long-term care institutions in the past two decades in Taiwan were analyzed based on the publicly official and academic literature utilizing fire protection defense-in-depth strategies. For comparison, two other nighttime fire cases with similar scenarios but no casualties were also analyzed in depth about the cause of no casualties. The buildings of the four nighttime fires were equipped with fire protection equipment in their public areas. The theoretical basis of the research is the fire protection defense-in-depth strategy. In both categories of severe casualties and no severe casualties, one was caused by arson and the other one by an electrical fire, with the ignition point of a fire in the storeroom and the other in the ward. However, the end results were quite different. The analyzed results showed that the severe fires lasted for about an hour, while the fires without casualties were put out within 15 min. A well-constructed second layer of defense measures could effectively contain a fire, and an effective third layer of measures could avoid casualties. The death rate of personnel can be reduced from a dozen to zero, and the burning time is also greatly reduced. The results could be used as a reference for emergency measures in long-term care institutions.

Great Power Rivalry in the Indian Ocean and its impact on Pakistan

Over the past 20 years, the Indian Ocean's (IO) strategic maritime environment has seen significant change. As a result of defense and security measures, regional emphasis has abruptly switched from territorial to maritime borders, having a significant impact on transnational ties. This study addresses the historical context of the strategic maritime environment of the Indian Ocean as well as evolving patterns of the US, China, and Indian presence as main competitors. The US is using its counterbalancing policy against China by improving its relations with India in the Indian Ocean. China through its Belt and Road Initiative and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, envisions a "Common Future, Common Growth" agenda. The Asia-Pacific rebalancing is replaced by the US Indo-Pacific Strategy. Iran's strategic interests in the Indian Ocean are connected to its strategic need to use oil diplomacy to break out of its "geopolitical isolation” because of US rivalry. The European Union observes from the side lobes the political and strategic events in the Indian Ocean. Pakistan has a tremendous geostrategic advantage due to its presence at the entrance to energy highways, especially in light of China's BRI and its centerpiece CPEC. This study analyses the struggle for hegemony in the Indian Ocean and offers Pakistan policy recommendations.

1946. The “Straits Crisis” as Reflected in the Intelligence Reports of the Romanian Military Attaché to the Republic of Türkiye Office’s Secretary

"The “Straits Question” has long been a factor of tension in the Black Sea area, because of Russia and later the Soviet Union’s desire to control the Bosporus and Dardanelles, mainly with the aim of turning the Black Sea into a “Russian lake”. After the end of the Second World War, in full ascension as a victorious country and in the tradition of Tsarist Russia, the Soviet Union tried to take control of the Straits through political and military pressure to the detriment of Türkiye, although the Soviet Union had signed the Montreux Convention in 1936, which established the predominant role of the Republic of Türkiye in the control of naval traffic in the Straits, especially in wartime. The atmosphere so heavy with tension from the autumn of 1946, when the outbreak of a war between the USSR and Türkiye seemed inevitable, is reflected in the intelligence reports prepared by the secretary of the Office of the Romanian military attaché to the Republic of Türkiye. The documents include the first defence measures taken by Türkiye at a political and military level, the effects of the “Straits Crisis” on the Turkish population and the beginning of the process of Türkiye’s rapprochement with the USA and the Great Britain, a process that ended with the accession of the Republic of Türkiye to NATO in 1952."

A Network Security Prediction Method Based on Attack Defense Tree

Modern networks are vulnerable to coordinated assaults. To perform threat analysis on individual and combined attack behaviors, it is essential to establish a security situation analysis model based on offensive and defensive decisions. The standard attack tree model used in this study ignores the impact of defenses, and the defensive tree model is not well scalable. Game theory is introduced into the attack tree model to describe specific network attack and defense event scenarios. First, analyze the logical relationship of different levels of attack behaviors in the network, integrate the offensive and defensive trees corresponding to different levels of attack events, to obtain a complete network offensive and defensive behavior tree, and then build a network offensive and defensive behavior tree model. Second, the basic offensive and defensive behavior tree extends from network offensive and defensive behavior, network detection equipment, and network defense measures. Propose an algorithm for the success rate of the attack target and calculate its attack probability. Based on these findings, we assess the potential for an attack and investigate the current state of network defenses. An offensive and defensive behavior tree model based on the BGP (Border Gateway protoc01) attack tree was developed in order to test the viability and efficacy of the network offensive and defensive behavior tree model. The network attack and defensive behavior tree model brought out in this study is capable of performing a wide range of calculations. The effect of defensive measures, as well as the ability to add and delete offensive and defensive behaviors at any node, has strong scalability and can provide a scientific basis for decision-making for network managers and operators.

Research on Network Security Situation Awareness and Dynamic Game Based on Deep Q Learning Network

<p>In today’s increasingly complex network environment, increasingly severe network attacks, and real-time dynamic changes in offensive and defensive scenarios, network security technology has also evolved from passive security to active security technology, and expanded from analyzing unilateral security elements to comprehensively analyzing overall network security. Aiming at the problem of inaccurate assessment results due to the lack of comprehensive analysis of threat information, protection information and environmental information in existing assessment methods, this paper proposes a defensive random game model. This model analyzes threat propagation and establishes a threat propagation access relationship network, and then establishes a random game model for the game process of threat action and protection strategy implementation to solve the mixed strategy Nash equilibrium. The model comprehensively analyzes the dynamic changes of the security situation elements, ignoring the short-term situation elements that will not change, such as topology structure, service information, etc., and mainly analyzes the dynamic changes of attack information, vulnerability information, and defense measures, and predicts from the host and network levels. The experimental verification shows that the prediction method in this paper can improve the prediction accuracy and is more in line with the offensive and defensive scenarios.</p> <p> </p>

1946. „Criza strâmtorilor” reflectată în rapoartele informative ale secretarului biroului atașatului militar român în Republica Turcia

"The “Straits Question” has long been a factor of tension in the Black Sea area, because of Russia and later the Soviet Union’s desire to control the Bosporus and Dardanelles, mainly with the aim of turning the Black Sea into a “Russian lake”. After the end of the Second World War, in full ascension as a victorious country and in the tradition of Tsarist Russia, the Soviet Union tried to take control of the Straits through political and military pressure to the detriment of Türkiye, although the Soviet Union had signed the Montreux Convention in 1936, which established the predominant role of the Republic of Türkiye in the control of naval traffic in the Straits, especially in wartime. The atmosphere so heavy with tension from the autumn of 1946, when the outbreak of a war between the USSR and Türkiye seemed inevitable, is reflected in the intelligence reports prepared by the secretary of the Office of the Romanian military attaché to the Republic of Türkiye. The documents include the first defence measures taken by Türkiye at a political and military level, the effects of the “Straits Crisis” on the Turkish population and the beginning of the process of Türkiye’s rapprochement with the USA and the Great Britain, a process that ended with the accession of the Republic of Türkiye to NATO in 1952."

Categorizing Cyber Activity Through an Information-psychological and Information-technological Perspective, Case Ukraine.

Russian approach to warfighting includes an informational facet. Western hemisphere usually treats cyber activity as a tool similar to traditional warfighting tools such as rifles, artillery and tanks, whereas the Russian approach has an informational and narrative stance to the whole conflict. Placing information in the focus, switches the cyber activity to serve either an informational-psychological or an informational-technical approach. Examining the activity from this non-conventional trait and correlating it to other activities during the execution, the study highlights the coordination of kinetic and non-kinetic actions in an altered manner. In this article I am examining cyber activity through the terms of information-psychological and information-technological approach to form an understanding of Russian or Russian supported activities in cyber space before and during the Ukraine crisis. This will recognize types of cyber activity connected to actions in the physical environment. Actions identified are categorized and placed in a matrix created on psychological and/or technical clout. From this matrix groups of activities are scrutinized in correlation to other activities to expose possible narratives or underlying themes. The study relies on a variant of Grounded theory and is selected to elude from examine technical methods and actions. The observed timeframe is for the first study from 2021, well before the current hot phase, until summer 2022. This article is the first part of a two-stage study, where the first part examines cyber activity through the terms of information-psychological and information-technological approach. The second study places the previous findings in correlation to actions, reactions and mitigation activities to find out how defensive measures were relevant or if the outcome were result of something else than deliberate defensive (cyber-)activities. Throughout the larger study, the underlying hypothesis is that there is a larger coordination of cyber activities than acknowledged related to the ongoing crisis.

Slope Stability Analysis for a Large Hydropower Station in China

Hydropower plants (including the switching station) built in the middle and southern section of the north–south zone of China are always situated in complex geological settings of transition zones from strong to weak earthquakes with active faults. It is of great importance to carry out careful evaluation of the slope stability considering various loading scenarios to ensure safe operation of the power stations. By using the rigid body limit equilibrium method and the finite element method, the effects of long-term load and seismic load on slope stability for a large hydropower station were studied. The results show that the slope safety factors of the station meet the stability requirements when the slope is under long-term load and under the action of the Wenchuan and Lushan earthquake loads. The stability of the slope is guaranteed. However, the risk analysis of the slope stability under the action of the design earthquake load shows that the slope safety factor is less than the accidental working condition safety factor of 1.05. Under the action of a strong earthquake, the crumbling block gravel soil layer in the shallow natural slope slides and destabilizes, which is obviously beyond its protection capacity, and therefore, effective seismic defense measures should be developed to ensure the safety of the personnel and equipment operating in the power station and switching station.

Private disaster expenditures by rural Bangladeshi households: evidence from survey data

ABSTRACT This paper investigates household’s private expenditures to cope with the harmful losses of climate change and disasters. Using household-level survey data from Bangladesh, this paper finds that disaster-affected rural Bangladeshi households allocate between $499 and $1076 in disaster-related expenditures. Such expenditures are always greater than their relevant precautionary savings, implying that those households may debt-finance their defensive measures. Households with greater precautionary savings spend more: a 100% increase in precautionary savings can increase disaster expenditures by 5%. Moreover, there are considerable regional heterogeneities in household’s disaster expenditures. Increased public sector allocations in addition to carefully designed affordable market-based financing instruments can potentially ease the pressure on disaster-affected households in their fight against the harms of climate change and disaster.

An Integrated Model of Pluvial Flood Risk and Adaptation Measure Evaluation in Shanghai City

Under climate warming, the frequency and intensity of extreme rainstorms-induced urban pluvial floods are significantly increasing, leading to severe flooding risks in megacities. An integrated model that incorporates rainfall processing, waterlogging simulation, GIS spatial analysis, risk assessment, and measure evaluation was developed, optimizing both the assessment procedure and the computing efficiency for assessing pluvial flood risk and adaptation measures. The historic “9.13” extreme rainstorm event is simulated, showing excellent consistency of inundation depth and area compared to Shanghai’s “110” alarm validation records. Three extreme rainstorm scenarios, using return periods of 200a, 500a, and 1000a, were generated to evaluate the flooding risk and measures’ performance. The results show that the low-lying areas in the solution district are the most inundated region based on the existing defense measures. The maximum inundation depth of high-extreme rainstorm scenarios is up to 1.5 m, and the low-lying areas would still be above 1 m even in low-extreme scenarios. Increasing the drainage capacity can effectively reduce the total loss by 80% in the low-extreme scenario, yet still suffering a significant loss in both moderate-extreme and high-extreme scenarios. The integrated model can provide technical support for the rapid evaluation of flood control prevention capabilities.

Relationship between Potential Trace Elements Contamination in Sediment and Macrofauna in the Upper Gulf of Thailand.

The relationship between heavy metal contamination in sediment and macrofauna in the upper Gulf of Thailand is presented as an indication of the environmental quality of coastal waters. This study aims to monitor five heavy metal elements (As, Cd, Mn, Ni, and Pb) between sediment and the sandworm (Perinereis quatrefagesi (P. quatrefagesi)). The geoaccumulation index (I geo), enrichment factor (EF), and contamination factor (CF), including the pollution load index (PLI), were used for statistical analyses by one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and differences in the data were compared using the least significant difference (LSD) test. The sediment heavy metal concentrations were found to decrease (Al > Mn > Pb > Ni > Cd > As), and the quantity of heavy metal contamination in the sediment was not over the emergency point defined by the Pollution Control Department in Thailand. The Mn at the SH and SP points has I geo > 0 but <1 and is considered not polluted to moderately polluted. The EF overall is <2 and is deficient in mineral enrichment. The CF of the Samut Sakhon (SH) and Samut Prakan (SP) sites had high Al and Mn values, indicating a low pollution level, but the PLI had an all-site average of 0.0215 ± 0.0252, which is <1. This indicates that the present areas are close to ideal and not polluted. To measure heavy metals in macrofauna, P. quatrefagesi was assessed, and concentrations were found to decrease (Mn > Ni > Cd > Pb > As). The Mn between sediment and the sandworm was directly correlated (r = 0.976; p < 0.01). The sandworm performs as a bioindicator for the quality of coastal sediment, specifically with Mn; thus, the result present at a baseline level may grow in the future if there is no control measure for defensive measures.

Random Routing Algorithm for Enhancing the Cybersecurity of LEO Satellite Networks

The recent expansion of networks of low-earth orbit (LEO) satellites such as Starlink, OneWeb, and Telesat and the evolution of communication systems toward B5G and 6G with densely interconnected devices could generate opportunities for various cyber attacks. As the satellite network offers many crucial services to the public and governmental organizations, cyberattacks pose severe risks to the communication infrastructure. In this study, we propose a random routing algorithm to prevent distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks on an LEO satellite constellation network. The routing algorithm utilizes the classical algorithms, i.e., k-DG, k-DS, k-SP, and k-LO, by introducing randomness and selecting one with weighted probability distribution to increase the uncertainty in the algorithm. The study shows that the proposed random routing algorithm improves the average and median cost of the attacker against DDoS attacks while maintaining the functionality of the network. The algorithm is optimized by formulating a Bayesian optimization problem. In addition to providing an additional level of uncertainty in the routing, there is an improvement of 1.71% in the average cost and 2.05% in the median cost in a typical scenario. The algorithm causes the network to be robust to cyber attacks against LEO Satellite Networks (LSNs), however, similar to any other defensive measures, it reduces the network’s goodput.

Automated Estimation of Crop Yield Using Artificial Intelligence and Remote Sensing Technologies.

Agriculture is the backbone of any country, and plays a viable role in the total gross domestic product (GDP). Healthy and fruitful crops are of immense importance for a government to fulfill the food requirements of its inhabitants. Because of land diversities, weather conditions, geographical locations, defensive measures against diseases, and natural disasters, monitoring crops with human intervention becomes quite challenging. Conventional crop classification and yield estimation methods are ineffective under unfavorable circumstances. This research exploits modern precision agriculture tools for enhanced remote crop yield estimation, and types classification by proposing a fuzzy hybrid ensembled classification and estimation method using remote sensory data. The architecture enhances the pooled images with fuzzy neighborhood spatial filtering, scaling, flipping, shearing, and zooming. The study identifies the optimal weights of the strongest candidate classifiers for the ensembled classification method adopting the bagging strategy. We augmented the imagery datasets to achieve an unbiased classification between different crop types, including jute, maize, rice, sugarcane, and wheat. Further, we considered flaxseed, lentils, rice, sugarcane, and wheat for yield estimation on publicly available datasets provided by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and the Word Bank DataBank. The ensemble method outperformed the individual classification methods for crop type classification on an average of 13% and 24% compared to the highest gradient boosting and lowest decision tree methods, respectively. Similarly, we observed that the gradient boosting predictor outperformed the multivariate regressor, random forest, and decision tree regressor, with a comparatively lower mean square error value on yield years 2017 to 2021. Further, the proposed architecture supports embedded devices, where remote devices can adopt a lightweight classification algorithm, such as MobilenetV2. This can significantly reduce the processing time and overhead of a large set of pooled images.

Study on Approaching Critical Discourse Analysis

Taking Biden’s Interim National Security Strategic Guidance in 2021 as a case, this paper discusses the legalization of political discourse with the application of Proximization theory. It is found that Biden made full use of the strategy of spatial, temporal and axiological proximization in the Interim National Security Strategic Guidance to legalize the remediation actions of the United States. Specifically, in terms of spatial proximization, Biden explicitly uses two opposing groups, and focuses on understanding the invasion process and influence of external entities on internal entities in discourse space, so that listeners can get intuitive feelings to ban the legitimacy of the other party’s encroachment. Secondly, in the strategy of temporal proximization, Biden adopted the concept of “coming to the present” and presupposed the threat of external entities to the future, so as to legalize his defense measures. On the axiological proximization, Biden’s government highlights its positive attitude towards external threats, emphasizes its defense of national interests, and strives to enhance the legitimacy of its own actions, so as to create a positive image, provide legal basis for the implementation of its various policies and measures, and thus implement its own foreign policy more easily.

Defensive capability optimization of consecutive k-out-of-n: F system under deterministic risks

Consecutive k-out-of-n Systems are widely used in practical engineering, including pipeline systems, quality control sampling systems, and vacuum acceleration systems. This paper focuses on how to evaluate the system&apos;s defensive capability quantitatively. Under cost constraints, the optimization model of defensive capability for consecutive k-out-of-n: F systems are established. The genetic algorithm based on defensive importance measure is designed to solve the mentioned mathematical model. The results of simulation experiments verify that defensive importance-based optimization algorithm applies to solving the optimal configuration under various risk scenarios, and the distribution laws of the optimal configuration under continuous risk or equal interval risks are summarized.

From Plant Nursery to Field: Persistence of Mycorrhizal Symbiosis Balancing Effects on Growth-Defence Tradeoffs Mediated by Rootstock

The plant domestication process led to crops with strongly modified growth-defense tradeoff features, and crops that were much more pampered in terms of nutrition, irrigation and defense measures, showing less ability to trigger adaptation strategies with respect to their wild relatives. It is worth noting that plants are not alone, they share their environment with a myriad of microbes supporting them with many relevant functions. We have already demonstrated that an arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal (AMF) inoculum (formed by two AMF species, i.e., Rhizophagus irregularis and Funneliformis mosseae) is able to balance growth and defense responses in two grapevine rootstocks with opposite tradeoff features. In the present study, we evaluated the persistence of AMF-mediated balancing effects under field conditions, confirming the positive impact of the symbiosis in vineyards. In detail, some genes related to nitrogen (N) uptake and metabolism were specifically modulated by the presence of the symbionts, while others were not. Additionally, photosynthetic performances and stilbenes accumulation were influenced by the AMF presence. Overall, our results open new questions about the timing of AMF inoculation in grapevine to obtain a stable and functional symbiosis, suggesting that an early inoculation can facilitate the interaction between grapevine roots and these beneficial microorganisms.

Unearthing the alteration in plant volatiles induced by mycorrhizal fungi: A shield against plant pathogens

Plants produce a large range of structurally varied low molecular weight secondary metabolites, which evaporate, known as volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Several of them are emitted in response to biotic stress as a defensive measure against pathogen attacks. Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMFs) can change the VOC pattern in parts of the plant and may promote plant defense via direct or indirect mechanisms. Mycorrhization of plants positively affects plant immunization along with growth and yield. The presence of AMF may raise the concentration of phenolic compounds and the activity of critical defense-related enzymes. AMF-induced changes in plant chemistry and associated volatile emissions lead to stronger immunity against pathogenic microorganisms. Despite substantial research into the origins of diversity in VOC-mediated plant communication, very little is known about the mechanism of influence of several AMFs on plant VOC emissions and modulation of plant immunization. Moreover, the molecular mechanism for VOC sensing in plants and mycorrhizal association is still unclear. In the present review, we have presented an up-to-date understanding of the cross-talk of AMF and VOC patterns in plants and the subsequent modulation of resistance against microbial pathogens.

МЕТОДИКА РОБОТИ КОМАНДИРА І ШТАБУ ВІЙСЬКОВОЇ ЧАСТИНИ З ОРГАНІЗАЦІЇ ОБОРОННОГО БОЮ ВНОЧІ ПІД ЧАС ВИКОНАННЯ ЗАВДАНЬ ІЗ ЗАБЕЗПЕЧЕННЯ ДЕРЖАВНОЇ БЕЗПЕКИ

The analysis of the experience of the use of units in repulsing the aggression of the russian federation, as well as the experience of combat operations during the operations of the joint forces (anti-terrorist operation), shows that the enemy widely uses offensive and assault actions at night to achieve suddenness, stealth and continuity of actions. Obviously, this requires the Defense Forces of Ukraine to achieve such a degree of readiness that allows them to perform defense and state security tasks as effectively as during the day. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to look for new, more appropriate ways of organizing and conducting defensive operations at night during performance of state security tasks. To date, the issues of the organization of light support for the battle, the content of the Plan for the light support of the defensive battle and measures to illuminate the area and blind the enemy have not been fully developed. The article presents the existing methods of work used by commanders and staffs of military units and units regarding the organization of defensive combat during performance of state security tasks, an analysis of existing methods was carried out, and an improved method of work of commanders and staffs of a military unit regarding the organization of light support and the development of a Light Support Plan as an appendix to the Battle Plan is proposed. With the developed concept of fighting at night, it is necessary to reflect how units (formed battalion tactical groups) will perform tasks within the scope of the command's intent. The initial data for working out the shown plan are the corresponding tactical schemes of calculations, which are formed in the form of tables and graphs.