Enhanced Security Solutions Research Articles

Enabling Finger-Touch-Based Mobile User Authentication via Physical Vibrations on IoT Devices

This work enables mobile user authentication via finger inputs on ubiquitous surfaces leveraging low-cost physical vibration. The system we proposed extends finger-input authentication beyond touch screens to any solid surface for IoT devices (e.g., smart access systems and IoT appliances). Unlike passcode or biometrics-based solutions, it integrates passcode, behavioral and physiological characteristics, and surface dependency together to provide a low-cost, tangible and enhanced security solution. The proposed system builds upon a touch sensing technique with vibration signals that can operate on surfaces constructed from a broad range of materials. New algorithms are developed to discriminate fine-grained finger inputs and supports three independent passcode secrets including PIN number, lock pattern, and simple gestures by extracting unique features in the frequency domain to capture both behavioral and physiological characteristics including contacting area, touching force, and etc. The system is implemented using a single pair of low-cost portable vibration motor and receiver that can be easily attached to any surface (e.g., a door panel, a stovetop or an appliance). Extensive experiments demonstrate that our system can authenticate users with high accuracy (e.g., more than 97 percent within two trials), low false positive rate (e.g., less 2 percent) and is robust to various types of attacks.

Airports’ Crisis Management Processes and Stakeholders Involved

Airports are exposed to various physical incidents that can be classified as aviation and non-aviation related incidents, including terrorist attacks, bombings, natural disasters (e.g. earthquake or tsunami and man-made disasters such as terrorist attacks) etc. (Kanyi, Kamau, & Mireri, 2016). In addition to this, cyber-attacks to airport operations are emerging especially with the increasing use of Information Systems (IS), such as electronic tags for baggage handling and tracking, remote check-in, smart boarding gates, faster and more reliable security screening technologies and biometric immigration controls etc. Any physical or cyber incident that causes loss of infrastructure or massive patient surge, such as natural disasters, terrorist acts, or chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or explosive hazards could affect the airports’ services provision and could cause overwhelming pressure. During the crisis management, several stakeholders that have different needs and requirements, get involved in the process, trying to cooperate, respond and support recovery and impact mitigation. The aim of this paper is to present a holistic security agenda that defines the stakeholders involved in the respective processes followed during the crisis management cycle. This agenda is based both on normative literature, such as relevant standards, guidelines, and practices and on knowledge and feedback extrapolated from a case study conducted in the context of the SATIE project (H2020-GA832969). In meeting paper’s aim, initially the normative review of the phases of the crisis management cycle (preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation) in the context of airports as well as general practices applied, are presented. Moreover, the key airport stakeholders and operation centres involved in airports operations, as well as during the crisis management are analysed. By combining the information collected, a holistic cyber and physical crisis management cycle including the stakeholders and the relevant processes are proposed. The crisis management process is taken into consideration into the SATIE project, which aims to build a security toolkit in order to protect critical air transport infrastructures against combined cyber-physical threats. This toolkit will rely on a complete set of semantic rules that will improve the interoperability between existing systems and enhanced security solutions, in order to ensure more efficient threat prevention, threat and anomaly detection, incident response and impact mitigation, across infrastructures, populations and environment.

An RFID-Based Smart Structure for the Supply Chain: Resilient Scanning Proofs and Ownership Transfer with Positive Secrecy Capacity Channels.

The National Strategy for Global Supply Chain Security published in 2012 by the White House identifies two primary goals for strengthening global supply chains: first, to promote the efficient and secure movement of goods, and second to foster a resilient supply chain. The Internet of Things (IoT), and in particular Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology, can be used to realize these goals. For product identification, tracking and real-time awareness, RFID tags are attached to goods. As tagged goods move along the supply chain from the suppliers to the manufacturers, and then on to the retailers until eventually they reach the customers, two major security challenges can be identified: (I) to protect the shipment of goods that are controlled by potentially untrusted carriers; and (II) to secure the transfer of ownership at each stage of the chain. For the former, grouping proofs in which the tags of the scanned goods generate a proof of “simulatenous” presence can be employed, while for the latter, ownership transfer protocols (OTP) are used. This paper describes enhanced security solutions for both challenges. We first extend earlier work on grouping proofs and group codes to capture resilient group scanning with untrusted readers; then, we describe a modified version of a recently published OTP based on channels with positive secrecy capacity adapted to be implemented on common RFID systems in the supply chain. The proposed solutions take into account the limitations of low cost tags employed in the supply chain, which are only required to generate pseudorandom numbers and compute one-way hash functions.

Privacy enhancement using selective encryption scheme in data outsourcing

In this article, we introduce a practical scheme that dynamically secures and outsources data on demand as well as propose a corresponding architecture to securely process data in database service provider. We also adopt the application of bring your own device in this scheme as an enhanced security solution. After studying over 1300 database models, we expect this scheme can be applied in production with justifiable result.

A Study on the Authentication and Security of Financial Settlement Using the Finger Vein Technology in Wireless Internet Environment

The development of the wireless communication allows all of the information to be saved in the digital storage device rapidly. Due to this, hacking and information leakage incidents are rapidly increasing. The scale of the problem however has gradually increased and the targeted industries have become much more diverse, which further points to the severity of the issue. Consequently, there are efforts to develop a security system in order to protect the information, yet at the same time the hacking technology has also advanced, causing an astronomical damage at an increasing state. This has led to the demand for a more convenient and cutting-edge enhanced security solutions. This demand has birthed the security authentication technology which merges biometrics and ICT capabilities. However, numerous biometrics technologies carry problems when deployed as means of security authentication solution for financial services due to their low level of recognition success rate, easy duplication, avoid recognition, terminal minimization difficulties and more. Finger vein recognition technology which is impossible to duplicate with a very high level of recognition rate has emerged as the biometrics authentication solution for financial services. This study recommended an authentication security model for financial services that use finger vein solution to strengthen financial services' safety and to protect information.

Evaluation of Enhanced Security Solutions in 802.11-Based Networks

Traditionally, 802.11-based networks that relied on wired equivalent protocol (WEP) were especially vulnerable to packet sniffing. Today, wireless networks are more prolific, and the monitoring devices used to find them are mobile and easy to access. Securing wireless networks can be difficult because these networks consist of radio transmitters and receivers, and anybody can listen, capture data and attempt to compromise it. In recent years, a range of technologies and mechanisms have helped makes networking more secure. This paper holistically evaluated various enhanced protocols proposed to solve WEP related authentication, confidentiality and integrity problems. It discovered that strength of each solution depends on how well the encryption, authentication and integrity techniques work. The work suggested using a Defence-in-Depth Strategy and integration of biometric solution in 802.11i. Comprehensive in-depth comparative analysis of each of the security mechanisms is driven by review of related work in WLAN security solutions.

Evaluation of Enhanced Security Solutions in 802.11-Based Networks

Traditionally, 802.11-based networks that relied on wired equivalent protocol (WEP) were especially vulnerable to packet sniffing. Today, wireless networks are more prolific, and the monitoring devices used to find them are mobile and easy to access. Securing wireless networks can be difficult because these networks consist of radio transmitters and receivers, and anybody can listen, capture data and attempt to compromise it. In recent years, a range of technologies and mechanisms have helped make networking more secure. This paper holistically evaluated various enhanced protocols proposed to solve WEP related authentication, confidentiality and integrity problems. It discovered that strength of each solution depends on how well the encryption, authentication and integrity techniques work. The work suggested using a Defence-in-Depth Strategy and integration of biometric solution in 802.11i. Comprehensive in-depth comparative analysis of each of the security mechanisms is driven by review of related work in WLAN security solutions.

An Enhanced Security Solution for Electronic Medical Records Based on AES Hybrid Technique with SOAP/XML and SHA-1

This study aims to provide security solutions for implementing electronic medical records (EMRs). E-Health organizations could utilize the proposed method and implement recommended solutions in medical/health systems. Majority of the required security features of EMRs were noted. The methods used were tested against each of these security features. In implementing the system, the combination that satisfied all of the security features of EMRs was selected. Secure implementation and management of EMRs facilitate the safeguarding of the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of e-health organization systems. Health practitioners, patients, and visitors can use the information system facilities safely and with confidence anytime and anywhere. After critically reviewing security and data transmission methods, a new hybrid method was proposed to be implemented on EMR systems. This method will enhance the robustness, security, and integration of EMR systems. The hybrid of simple object access protocol/extensible markup language (XML) with advanced encryption standard and secure hash algorithm version 1 has achieved the security requirements of an EMR system with the capability of integrating with other systems through the design of XML messages.

A pyramidal trust computing model for peer-to-peer networks inspired from social network

Trust is an important tool in human life to cope with the uncertainty caused by the free will of others. Uncertainty and uncontrollability are also important issues in peer-to-peer (P2P) environments. A computational model of trust and its implementation can alleviate this problem. In this paper, we design a pyramidal trust management (PTM) model inspired from some phenomena of social networks. First, we propose the algorithms for trustworthiness evaluation, trust community formation, and PTM. Then, we describe the system implementation to demonstrate how to derive the trust mechanisms enhanced security solutions for peers' protection and QoS of network. Finally, we demonstrate through simulation that there is a significant improvement in network performance by applying the proposed trust management architecture.