1. H. Debar. Editoral.
2. P. Attfield, Ming-Yuh Huang. Real-World Access Control Systematic Failures Reality or Virtual Reality?
3. V. Broucek, P. Turner. Considerations for E-Forensics: Insights Into Implications of Uncoordinated Technical, Organisational and Legal Responses to Illegal or Inappropriate on-line Behaviours
4. D. Cvrcek, V. Matyas, M. Kumpost. On Privacy Classification in Ubiquitous Computing Systems
5. N. Prigent, Ch. Bidan. Securing Devices Communities in Spontaneous Networks
6. V. Lokazyuk, O. Pomorova. The Problems of Information Defence in Diagnosis Intelligent Systems of Microprocessor Devices
7. A. Fragopoulos, D. Serpanos. Sources of Randomness for Use in Random Number Generation
8. G. Loutsky, V. Shyrotchin, V. Mukhin. Integrated Systems of Information Security in Computer Networks
9. A. Horpenyuk. Fast Algorithms and Computing Means of Cryptological Functions
10. S. Singh, A. Agbaria, F. Stevens, T. Courtney, J. Meyer, W. Sanders, P. Pal. Validation of a Survivable Publish-Subscribe System
11. A. Piskozub. Modern Approaches of Securing Computer Networks From Denial of Service Attacks
12. A. Shiibashi, K. Mori. Autonomous Decentralized Data Consistency for High-Assurance Embedded System
13. I. Kotenko, A. Ulanov. Agent-Based Simulation of DDoS Attacks and Defense Mechanisms
14. Z. Karakehayov, I. Radev. A Scalable Security Servicefor Geographic Ad-Hoc Routing

Research Directions in Information Systems Security

Dr. Herve Debar

Expert Senior France Telecom R&D 42 rue des coutures BP 62 43 F-14066 Caen France Email: herve.debar@francetelecom.com

This special issue is collection of recent contributions in theory and applications in information systems security presented at the NATO Advanced Research Workshop "Cyberspace Security and Defence: Research Issues" in Gdansk, Poland, at the "Security and Embedded Systems" NATO Workshop in Patras, Greece, and solicited from experts in the information security community. The objectives of the workshop were to bring together leading experts from NATO and NATO-Partner countries to identify, discuss key research issues, formulate possible R&D directions and discover potential collaboration opportunities related to defending Cyberspace against massive and deliberate attacks attempting to disable or damage large-scale national communication, economy, Internet and defence systems. All together, the collected papers represent a significant overview of research contributions and state of the art in information systems security. Increasingly, our information society relies on pervasive IP networks for many functions that were previously handled by proprietary systems. As a consequence, the value of IP networks has significantly increased, and they have become an interesting target for malicious activity. Once the realm of experts looking to increase their knowledge of technology, this malicious activity is now performed on a large scale, and intended to induce monetary gain for the perpetrator. Business failures can be linked to information system compromises, and the upgrade of mission-critical systems such as banking networks or energy networks to IP protocols create new avenues for old fraud schemes and new avenues for fraud. In this difficult landscape, a significant effort has been undertaken to promote research in information systems security. It is the objective of this special issue to contribute – modestly – to the state of the art and to promote work in this area. This special issue is structured around three main themes, introduction to the problem and user-related issues, basic technologies and applied research results.

The introduction series presents several facets of the security problem, from the legal and technical standpoint, with an emphasis on the impact that these new security challenges have on the end user. The following series of papers was selected for presentation in this journal. Philip Attfield and Ming-Yuh Huang: “Real-World Access Control Systematic Failures; Reality or Virtual Reality?” opens the special issue by walking the reader through a real cyber-security case, illustrating the threats that we are facing today and the consequences that successful security compromises can carry. Vlasti Broucek and Paul Turner: “Considerations for e-forensics: Insights into Implications of Uncoordinated Technical, Organisational and Legal Responses to Illegal or Inappropriate On-line Behaviours” tackles the issues related to the discovery of malicious activity, and the fact that treatment of this malicious activity is often not planned in advance. Dan Cvrcek, Vaclav Matyas and Marek Kumpost: “On privacy classification in ubiquitous computing systems” proposes a taxonomy of privacy properties, a particularly important aspect of security that has bearing on the handling of private data and the formalization of the confidentiality property. As information systems enable processing large amounts of private data, privacy requirements will demand advanced theory and improved user control. Christophe Bidan and Nicolas Prigent: “Securing device communities in spontaneous networks” introduce us to the world of autonomous networks used in home and small offices devices, with little in the way of configuration, and provide mechanisms for establishing secure exchanges between devices with low configuration requirements. As computing devices and home networks become prevalent in houses, the need for simple and trustworthy devices and protocols will increase.

The basic technologies series highlights interesting technological advances for basic security functions. The following series of papers was selected for presentation in this journal. Viktor Lokazyuk and Oksana Pomorowa: “The problems of information defence in diagnosis intelligent systems of microprocessor devices” introduces biometric-assisted user authentication. User keystrokes are modelled by a neural network and enable reliable and continuous user authentication as the user accesses the information system. Anastasios Fragopoulos and Dimitrios Serpanos: “Sources of randomness for use in random number generation” proposes advanced techniques for generating random numbers. Random numbers are the basis for many cryptographic protocols, and the security of these protocols actually requires that these random numbers are truly random. G. Loutsky, Valery Shyrotchin and Vadim Mukhin: “Integrated systems of information security in computer networks” present a method for integrating data security at the design phase in an information system. The systematic and adaptive approach presented in this paper specifies requirements for the conservation of security properties attached to information during the life and operation of an information system or network. Andriy Horpenyuk: “Fast algorithms and computing means of cryptological functions” presents hardware acceleration for encryption algorithms. The paper shows how simple electronic constructs can be used to implement complex encryption algorithms efficiently.

The applied research results series presents research results that describe the security of complex systems. The following series of papers was selected for presentation in this journal. Sankalp Singh, Adnan Agbaria, Fabrice Stevens, Tod Courtney, John F. Meyer, William H. Sanders, Partha Pal: “Validation of a survivable publish-subscribe system” introduces the notion of intrusion tolerance, i.e. of an information system that would be capable of resisting to threats while continuing to perform service. The paper demonstrates that the proposed architecture satisfies the security requirements in a provable manner, ensuring that these properties are enforced by the implemented system. Akio Shiibashi and Kinji Mori: “Autonomous decentralized Data consistency for high assurance embedded systems” tackle a similar problem, but for embedded systems. Networks of embedded devices are becoming prevalent in many environments such as cars, medical systems or manufacturing. Their distributed and ad-hoc nature brings different challenges than classic information systems. The proposed architecture provides security properties to these environments, with an emphasis on high assurance and reliability. Adrian Piskozub: “Modern approaches of securing computer networks from denial of service attacks” presents an advanced taxonomy of denial-of-service attacks and solutions for dealing with these threats. Denial of service attacks are an important threat to Internet-connected systems, and are extremely difficult to handle due to the resiliency mechanisms of the IP protocol. Igor Kotenko and Alexander Ulanov: “Agent-based simulation of ddos attacks and defense mechanisms” proposes an in-depth study of DDoS mechanisms through simulation. This work enables a detailed understanding of the effects of DDoS attacks on computers and network equipment along the path of the attack. Zdravko Karakehayov and Ivan Radev: “A scalable security service for geographic ad-hoc routing” conclude this special issue with a paper on ad-hoc networks. Ad-hoc networks have little capability for configuration and as such are particularly vulnerable to attacks at the routing layer. The proposed secure routing service is evaluated on a simulated sensor networks environment.

We wish you a successful reading and hope that the information collected in this issue will inspire and promote research in information security.

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REAL-WORLD ACCESS CONTROL SYSTEMATIC FAILURES; REALITY OR VIRTUAL REALITY?

Philip Attfield 1), Ming-Yuh Huang 2)

1) President, Northwest Security Institute (NWSI), Seattle, USA, attfield@att.net
2) Associate Technical Fellow, The Boeing Company, Seattle, USA, ming-yuh.huang@boeing.com

This paper examines the true causes of systematic failures of real-world access control within the context of modern business transactions. Today’s business transactions depend heavily on systems that were developed and protected by off-the-shelf, checklist-mentality security technologies/products such as firewalls, intrusion detection systems and anti-virus software. This dependency, as well as the oversight of system level security requirements, frequently leads to incorrect and incomplete security implementation at the business process and transaction levels.
To fully illustrate the critical issues faced by today’s system, this paper utilizes a real-life cyber crime case for analytical purposes. This case was successfully prosecuted by a jury trial at the US Federal Court in Seattle during the period of 1999-2000. It revealed many fatal system security failures and business process trust collapses in an environment involving multiple online web-based systems. The paper then shows how such failures are directly attributed from the inappropriate application of technologies/products based on false assumptions of trust, as well as the lack of appropriate security engineering process during the systems development phase. Observations and recommendations are also made regarding what can be done to enhance security and trust requirements at the levels of business transactions and processes.

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CONSIDERATIONS FOR E-FORENSICS: INSIGHTS INTO IMPLICATIONS OF UNCOORDINATED TECHNICAL, ORGANISATIONAL AND LEGAL RESPONSES TO ILLEGAL OR INAPPROPRIATE ON-LINE BEHAVIOURS

Vlasti Broucek 1), Paul Turner 2)

School of Information Systems, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 87, Hobart TAS 7001, Australia
1) Vlasti.Broucek@utas.edu.au, http://forensics.utas.edu.au/
2) Paul.Turner@utas.edu.au, http://www.utas.edu.au/infosys/

The growing incidence of e-crime and computer misuse has increased demand for effective defensive and offensive solutions. Most responses have tended to focus on discrete sets of technical, organisational or legal challenges, but there is increasing recognition of the need for more integrated solutions that balance security, individual privacy and the generation of legally admissible digital evidence. More importantly, there is also proof to indicate that these fragmented approaches are impairing their own effectiveness due to the inter-relatedness of challenges faced.
This research paper adopts an e-forensic approach to examine the links between technical, organisational and legal responses to the challenges posed by illegal or inappropriate on-line behaviour. The paper acknowledges some of the numerous challenges that remain unresolved in each approach and argues that future developments must be focused on integrated and balanced solutions that are calibrated to address the dynamic and multi-faceted nature of the forensic computing domain.

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ON PRIVACY CLASSIFICATION IN UBIQUITOUS COMPUTING SYSTEMS

Dan Cvrcek 1) 2), Vaclav Matyas 1) 3) and Marek Kumpost 1)

1) Masaryk University Brno, Faculty of Informatics
2) Brno University of Technology, Faculty of Information Technologies
3) Contact author: matyas@fi.muni.cz

Many papers and articles attempt to define or even quantify privacy, typically with a major focus on anonymity. A related research exercise in the area of evidence-based trust models for ubiquitous computing environments has given us an impulse to take a closer look at the definition(s) of privacy in the Common Criteria, which we then transcribed in a bit more formal manner. This led us to a further review of unlinkability, and revision of another semi-formal model allowing for expression of anonymity and unlinkability – the Freiburg Privacy Diamond. We propose new means of describing (obviously only observable) characteristics of a system to reflect the role of contexts for profiling – and linking – users with actions in a system. We believe this approach should allow for evaluating privacy in large data sets.

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SECURING DEVICES COMMUNITIES IN SPONTANEOUS NETWORKS

Nicolas Prigent 1), Christophe Bidan 2)

1) Thomson R&D France, 1, avenue de belle fontaine, BP 19, 35511 Cesson-Sevigne Cedex, France, nicolas.prigent@thomson.net
2) Supelec, Avenue de la Boulaie, BP 81127, 35511 Cesson-Sevigne Cedex, France, christophe.bidan@supelec.fr

We define a community as a set of devices able to communicate permanently or erratically and that share a long term trust relation. Small corporate networks or home networks are typical examples of such communities. Historically, the devices of the same community communicated over physically isolated wired networks. They are currently used over spontaneous networks, the characteristics of which have implications, in terms of their security and the mechanisms that can be used to protect such.
In this article, we present a fully decentralized service of automated configuration of the security mechanisms dedicated to communities of devices that communicate over spontaneous networks. This service is located on each device of the community and manages information related to the environment of the device and to the security policy. Based on this information, it configures dynamically and automatically the security services available on the device to ensure its security and that of the community to which it belongs.

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THE PROBLEMS OF INFORMATION DEFENCE IN DIAGNOSIS INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS OF MICROPROCESSOR DEVICES

Viktor Lokazyuk, Oksana Pomorova

Khmelnitsky National University, System Programming Department, 29016, Khmelnitsky, Kamenetski st., 112 (Ukraine), E-mail: kism@beta.tup.km.ua, haha@rp.km.ua

The method for protection of diagnosis intelligent system of microprocessor devices is represented in the paper. This method based on background authentication of the user in the process of keyboarding. The user’s keystroke dynamics characteristics are the means of authentication. For realization of the user authentication method uses the artificial neural networks of ART2 architecture.

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SOURCES OF RANDOMNESS FOR USE IN RANDOM NUMBER GENERATION

A. G. Fragopoulos 1) and D. N. Serpanos 2)

1), 2) Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering University of Patras GR – 26504 Patras, GREECE {afragop, serpanos}@ee.upatras.gr

Efficient generation of random numbers plays significant role in cryptographic applications. Such a generator has to produce unpredictable and un-correlated random bits. Random number generators are classified as pseudo-random number generators (PRNGs) and true random number generators (TRNGs). The first ones have the disadvantage that they can be proven predictable, while the latter ones can produce true random bits but it is not easy to re-produce specific sequences or implement them in constrained environments and there may exist correlations and biases of produced sequences. A third class of random number generators has been introduced, called hybrid-random number generators (h-RNGs), where there is a combination of a cryptographically strong PRNGs or TRNGs which are seeded, and possibly re-seeded, through a source of randomness with high entropy. In this paper, we present an overview of various sources of randomness that can be used either as direct random number generators or as seed sources in h-RNGs, for application in embedded systems.

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INTEGRATED SYSTEMS OF INFORMATION SECURITY IN COMPUTER NETWORKS

Georgy Loutsky, Valerij Shyrotchin, Vadim Mukhin

National Technical University of Ukraine “Kiev Polytechnic Institute” Ukraine, Kiev, Pr. Pobedy, 37 E-mail: mukhin@comsys.ntu-kpi.kiev.ua

In this paper we suggest the integrated security systems for computer networks, which are adaptive to certain network parameters. Also is suggested the approach to adaptive security systems parameters evaluation based on the analysis of information value changing in time. The main requirements to adaptive security systems are developed.

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FAST ALGORITHMS AND COMPUTING MEANS OF CRYPTOLOGICAL FUNCTIONS

Andriy Horpenyuk

National University “Lviv Politechnic”, Ukraine, andchifp@yahoo.com

The problems of speed of asymmetric cryptology computational algorithms are analyzed in the article. There has been offered for the greater speed to apply computing facilities of analytical principle of functioning together with algorithmic computing facilities. There have been given fundamentals of synthesis of such facilities, considered problems that limit domain of their application in cryptography. There have been given research results, which expose the prospects of application domain expansion of such facilities

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VALIDATION OF A SURVIVABLE PUBLISH-SUBSCRIBE SYSTEM

Sankalp Singh 1), Adnan Agbaria 1), Fabrice Stevens 2), Tod Courtney 1),John F. Meyer 3), William H. Sanders 1), Partha Pal 4)

1) University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA.{sankalps, adnan, tod, whs}@crhc.uiuc.edu
2) France Telecom, France. fabrice.stevens@francetelecom.com
3) University of Michigan, USA. jfm@eecs.umich.edu
4) BBN Technologies, Cambridge, MA, USA. ppal@bbn.com

We describe, with respect to high-level survivability requirements, the validation of a survivable publishsubscribe system that is under development. We use a top-down approach that methodically breaks the task of validation into manageable tasks, and for each task, applies techniques best suited to its accomplishment. These efforts can be largely independent and use a variety of validation techniques, and the results, which complement and supplement each other, are seamlessly integrated to provide a convincing assurance argument. We also demonstrate the use of model-based validation techniques, as a part of the overall validation procedure, to guide the system’s design by exploring different configurations and evaluating trade-offs.

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MODERN APPROACHES OF SECURING COMPUTER NETWORKS FROM DENIAL OF SERVICE ATTACKS

Andrian Piskozub

National University “Lviv Politechnic”, Ukraine, piskozub@polynet.lviv.ua

The aim of this paper is to understand reasons why denial of service (DoS) attacks are happening; to find ways how to avoid these attacks or lessen their influence; to work out strategy of detecting and preventing these attacks.

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AUTONOMOUS DECENTRALIZED DATA CONSISTENCY FOR HIGH-ASSURANCE EMBEDDED SYSTEM

Akio Shiibashi 1), Kinji Mori 2)

1) East Japan Railway Company, 2-2-2 Yoyogi, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 151-8578 Japan, shiibashi@jreast.co.jp
2) Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2-12-1 O-okayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8252 Japan, mori@cs.titech.ac.jp

Advancement in computer and communication technologies have resulted in an explosive growth in embedded systems. The market and users requirements have been rapidly changing and diversified. Under these evolving situations, the assurance to keep the continuous system operation of embedded systems is becoming more and more important. The Autonomous Decentralized System (ADS) has been proposed for resolving the on-line property to achieve the step-by-step expansion, maintenance and fault-propagation prevention for high assurance. This architecture is effective to improve the reliability and reduce the development cost and product cycle time to market by data-driven mechanism. The technologies have been applied in the IC card system for train fare collection and its effectiveness has been proven.

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AGENT-BASED SIMULATION OF DDOS ATTACKS AND DEFENSE MECHANISMS

Igor Kotenko 1), Alexander Ulanov 2)

St.-Petersburg Institute for Informatics and Automation of Russian Academy of Sciences 39, 14th Liniya, St. Petersburg, 199178, Russia
1) ivkote@iias.spb.su, http://space.iias.spb.su/ai/kotenko/
2) ulanov@iias.spb.su, http://space.iias.spb.su/ai/ulanov/

The paper considers an approach to modeling and simulation of cyber-wars in Internet between the teams of software agents. According to this approach, the cybernetic opposition of malefactors and security systems is represented by the interaction of two different teams of software agents – malefactors’ team and defense team. The approach is considered by an example of modeling and simulation of “Distributed Denial of Service” (DDoS) attacks and protection against them. The paper also describes the software environment for multi-agent simulation of defense mechanisms against DDoS attacks developed by the authors and different experiments. The main components of the software environment are outlined. One of the numerous experiments on protection against DDoS attacks is described in detail. The environment developed is based OMNeT++ INET Framework.

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A SCALABLE SECURITY SERVICE FOR GEOGRAPHIC AD-HOC ROUTING

Zdravko Karakehayov 1), Ivan Radev 2)

1) University of Southern Denmark, Grundtvigs Alle 150, DK-6400 Sonderbprg, e-mail: zdravko@mci.sdu.dk
2) Technical University of Sofia, 8 Kliment Ohridski St., Sofia-1000, Bulgaria, e-mail: ivradev@yahoo.com

This paper describes a scalable security service for geographic ad-hoc routing. The routing protocol, REWARD, detects black hole attacks and organizes a distributed data base for suspicious nodes and areas. The algorithm utilizes two types of broadcast messages, MISS and SAMBA, to recruit nodes to act as security servers. Security servers keep records for detected black hole attacks and provide security services when forward packets. MISS-recruited security servers keep records for suspicious nodes and protect the network in the ID space. SAMBArecruited security servers keep records for suspicious areas and decline the network vulnerability in the physical space. REWARD has different levels of security which can be set according to the local conditions. In order to determine the effectiveness of REWARD we used ANTS, a simulation environment which models the traffic of wireless sensor networks.

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