A Survey on Ransomware: Evolution, Taxonomy, and Defense Solutions

In recent years, ransomware has been one of the most notorious malware targeting end-users, governments, and business organizations. It has become a very profitable business for cybercriminals with revenues of millions of dollars, and a very serious threat to organizations with financial loss of billions of dollars. Click here to learn more about ransomware.

A Survey on Security and Privacy Issues of UAVs

The 21st century has witnessed an exponential increase of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones. Nonetheless, the development of drone technology is associated with vulnerabilities and threats due to the complexity of their cyber and physical components. Thus, posing significant challenges for the industry, academia, and governments. Nowadays, security and privacy issues of UAVs have become a highly urgent matter of national security. Click here to learn more about these issues.

 

A Literature Review on Blockchain-Enabled Security and Operation of Cyber-Physical Systems

Blockchain has become a key technology in a plethora of application domains owing to its decentralized public nature. The cyber-physical systems (CPS) is one of the prominent application domains that leverage blockchain for myriad operations, where the Internet of Things (IoT) is utilized for data collection. Although some of the CPS problems can be solved by simply adopting blockchain for its secure and distributed nature, others require complex considerations for overcoming blockchain-imposed limitations while maintaining the core aspect of CPS. Click here to learn more about blockchain-enabled security and the operation of cyber-physical systems.

 

Survey on Enterprise Internet-of-Things Systems: A Security Perspective

As technology becomes more widely available, millions of users worldwide have installed some form of smart device in their homes or workplaces. These devices are often off-the-shelf commodity systems, such as Google Home or Samsung SmartThings, that are installed by end-users looking to automate a small deployment. In contrast to these “plug-and-play” systems, purpose-built Enterprise Internet-of-Things (E-IoT) systems such as Crestron, Control4, RTI, Savant offer a smart solution for more sophisticated applications (e.g., complete lighting control, A/V management, security). Click here to learn more about state-of-the-art E-IoT security.

 

A Survey of Honeypots and Honeynets for Internet of Things, Industrial Internet of Things, and Cyber-Physical Systems

The Internet of Things (IoT), the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), and Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) have become essential for our daily lives in contexts such as our homes, buildings, cities, health, transportation, manufacturing, infrastructure, and agriculture. However, they have become popular targets of attacks, due to their inherent limitations which create vulnerabilities. Honeypots and honeynets can prove essential to understand and defend against attacks on IoT, IIoT, and CPS environments by attracting attackers and deceiving them into thinking that they have gained access to the real systems. Click here to learn more about honeypot security.

A Survey on Sensor-Based Threats and Attacks to Smart Devices and Applications

Modern electronic devices have become “smart” as well as omnipresent in our day-to-day lives. From small household devices to large industrial machines, smart devices have become very popular in every possible application domain. Smart devices in our homes, offices, buildings, and cities can connect with other devices as well as with the physical world around them. Click here to learn more about sensor-based threats and attacks to smart devices and applications.

A Survey on IoT Platforms: Communication, Security and Privacy Perspectives

The Internet of Things (IoT) redefines the way how commodity and industrial tasks are performed every day. The integration of sensors, lightweight computation, and the proliferation of different wireless technologies on IoT platforms enable human beings to easily interact with their surrounding physical world thoroughly. With the recent rise of IoT, several different IoT platforms have been introduced for researchers and developers to ease the management and control of various IoT devices. Click here to learn more about IoT security.

A Survey on Security and Privacy Issues in Modern Healthcare Systems: Attacks and Defenses

Recent advancements in computing systems and wireless communications have made healthcare systems more efficient than before. Modern healthcare devices can monitor and manage different health conditions of patients automatically without any manual intervention from medical professionals. Additionally, the use of implantable medical devices, body area networks, and Internet of Things technologies in healthcare systems improve the overall patient monitoring and treatment process. However, these systems are complex in software and hardware, and optimizing between security, privacy, and treatment is crucial for healthcare systems because any security or privacy violation can lead to severe effects on patients’ treatments and overall health conditions. Click here to learn more about healthcare security.

A Review of Moving Target Defense Mechanisms for Internet of Things Applications

Moving Target Defense (MTD) techniques have been promising in many of the traditional network domains and thus such success has given rise to bring this experience to the IoT domain. Thus, in recent years, we have started to see studies that apply a variety of MTD techniques to numerous IoT environments. Click here to learn more about moving target defense mechanisms for Internet of things applications.

 

A Survey on Homomorphic Encryption Schemes: Theory and Implementation

Legacy encryption systems depend on sharing a key (public or private) among the peers involved in exchanging an encrypted message. However, this approach poses privacy concerns. The users or service providers with the key have exclusive rights on the data. Especially with popular cloud services, control over the privacy of the sensitive data is lost. Even when the keys are not shared, the encrypted material is shared with a third party that does not necessarily need to access the content. Moreover, untrusted servers, providers, and cloud operators can keep identifying elements of users long after users end the relationship with the services. Click here to learn more about homomorphic encryption schemes.

A Survey on Function and System Call Hooking Approaches

Functions and system calls are effective indicators of the behavior of a process. These subroutines are useful for identifying unauthorized behavior caused by malware or for developing a better understanding of the lower-level operations of an application. Code obfuscation, however, often prevents user monitoring and modification of subroutine calls. Subroutine hooking offers a solution to this limitation. Function and system call hooking approaches allow for subroutine instrumentation, making hooking a valuable and versatile skill across industry and academia. Click here to learn more about system call hooking approaches.

A Survey on Smart Grid Cyber-Physical System Testbed

An increasing interest is emerging on the development of smart grid cyber-physical system testbeds. As new communication and information technologies emerge, innovative cyber-physical system testbeds need to leverage realistic and scalable platforms. Indeed, the interdisciplinary structure of the smart grid concept compels heterogeneous testbeds with different capabilities. There is a significant need to evaluate new concepts and vulnerabilities as opposed to counting on solely simulation studies especially using hardware-in-the-loop test platforms. Click here to learn more about smart grid cyber-physical system tested.

In-Depth Survey of Digital Advertising Technologies

Some of the world’s most well-known IT companies are in fact advertising companies deriving their primary revenues through digital advertising. For this reason, these IT giants are able to continually drive the evolutions of information technology in ways that serve to enhance our everyday lives. The benefits of this relationship include free web browsers with powerful search engines and mobile applications. Still, it turns out that “free” comes at a cost that is paid through our interactions within a digital advertising ecosystem. Click here to learn more about digital advertising technologies.