Recent advances have given rise to the popularity and success of cloud computing. However, when outsourcing the data and business application to a third party causes the security and privacy issues to become a critical concern. Throughout the study at hand, the authors obtain a common goal to provide a comprehensive review of the existing security and privacy issues in cloud environments. We have identified five most representative security and privacy attributes (i.e., confidentiality, integrity, availability, accountability, and privacy-preservability). Beginning with these attributes, we present the relationships among them, the vulnerabilities that may be exploited by attackers, the threat models, as well as existing defense strategies in a cloud scenario. Future research directions are previously determined for each attribute.

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Security and Privacy in Cloud Computing

Smart grid is a promising power delivery infrastructure integrated with communication and information technologies. Its bi-directional communication and electricity flow enable both utilities and customers to monitor, predict, and manage energy usage. It also advances energy and environmental sustainability through the integration of vast distributed energy resources. Deploying such a green electric system has enormous and far-reaching economic and social benefits. Nevertheless, increased interconnection and integration also introduce cyber-vulnerabilities into the grid. Failure to address these problems will hinder the modernization of the existing power system. In order to build a reliable smart grid, an overview of relevant cyber security and privacy issues is presented. Based on current literatures, several potential research fields are discussed at the end of this paper.

https://repository.um.edu.mo/bitstream/10692/2883/3/Liu-2012-Cyber-security-and-privacy-issues-i.pdf

Cyber Security and Privacy Issues in Smart Grids

High demands for broadband mobile wireless communications and the emergence of new wireless multimedia applications constitute the motivation to the development of broadband wireless access technologies in recent years. The Long Term Evolution/System Architecture Evolution (LTE/SAE) system has been specified by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) on the way towards fourth-generation (4G) mobile to ensure 3GPP keeping the dominance of the cellular communication technologies. Through the design and optimization of new radio access techniques and a further evolution of the LTE systems, the 3GPP is developing the future LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) wireless networks as the 4G standard of the 3GPP. Since the 3GPP LTE and LTE-A architecture are designed to support flat Internet Protocol (IP) connectivity and full interworking with heterogeneous wireless access networks, the new unique features bring some new challenges in the design of the security mechanisms. This paper makes a number of contributions to the security aspects of the LTE and LTE-A networks. First, we present an overview of the security functionality of the LTE and LTE-A networks. Second, the security vulnerabilities existing in the architecture and the design of the LTE and LTE-A networks are explored. Third, the existing solutions to these problems are classically reviewed. Finally, we show the potential research issues for the future research works.

A Survey on Security Aspects for LTE and LTE-A Networks

Due to the inherent vulnerabilities of the Internet, security and privacy issues should be considered and addressed before the Internet of Things is widely deployed. This paper mainly analyzes existing authentication and access control methods, and then, it designs a feasible one for the Internet of Things.

Authentication and Access Control in the Internet of Things

As networks become ubiquitous in people's lives, users depend on networks a lot for sufficient communication and convenient information access. However, networks suffer from security issues. Network security becomes a challenging topic since numerous new network attacks have appeared increasingly sophisticated and caused vast loss to network resources. Game theoretic approaches have been introduced as a useful tool to handle those tricky network attacks. In this paper, we review the existing game-theory based solutions for network security problems, classifying their application scenarios under two categories, attack-defense analysis and security measurement. Moreover, we present a brief view of the game models in those solutions and summarize them into two categories, cooperative game models and non-cooperative game models with the latter category consisting of subcategories. In addition to the introduction to the state of the art, we discuss the limitations of those game theoretic approaches and propose future research directions.

/pdf/game-theory-for-network-security-4a31e8xmjy.pdf

Game Theory for Network Security

IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) introduces important advantages for users of LTE-femtocell heterogeneous access networks. In order to access services hosted in the IMS layer, the user has to undergo authentication procedure with the access network, followed by an authentication procedure with the IMS layer. This multi-pass authentication procedure is essential for securing IMS from malicious users, resulting in added overhead and possible quality of service degradations. The problem is further compounded when the user moves from one femtocell domain into another, which requires the authentication procedure to be repeated. To mitigate this problem, we present a lightweight, robust, and architecture-compatible IMS authentication protocol that implements a one-pass IMS procedure by promoting efficient key re-use for a mobile user. We make use of Home Node B femtocells to perform the role of IMS proxy. To verify the feasibility of using our protocol in mobile networks, an abstract model of our protocol is derived. The abstract model is emulated using Asterisk server and virtualization techniques. We also analyze the authentication delay of our proposed scheme. Numerical results reveal a reduction in user authentication delay of more than 50 percent compared to the existing authentication procedure.

/pdf/ip-multimedia-subsystem-authentication-protocol-in-lte-4ah9jq55d8.pdf

IP Multimedia subsystem authentication protocol in LTE-heterogeneous networks

The provision of IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) introduces important advantages for users of 3G-WLAN networks. However, a multi-pass authentication procedure needs to be performed before accessing the IMS, resulting in added overhead and possible Quality of Service (QoS) degradations. The problem is further compounded when the user moves from one Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) domain into another, which requires the authentication procedure to be repeated. To mitigate this problem, we present a lightweight, robust, and architecture-compatible IMS authentication protocol that implements a one-pass IMS procedure by promoting efficient key re-use for a mobile user. The security of the proposed protocols is verified using the Automated Validation of Internet Security Protocols and Applications (AVISPA) security analyser. We also analyse the authentication delay of our proposed scheme. Numerical results reveal a reduction in user authentication delay of more than 50% compared to the existing authentication procedure.

/pdf/improved-ip-multimedia-subsystem-authentication-mechanism-5lmma35hqn.pdf

Improved IP Multimedia Subsystem authentication mechanism for 3G-WLAN networks

The provision of IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) introduces important advantages for users of 3G WLAN networks. However, a multi pass authentication procedure needs to be performed before accessing the IMS, resulting in added overhead and quality of service (QoS) degradation, which deters service providers from adopting the IMS model. The problem is further compounded when the user moves from one Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) domain into another, requiring that the authentication procedure be constantly repeated. To mitigate this problem, we present a lightweight, robust, and architecture-compatible IMS authentication protocol that implements a one-pass IMS procedure by promoting efficient key re-use for a mobile user. We derive an analytical model of our proposed scheme, and conduct numerical analysis that reveal a user authentication delay decrease of more than 50 percent.

/pdf/improved-ip-multimedia-subsystem-authentication-mechanism-4344oh8lcu.pdf

Madhu J. Sharma

Papers

IP Multimedia subsystem authentication protocol in LTE-heterogeneous networks

Improved IP Multimedia Subsystem authentication mechanism for 3G-WLAN networks

Improved IP Multimedia Subsystem Authentication mechanism for 3G-WLAN networks