Hamza Aldabbas

Data confidentiality in mobile ad hoc networks.

Mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) are self-configuring infrastructure-less networks comprised of mobile nodes that communicate over wireless links without any central control on a peer-to-peer basis. These individual nodes act as routers to forward both their own data and also their neighbours’ data by sending and receiving packets to and from other nodes in the network. The relatively easy configuration and the quick deployment make ad hoc networks suitable the emergency situations (such as human or natural disasters) and for military units in enemy territory. Securing data dissemination between these nodes in such networks, however, is a very challenging task. Exposing such information to anyone else other than the intended nodes could cause a privacy and confidentiality breach, particularly in military scenarios. In this paper we present a novel framework to enhance the privacy and data confidentiality in mobile ad hoc networks by attaching the originator policies to the messages as they are sent between nodes. We evaluate our framework using the Network Simulator (NS-2) to check whether the privacy and confidentiality of the originator are met. For this we implemented the Policy Enforcement Points (PEPs), as NS-2 agents that manage and enforce the policies attached to packets at every node in the MANET.

New Framework for Dynamic Policy Management in Grid Environments

In a multi-organization environment like the GRID, each institute might want to implement limits on how its resources are being used by other institutes. The problem in most traditional policy frameworks lies in the fact that it concentrates on the policy management inside the VO rather than on the management between multiple VOs. The external users, who want to utilize resources in the GRID, ask for guarantees for their jobs and data which most recent policy frameworks do not take into consideration. To date, not enough attention has been paid to policies that deal with such concerns since most existing Grid systems have supported only limited types of policies. This paper introduces a new dynamic framework that supports the management of security policies within the VOs along with the support for the data policies with addressing external users’ policies when making decisions.

Controlling data dissemination

We present a policy-based approach for the control of information flow between services. The controlled dissemination of information shared between services is achieved by the communication and enforcement of policies associated with shared information. The presented approach integrates easily as a communication middle-ware in existing service-based information systems keeping the management and distribution of policies transparent to the service implementation. This article focuses on the architecture and presents initial results that show the feasibility of the approach.

Privacy in Cloud System

Cloud computing technology is used as inexpensive systems to gather and utilize computational capability. This technology improves applications services by arranging machines and distributed resources in a single huge computational entity. Clouds consist of data centers which are owned by the same institute. The homogeneity within each data centre in the infrastructure is the main feature for the cloud computing but any conflict between heterogeneous data centers and/or different administration domains can become a serious issue for cloud interoperability and privacy. This paper suggests a new framework to solve the interoperability problem.

Ensuring Data Confidentiality and Privacy in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) are autonomous systems which are comprised of a number of mobile nodes that communicate between themselves by wireless communication in a peer-to-peer basis. They are self-organized, self-configured and self-controlled infrastructure-less networks. Nodes can communicate with each other without any pre-planned or a base station. Disseminating information securely between these nodes in such networks however is a challenging task, particularly when the information is confidential. Revealing such information to anyone else other than the intended nodes could be highly damaging, especially in military applications where keeping the message secret from adversaries is essential. In this paper we present our novel framework for privacy control in mobile ad hoc networks in which privacy policies are attached to messages as they are send between peers. We evaluate our framework using the Network Simulator (NS-2) to provide and check whether the privacy and confidentiality of the originator are met. For this we implemented the privacy enforcement as an NS2 agent that manages and enforces the policies attached to packets at every node in the MANET.