Mazdak Zamani

Authentication in mobile cloud computing

Mobile cloud computing (MCC) is the state-of-the-art mobile distributed computing model that incorporates multitude of heterogeneous cloud-based resources to augment computational capabilities of the plethora of resource-constraint mobile devices. In MCC, execution time and energy consumption are significantly improved by transferring execution of resource-intensive tasks such as image processing, 3D rendering, and voice recognition from the hosting mobile to the cloud-based resources. However, accessing and exploiting remote cloud-based resources is associated with numerous security and privacy implications, including user authentication and authorization. User authentication in MCC is a critical requirement in securing cloud-based computations and communications. Despite its critical role, there is a gap for a comprehensive study of the authentication approaches in MCC which can provide a deep insight into the state-of-the-art research. This paper presents a comprehensive study of authentication methods in MCC to describe MCC authentication and compare it with that of cloud computing. The taxonomy of the state-of-the-art authentication methods is devised and the most credible efforts are critically reviewed. Moreover, we present a comparison of the state-of-the-art MCC authentication methods considering five evaluation metrics. The results suggest the need for futuristic authentication methods that are designed based on capabilities and limitations of MCC environment. Finally, the design factors deemed could lead to effective authentication mechanisms are presented, and open challenges are highlighted based on the weaknesses and strengths of existing authentication methods.

Botnet detection based on traffic monitoring

Botnet is most widespread and occurs commonly in todays cyber attacks, resulting in serious threats to our network assets and organizations properties. Botnets are collections of compromised computers (Bots) which are remotely controlled by its originator (BotMaster) under a common Commond-and-Control (C&C) infrastructure. They are used to distribute commands to the Bots for malicious activities such as distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, spam and phishing. Most of the existing Botnet detection approaches concentrate only on particular Botnet command and control (C&C) protocols (e.g., IRC,HTTP) and structures (e.g., centralized), and can become ineffective as Botnets change their structure and C&C techniques. In this paper, we proposed a new general detection framework. This proposed framework is based on finding similar communication patterns and behaviors among the group of hosts that are performing at least one malicious activity. The point that distinguishes our proposed detection framework from many other similar works is that there is no need for prior knowledge of Botnets such as Botnet signature.

A Novel Approach for Rogue Access Point Detection on the Client-Side

There is a big risk for public Wi-Fi users being tricked into connecting to rogue access points. Rogue access point is one of the most serious threats in WLAN, since it exposes a large number of users to MITM and evil twin attack. In this paper we propose a practical method that warns users to avoid connecting to the rogue access points. Proposed method compares the gateways and the routes that a packet travels to determine whether an access point is legitimate or not. This method can easily detect Man-In-The-Middle and evil twin attack without any assistance from the WLAN operator.

A secure audio steganography approach

A wide range of steganography techniques has been described in this paper. Beside the evaluation of embedding parameters for the existing techniques, two problems -weaknesses- of substitution techniques are investigated which if they could be solved, the large capacity - strength- of substitution techniques would be practical. Furthermore, a novel, principled approach to resolve the problems is presented. Using the proposed genetic algorithm, message bits are embedded into multiple, vague and higher LSB layers, resulting in increased robustness.

Energy efficient routing in wireless sensor networks based on fuzzy ant colony optimization

A wireless sensor network (WSN) is a collection of sensor nodes that dynamically self-organize themselves into a wireless network without the utilization of any preexisting infrastructure. One of the major problems in WSNs is the energy consumption, whereby the network lifetime is dependent on this factor. In this paper, we propose an optimal routing protocol for WSN inspired by the foraging behavior of ants. The ants try to find existing paths between the source and base station. Furthermore, we have combined this behavior of ants with fuzzy logic in order for the ants to make the best decision. In other words, the fuzzy logic is applied to make the use of these paths optimal. Our algorithm uses the principles of the fuzzy ant colony optimization routing (FACOR) to develop a suitable problem solution. The performance of our routing algorithm is evaluated by Network Simulator 2 (NS2). The simulation results show that our algorithm optimizes the energy consumption amount, decreases the number of routing request packets, and increases the network lifetime in comparison with the original AODV.

ReviewAuthentication in mobile cloud computing: A survey

Mobile cloud computing (MCC) is the state-of-the-art mobile distributed computing model that incorporates multitude of heterogeneous cloud-based resources to augment computational capabilities of the plethora of resource-constraint mobile devices. In MCC, execution time and energy consumption are significantly improved by transferring execution of resource-intensive tasks such as image processing, 3D rendering, and voice recognition from the hosting mobile to the cloud-based resources. However, accessing and exploiting remote cloud-based resources is associated with numerous security and privacy implications, including user authentication and authorization. User authentication in MCC is a critical requirement in securing cloud-based computations and communications. Despite its critical role, there is a gap for a comprehensive study of the authentication approaches in MCC which can provide a deep insight into the state-of-the-art research. This paper presents a comprehensive study of authentication methods in MCC to describe MCC authentication and compare it with that of cloud computing. The taxonomy of the state-of-the-art authentication methods is devised and the most credible efforts are critically reviewed. Moreover, we present a comparison of the state-of-the-art MCC authentication methods considering five evaluation metrics. The results suggest the need for futuristic authentication methods that are designed based on capabilities and limitations of MCC environment. Finally, the design factors deemed could lead to effective authentication mechanisms are presented, and open challenges are highlighted based on the weaknesses and strengths of existing authentication methods.

An Introduction to Image Steganography Techniques

Steganography is a form of security technique through obscurity, the science and art of hiding the existence of a message between sender and intended recipient. Steganography has been used to hide secret messages in various types of files, including digital images, audio and video. The three most important parameters for audio steganography are imperceptibility, payload, and robustness. Different applications have different requirements of the steganography technique used. This paper intends to give an overview of image steganography, its uses and techniques.

A survey on security issues of federated identity in the cloud computing

Cloud computing is a new generation of the technology that has been designed to cater for commercial necessities and to run suitable applications or solve IT management issues. While cost and ease of use are two top benefits of cloud, trust and security are the two top concerns of cloud computing users. Federated identity as a useful feature for user management and Single Sign-on (SSO) has also become an important part of federated identity environment. Misuse of the identity, identity theft, and platform trustworthiness are some of the problems in the federated identity environment. OAuth, OpenID, SAML are three main concept in cloud authentication and federated environment. This paper overviews the security issues of federated identity in the cloud authentication and highlights the proposed models to solve identity theft in the federated environment.

An approach to improve the robustness of substitution techniques of audio steganography

Steganography is a technique used to transmit hidden information by modifying an audio signal in an imperceptible manner. The transmission must be possible in spite of subsequent imperceptible alterations (attacks) of the modified signal. We propose a novel approach of substitution technique of audio steganography. Using genetic algorithm, message bits are embedded into multiple, vague and higher LSB layers, resulting in increased robustness. The robustness specially would be increased against those intentional attacks which try to reveal the hidden message and also some unintentional attacks like noise addition as well.

Efficient intelligent energy routing protocol in wireless sensor networks

In wireless sensor networks energy is a very important issue because these networks consist of lowpower sensor nodes. This paper proposes a new protocol to reach energy efficiency. The protocol has a different priority in energy efficiency as reducing energy consumption in nodes, prolonging lifetime of the whole network, increasing system reliability, increasing the load balance of the network, and reducing packet delays in the network. In the new protocol is proposed an intelligent routing protocol algorithm. It is based on reinforcement learning techniques. In the first step of the protocol, a new clustering method is applied to the network and the network is established using a connected graph. Then data is transmitted using the Q-value parameter of reinforcement learning technique. The simulation results show that our protocol has improvement in different parameters such as network lifetime, packet delivery, packet delay, and network balance.