Utilization of different encryption schemes for securing SCADA component communication

A vital role is being played by SCADA Communication for Supervisory Control and Data acquisition (SCADA) Monitoring Ststems. Devices that are designed to operate in safety-critical environments are usually designed to failsafe, but security vulnerabilities could be exploited by an attacker to disable the fail-safe mechanisms. Thus these devices must not onlybe designed for safety but also for security. This paper presents a study of the comparison of different Encryption schemes for securing SCADA Component Communication. The encryption schemes such as Symetric Key Encrypton in Wireless SCADA Environment, Assymmetric-key Encryption to Internet SCADA, and the Cross Crypto Scheme Cipher to secure communication for SCADA are analysed and the outcome is evaluated.

A qualitative assessment of modularity in CaesarJ components based on implementations of design patterns

Tese de Mestrado em Engenharia Informática

Identification of behavioral and creational design patterns through dynamic analysis

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

A Novel Fast Hybrid Cryptographic System: MARS4

A novel and fast technique for cryptographic applications is designed and developed using the symmetric key algorithm “MAJE4” and the popular asymmetric key algorithm “RSA”. The MAJE4 algorithm is used for encryption / decryption of files since it is much faster and occupies less memory than RSA. The RSA algorithm is used to solve the problem of key exchange as well as to accomplish scalability and message authentication. The focus is to develop a new hybrid system called MARS4 by combining the two cryptographic methods with an aim to get the advantages of both. The performance evaluation of MARS4 is done in comparison with MAJE4 and RSA.

Exploring the role of design quality in the Building Schools for the Future programme

The Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme represents the biggest single UK government investment in school buildings for more than 50 years. A key goal for BSF is to ensure that pupils learn in 21st-century facilities that are designed or redesigned to allow for educational transformation. This represents a major challenge to those involved in the design of schools. The paper explores the conceptualizations of design quality within the BSF programme. It draws on content analysis of influential reports on design published between 2000 and 2007 and interviews with key actors in the provision of schools. The means by which design quality has become defined and given importance within the programme through official documents is described and compared with the multiple understandings of design quality among key stakeholders. The findings portray the many challenges that practitioners face when operationalizing design quality in practice. The paper concludes with reflections on the inconsistencies between how design quality has been appropriated in the BSF programme and how it is interpreted and adopted in practice.

A Security Framework for Wireless Sensor Networks Utilizing a Unique Session Key

Key management is a core mechanism to ensure the security of applications and network services in wireless sensor networks. It includes two aspects: key distribution and key revocation. Many key management protocols have been specifically designed for wireless sensor networks. However, most of the key management protocols focus on the establishment of the required keys or the removal of the compromised keys. The design of these key management protocols does not consider the support of higher level security applications. When the applications are integrated later in sensor networks, new mechanisms must be designed. In this paper, we propose a security framework, uKeying, for wireless sensor networks. This framework can be easily extended to support many security applications. It includes three components: a security mechanism to provide secrecy for communications in sensor networks, an efficient session key distribution scheme, and a centralized key revocation scheme. The proposed framework does not depend on a specific key distribution scheme and can be used to support many security applications, such as secure group communications. Our analysis shows that the framework is secure, efficient, and extensible. The simulation and results also reveal for the first time that a centralized key revocation scheme can also attain a high efficiency.

Pattern e tecnologie per lo sviluppo di applicazioni cloud: Orleans come caso di studio.

Uno dei temi più discussi ed interessanti nel mondo dell’informatica al giorno d’oggi è sicuramente il Cloud Computing. Nuove organizzazioni che offrono servizi di questo tipo stanno nascendo ovunque e molte aziende oggi desiderano imparare ad utilizzarli, migrando i loro centri di dati e le loro applicazioni nel Cloud. Ciò sta avvenendo anche grazie alla spinta sempre più forte che stanno imprimendo le grandi compagnie nella comunità informatica: Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple e tante altre ancora parlano sempre più frequentemente di Cloud Computing e si stanno a loro volta ristrutturando profondamente per poter offrire servizi Cloud adeguandosi così a questo grande cambiamento che sta avvenendo nel settore dell’informatica. Tuttavia il grande movimento di energie, capitali, investimenti ed interesse che l’avvento del Cloud Computing sta causando non aiuta a comprendere in realtà che cosa esso sia, al punto tale che oggi non ne esiste ancora una definizione univoca e condivisa. La grande pressione inoltre che esso subisce da parte del mondo del mercato fa sì che molte delle sue più peculiari caratteristiche, dal punto di vista dell’ingegneria del software, vengano nascoste e soverchiate da altre sue proprietà, architetturalmente meno importanti, ma con un più grande impatto sul pubblico di potenziali clienti. Lo scopo che mi propongo con questa tesi è quello quindi di cercare di fare chiarezza in quello che è il mondo del Cloud computing, focalizzandomi particolarmente su quelli che sono i design pattern più utilizzati nello sviluppo di applicazioni di tipo cloud e presentando quelle che oggi rappresentano le principali tecnologie che vengono utilizzate sia in ambito professionale, che in ambito di ricerca, per realizzare le applicazioni cloud, concentrandomi in maniera particolare su Microsoft Orleans.

A tool for a formal pattern modeling language

This paper presents a formal but practical approach for defining and using design patterns. Initially we formalize the concepts commonly used in defining design patterns using Object-Z. We also formalize consistency constraints that must be satisfied when a pattern is deployed in a design model. Then we implement the pattern modeling language and its consistency constraints using an existing modeling framework, EMF, and incorporate the implementation as plug-ins to the Eclipse modeling environment. While the language is defined formally in terms of Object-Z definitions, the language is implemented in a practical environment. Using the plug-ins, users can develop precise pattern descriptions without knowing the underlying formalism, and can use the tool to check the validity of the pattern descriptions and pattern usage in design models. In this work, formalism brings precision to the pattern language definition and its implementation brings practicability to our pattern-based modeling approach.

OntoPedigree:modelling pedigrees for traceability in supply chains

The sharing of product and process information plays a central role in coordinating supply chains operations and is a key driver for their success. "Linked pedigrees" - linked datasets, that encapsulate event based traceability information of artifacts as they move along the supply chain, provide a scalable mechanism to record and facilitate the sharing of track and trace knowledge among supply chain partners. In this paper we present "OntoPedigree" a content ontology design pattern for the representation of linked pedigrees, that can be specialised and extended to define domain specific traceability ontologies. Events captured within the pedigrees are specified using EPCIS - a GS1 standard for the specification of traceability information within and across enterprises, while certification information is described using PROV - a vocabulary for modelling provenance of resources. We exemplify the utility of OntoPedigree in linked pedigrees generated for supply chains within the perishable goods and pharmaceuticals sectors.

Exploring design patterns for sustainable behaviour

Products and services explicitly intended to influence users’ behaviour are increasingly being proposed to reduce environmental impact and for other areas of social benefit. Designing such interventions often involves adopting and adapting principles from other contexts where behaviour change has been studied. The ‘design pattern’ form, used in software engineering and HCI, and originally developed in architecture, offers benefits for this transposition process. This article introduces the Design with Intent toolkit, an idea generation method using a design pattern form to help designers address sustainable behaviour problems. The article also reports on exploratory workshops in which participants used the toolkit to generate concepts for redesigning everyday products—kettles, curtains, printers and bathroom sinks/taps—to reduce the environmental impact of use. The concepts are discussed, along with observations of how the toolkit was used by participants, suggesting usability improvements to incorporate in future versions.

Chicken Run: A Chicken-Centred Design Research Project

Chicken Run, an experimental project still in development, sees designers and scientists working together to explore ideas to improve poultry welfare in commercial facilities, applying user-centred design to all key stakeholders: farmer, consumer and chicken. Exploring various aspects of the chicken’s journey from egg to plate, the process has allowed researchers to better understand their needs and to maximise joined-up positive impact. The paper describes the ongoing process where Initial proposals including perches, bales and an app to enable consumers to make the right chicken purchase choices have been developed and tested. Co-authored by leaders of the design and scientific communities involved in the project, the paper describes the issues, design methods used, as well as some of the learning from the cross-disciplinary process. It also provides an update on progress of selected design ideas that are currently being developed with a commercial poultry farm, drawing out the challenges and successes encountered.

Homomorphic encryption and database query privacy

Homomorphic encryption is a particular type of encryption method that enables computing over encrypted data. This has a wide range of real world ramifications such as being able to blindly compute a search result sent to a remote server without revealing its content. In the first part of this thesis, we discuss how database search queries can be made secure using a homomorphic encryption scheme based on the ideas of Gahi et al. Gahi’s method is based on the integer-based fully homomorphic encryption scheme proposed by Dijk et al. We propose a new database search scheme called the Homomorphic Query Processing Scheme, which can be used with the ring-based fully homomorphic encryption scheme proposed by Braserski. In the second part of this thesis, we discuss the cybersecurity of the smart electric grid. Specifically, we use the Homomorphic Query Processing scheme to construct a keyword search technique in the smart grid. Our work is based on the Public Key Encryption with Keyword Search (PEKS) method introduced by Boneh et al. and a Multi-Key Homomorphic Encryption scheme proposed by L´opez-Alt et al. A summary of the results of this thesis (specifically the Homomorphic Query Processing Scheme) is published at the 14th Canadian Workshop on Information Theory (CWIT).

25 anos de quimiometria no Brasil

Chemometric activities in Brazil are described according to three phases: before the existence of microcomputers in the 1970s, through the initial stages of microcomputer use in the 1980s and during the years of extensive microcomputer applications of the ´90s and into this century. Pioneering activities in both the university and industry are emphasized. Active research areas in chemometrics are cited including experimental design, pattern recognition and classification, curve resolution for complex systems and multivariate calibration. New trends in chemometrics, especially higher order methods for treating data, are emphasized.

Projecto timecloud: software de gestão de tempo laboral numa plataforma cloud

O presente projecto tem como objectivo a disponibilização de uma plataforma de serviços para gestão e contabilização de tempo remunerável, através da marcação de horas de trabalho, férias e faltas (com ou sem justificação). Pretende-se a disponibilização de relatórios com base nesta informação e a possibilidade de análise automática dos dados, como por exemplo excesso de faltas e férias sobrepostas de trabalhadores. A ênfase do projecto está na disponibilização de uma arquitectura que facilite a inclusão destas funcionalidades. O projecto está implementado sobre a plataforma Google App Engine (i.e. GAE), de forma a disponibilizar uma solução sob o paradigma de Software as a Service, com garantia de disponibilidade e replicação de dados. A plataforma foi escolhida a partir da análise das principais plataformas cloud existentes: Google App Engine, Windows Azure e Amazon Web Services. Foram analisadas as características de cada plataforma, nomeadamente os modelos de programação, os modelos de dados disponibilizados, os serviços existentes e respectivos custos. A escolha da plataforma foi realizada com base nas suas características à data de iniciação do presente projecto. A solução está estruturada em camadas, com as seguintes componentes: interface da plataforma, lógica de negócio e lógica de acesso a dados. A interface disponibilizada está concebida com observação dos princípios arquitecturais REST, suportando dados nos formatos JSON e XML. A esta arquitectura base foi acrescentada uma componente de autorização, suportada em Spring-Security, sendo a autenticação delegada para os serviços Google Acounts. De forma a permitir o desacoplamento entre as várias camadas foi utilizado o padrão Dependency Injection. A utilização deste padrão reduz a dependência das tecnologias utilizadas nas diversas camadas. Foi implementado um protótipo, para a demonstração do trabalho realizado, que permite interagir com as funcionalidades do serviço implementadas, via pedidos AJAX. Neste protótipo tirou-se partido de várias bibliotecas javascript e padrões que simplificaram a sua realização, tal como o model-view-viewmodel através de data binding. Para dar suporte ao desenvolvimento do projecto foi adoptada uma abordagem de desenvolvimento ágil, baseada em Scrum, de forma a implementar os requisitos do sistema, expressos em user stories. De forma a garantir a qualidade da implementação do serviço foram realizados testes unitários, sendo também feita previamente a análise da funcionalidade e posteriormente produzida a documentação recorrendo a diagramas UML.

SIAT:sistema de informações e alertas de trânsito

A evolução tecnológica e das sociedades permitiu que, hoje em dia, uma boa parte da população tenha acesso a dispositivos móveis com funcionalidades avançadas. Com este tipo de dispositivos, temos acesso a inúmeras fontes de informação em tempo-real, mas esta característica ainda não é, hoje em dia, aproveitada na sua totalidade. Este projecto tenta tirar partido desta realidade para, utilizando os diversos dispositivos móveis, criar uma rede de troca de informações de trânsito. O utilizador apenas necessita de servir-se do seu dispositivo móvel para, automaticamente, obter as mais recentes informações de trânsito enquanto, paralelamente, partilha com os outros utilizadores a sua informação. Apesar de existirem outras alternativas no mercado, com soluções que permitem usufruir do mesmo tipo de funcionalidades, nenhuma utiliza este tipo de dispositivos (GPS’s convencionais, por exemplo). Um dos requisitos necessário na implementação deste projecto é uma solução de geocoding. Após terem sido testadas várias soluções, nenhuma cumpria, na totalidade, os requisitos deste projecto, o que originou o desenvolvimento de uma nova solução que cumpre esses requisitos. A solução é, toda ela, muito modular, formada por vários componentes, cada um com responsabilidades bem identificadas. A arquitectura desta solução baseia-se nos padrões de desenvolvimento de uma Service Oriented Architecture. Todos os componentes disponibilizam as suas operações através de web services, e a sua descoberta recorre ao protocolo WS-Discovery. Estes vários componentes podem ser divididos em duas categorias: os do núcleo, responsáveis por criar e oferecer as funcionalidades requisitadas neste projecto e os módulos externos, nos quais se incluem as aplicações que apresentam as funcionalidades ao utilizador. Foram criadas duas formas de consumir a informação oferecida pelo serviço SIAT: a aplicação móvel e um website. No âmbito dos dispositivos móveis, foi desenvolvida uma aplicação para o sistema operativo Windows Phone 7.