The emergence of software-defined networking (SDN) has revolutionized the management of an enterprise network. The SDN-based design provides flexibility in network management, which spans over multiple applications, e.g., routing, switching, forwarding, and controlling. It reduces the reliance on vendor-specific devices and middlebox solutions, such as firewalls, intrusion detection systems (IDSs), intrusion prevention systems (IPSs), etc. Furthermore, due to the integration of different technologies, privacy is one of the core issues faced by the enterprise. Host anonymity is one of the techniques to safeguard against privacy attacks; however, the existing anonymization solutions provide better anonymity, but at the cost of higher latency and are most suited for Internet traffic. To tackle this issue in an enterprise network, we propose an SDN-based communication framework using enterprise integration patterns (EIPs) that offers anonymous communication in an enterprise environment. Host anonymity is achieved by replacing the real IP address with the spoofed IP address during the transmission of data packets inside the network. Unlike the traditional networks, SDN can modify the header fields of packets as they traverse in the network from the source to the destination. In addition to the host anonymity, this framework also provides context-aware communication by leveraging the SDN global visibility characteristic, where application services are discoverable on the network without disclosing the addresses of the application servers. Moreover, context-aware services enable network traffic to be routed based on the application-layer services rather than the network-layer information. In the end, evaluation of the proposed framework is carried out with respect to the performance of anonymous communication, computational complexity, and security of the complete proposed framework. In addition, we also highlighted that the proposed framework is more suitable for heterogeneous network environments such as Internet of Things-based solutions.

The smart connected devices are the first choice of cybercriminals for spreading spy wares and different security attacks. The current security standards and protocols for Internet of Things (IoT) have failed in providing security to these devices. In addition, IoT market giants are producing nonsecure smart products in order to grab the open market. Furthermore, low resources of IoT devices, limits the traditional host-based protection solutions like anti-virus, IDS, IPS, etc. To overcome the resource constraintness and security barriers of smart devices, a network-level security architecture based on lightweight cryptographic parameters is required. Software-defined networking (SDN) is a new networking paradigm to overcome the control, management, and security issues in traditional networking. The SDN controller handles all the computation and complexities at the network level, rather than smart devices. In this research, we first present a new privacy-preserving security architecture for SDN-based smart homes. Subsequently, an anonymous lightweight authentication mechanism (ALAM) is designed based on the proposed security architecture core foundations. Furthermore, the security characteristics of the proposed protocol are formally analyzed using Burrows-Abadi-Needham (BAN) logic and ProVerif, followed by informal security analysis. Finally, performance evaluation and comparative analysis of the scheme is carried out.

In today's era, large data centers are drawn toward the two popular technologies, i.e., enterprise integration patterns (EIP) and software defined networking (SDN). The former is the combination of design patterns which integrates the new and existing business applications in an enterprise environment, whereas the latter is a rapidly evolving networking paradigm that has reshaped the large enterprise network management by introducing the programmable planes and centralized control. The promising features of EIP, i.e., asynchronous communication, reliability and that of SDN, namely, robustness, network programmability, agility, and global visibility can be merged in order to cope with growing network demands and security. In this article, we propose a communication framework that incorporates both EIP and SDN in an enterprise environment. The architecture of the propose communication framework consists of adaptive virtual local area network (VLAN) module to install and delete VLANs reactively using EIP. Furthermore, to enable communication between applications from different networks in an enterprise environment, this framework also contains a packet forwarding module where hosts IP addresses are concealed from each other. In the end, we demonstrate through simulations that how the proposed integrated design can be helpful in improving the security, efficiency, and reliability aspects of the enterprise network. As proof of concept, we also discuss the deployment of our proposed framework in IoT-based Smart Cities, which is the extension of EIP on a large scale.

Internet of Things (IoT) is transforming everyone's life by providing features, such as controlling and monitoring of the connected smart objects. IoT applications range over a broad spectrum of services including smart cities, homes, cars, manufacturing, e-healthcare, smart control system, transportation, wearables, farming, and much more. The adoption of these devices is growing exponentially, that has resulted in generation of a substantial amount of data for processing and analyzing. Thus, besides bringing ease to the human lives, these devices are susceptible to different threats and security challenges, which do not only worry the users for adopting it in sensitive environments, such as e-health, smart home, etc., but also pose hazards for the advancement of IoT in coming days. This article thoroughly reviews the threats, security requirements, challenges, and the attack vectors pertinent to IoT networks. Based on the gap analysis, a novel paradigm that combines a network-based deployment of IoT architecture through software-defined networking (SDN) is proposed. This article presents an overview of the SDN along with a thorough discussion on SDN-based IoT deployment models, i.e., centralized and decentralized. We further elaborated SDN-based IoT security solutions to present a comprehensive overview of the software-defined security (SDSec) technology. Furthermore, based on the literature, core issues are highlighted that are the main hurdles in unifying all IoT stakeholders on one platform and few findings that emphases on a network-based security solution for IoT paradigm. Finally, some future research directions of SDN-based IoT security technologies are discussed.

Cloud data sharing is a prevalent topic these days due to its immense benefits. But regardless of this, industry is facing a huge setback due to deficiencies in present security frameworks. Achieving security becomes favorable if we put together a strong authentication mechanism. Authentication techniques as much random and complex they get are still breakable, so a truly random and strong technique is required. For this purpose, a new decentralized approach consisting of multiple authentication factors (username and password, biometrics and tokens) is being proposed for authentication which gives strong foundation of security and is difficult to break. The analysis showed significantly better comparative results.