Cyber Situational Awareness (CSA) is an important element in both cyber security and cyber defence to inform processes and activities on strategic, tactical, and operational level. Furthermore, CSA enables informed decision making. The ongoing digitization and interconnection of previously unconnected components and sectors equally affects the civilian and military sector. In defence, this means that the cyber domain is both a separate military domain as well as a cross-domain and connecting element for the other military domains comprising land, air, sea, and space. Therefore, CSA must support perception, comprehension, and projection of events in the cyber space for persons with different roles and expertise. This paper introduces NEWSROOM, a research initiative to improve technologies, methods, and processes specifically related to CSA in cyber defence. For this purpose, NEWSROOM aims to improve methods for attacker behavior classification, cyber threat intelligence (CTI) collection and interaction, secure information access and sharing, as well as human computer interfaces (HCI) and visualizations to provide persons with different roles and expertise with accurate and easy to comprehend mission- and situation-specific CSA. Eventually, NEWSROOM’s core objective is to enable informed and fast decision-making in stressful situations of military operations. The paper outlines the concept of NEWSROOM and explains how its components can be applied in relevant application scenarios.

Since Air Traffic Management (ATM) is still conducted largely via analogue voice communications, the digitization of data transmission is crucial to automate and secure ATM in civil aviation. For that purpose, several new digital data links are developed. The continental, terrestrial long-range candidate is the L-band Digital Aeronautical Communications System (LDACS), which is a cellular, ground-based digital communications system for flight guidance and communications related to the safety and regularity of flight. The security of LDACS has been the focus of recent works, however, the problem to secure data on its small control-channels remains unsolved. The objective of this work is to propose slim and efficient security measures to protect data on the LDACS control-channels and evaluate their security and performance impact. First, via a 3-pass instancing of the ISO/IEC11770-3:2021 “Key agreement mechanism 7” protocol, keys to secure LDACS control-channels are established between air and ground radios. Second, via these point-to-point keys and point-to-multipoint group keys, the control-channels are secured. Thereby the limitations set by the limited bandwidth are respected and cryptographic overhead optimized. Finally, the security of our proposal is validated using a symbolic model with the Tamarin proof system. Also, via computer simulations, the LDACS performance impact of the control-channel security solutions is evaluated.

The “Single European Sky” air traffic management master plan foresees the introduction of several modern digital data links for aeronautical communications. The candidate for long-range continental communications is the L-band Digital Aeronautical Communications System (LDACS). LDACS is a cellular, ground-based digital communications system for flight guidance and communications related to safety and regularity of flight. Hence, the aeronautical standards, imposed by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), for cybersecurity of the link and network layer, apply. In previous works, threat- and risk analyses of LDACS were conducted, a draft for an LDACS cybersecurity architecture introduced, algorithms proposed, and the security of a Mutual Authentication and Key Establishment (MAKE) procedure of LDACS formally verified. However, options for cipher-suites and certificate management for LDACS were missing. Also, previous works hardly discussed the topic of post-quantum security for LDACS. This paper proposes a cell-attachment procedure, which establishes a secure LDACS communication channel between an aircraft and corresponding ground-station upon cell-entry of the aircraft. Via the design of a hybrid LDACS Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), the choice of a pre- or post-quantum Security Level (SL) is up to the communications participants. With that, this work introduces a full LDACS cell-attachment protocol based on a PKI, certificates, certificate revocation and cipher-suites including pre- and post-quantum options. Evaluations in the symbolic model show the procedure to fulfill LDACS security requirements and a communications performance evaluation demonstrates feasibility, matching requirements imposed by regulatory documents.

Aeronautical communications systems are currently undergoing a modernization process. Analogue legacy systems shall be replaced with modern digital alternatives, offering higher bandwidth, increasing capacity and paving the way for Unmanned Aeronautical Vehicles (UAVs). One modern candidate technology is the L-band Digital Aeronautical Communications System (LDACS), enabling long-range safety-critical digital communications between aircraft and ground. As with any modern wireless communications system, LDACS is prone to cyber-attacks. These issues were addressed in former research, where a secure cell-attachment procedure for LDACS, based on a modified Station to Station (STS) Mutual Authentication and Key Establishment (MAKE) protocol, was proposed. However, as of now, its security has not been proven. The contribution of this paper is the formal verification of the executability and security of the LDACS cell-attachment procedure using the symbolic model checker Tamarin. The achieved results proved that the suggested cell-attachment procedure for LDACS is workable and enables secure communication between aircraft and ground.

Already available WiFi direct and upcoming 5G Device-to-Device (D2D) communication mechanisms are paving the way for the development of Mobile Ad-hoc Networks (MANET) applications. This trend involves the cooperation of nearby mobile nodes in charge of dispatching messages. In addition, the consolidation of the Fog paradigm enables innovative scenarios characterized by the interaction of MANET and Edge nodes. For instance, tourists visiting a city form a MANET to share pictures while the municipality provides Internet connectivity via Edge devices. However, it is required to address specific issues stemming from the collaborative nature of D2D communication, ranging from limited node capabilities providing multi-hop networks to unreliable connectivity due to node mobility. This paper presents the Reliable and Dynamic Routing Technique (RaDRT) solution, adopting the Software Defined Networking (SDN) approach to regulate routing of traffic flows in such Edge-MANET environments. To this purpose, RaDRT originally exploits the joint combination of three primary guidelines: 1) SDN to monitor/manage the state of the mobile network also considering different Quality of Service (QoS) requirements of concurrently running applications, 2) dynamic management of service priority to tune if and how packets are forwarded in a fine-grained per-flow differentiated manner, and 3) joined mobile/fixed solution to maximize the overall QoS also evaluating path reliability based on node mobility. This paper presents the Reliable and Dynamic Routing Technique (RaDRT) solution, adopting the Software Defined Networking (SDN) approach to regulate routing of traffic flows in such Edge-MANET environments. To this purpose, RaDRT originally exploits the joint combination of three primary guidelines: 1) SDN to monitor/manage the state of the mobile network also considering different Quality of Service (QoS) requirements of concurrently running applications, 2) dynamic management of service priority to tune if and how packets are forwarded in a fine-grained per-flow differentiated manner, and 3) joined mobile/fixed solution to maximize the overall QoS also evaluating path reliability based on node mobility.

Nearly all scenarios in the networking domain require reliable radio communication. However, for some use-cases such as military operations or disaster recovery in the realm of catastrophic events it is even more crucial for successful completion. In practice, MANETs are commonly used for these scenarios as they expose features that suit military as well as civil requirements very well, e.g. strict QoS limitations and specific data type support. Since new applications require not only the transmission of static content, but instead the continuous transfer of large audio and video streams, a network structured according to the MANET architecture might easily be over-utilized. This usually results in higher delays and increased loss rate. However, aforementioned scenarios are a common use-case in which MANETs should still deliver on QoS guarantees to avoid DoS conditions. In this paper, we propose a solution for a MANET that is highly utilized by adding a SDN controller responsible for traffic scheduling, although the traffic itself continues to be routed through the MANET. Our approach monitors the MANET's bandwidth utilization and determines routes according to this knowledge. In addition, the controller decreases the bandwidth of flows if the MANET cannot provide the requested resources. We show, that the use of CSMA/CA for the scheduling algorithm within the controller lacks certain properties and elaborate on solving this issue.

Vehicular Ad-hoc Network (VANET) communications are mobile communication alternatives allowing vehicles to exchange information among them with a suitable forwarding scheme. The forwarding scheme is a mechanism to select proper candidate nodes as the intermediate node. Current angle-based forwarding schemes take into account a Horizontal Relative Angle (HRA) and propose Vertical Relative Angle (VRA) as an alternative. The introduction of a filtering concept, implementing both HRA and VRA, restricts the number of insignificant candidates. Under various VANET communication factors (e.g., network density, mobility, and road level topology) the work presented here investigates the VRA scheme to improve the forwarding decision especially in the three-dimensional case within a large city environment.

Reliability and stability for connectivity are the important factors to enhance inter-vehicular communication. In order to achieve such factors, challenges especially in a large city environment due to signal attenuation and a typically poor transmission coverage issues are investigated. Both issues are caused by the existence of obstacles (i.e., overpass constructions and buildings) and road level topology (i.e., a three-dimensional case). Thus, this paper investigates explicitly the horizontal and vertical transmission distances that apply in a three-dimensional case. These distances are covered by existing propagation models of a large city by modeling them as a log-distance path loss with obstacle fading. The scenario of the dedicated three-dimensional case is simulated through the introduction of Vertical Relative Angles (VRA) and Horizontal Relative Angles (HRA) as supporting factors for the forwarding decision. The evaluation shows that applying HRA and VRA reach higher delivery ratio and reduces relatively lower delay in a large city scenario.

Today, users demand comfortable frameworks and development environments independent of applications. CoMaDa 1.0 - a framework for Configuration, Management, and Data handling of sensor data - is such a framework for dealing with sensor data in an operational manner. It includes a widget to Xively, a third party service provider, to visualize sensor data collected in graphs. This results in a dependency to Xively, which is not acceptable by users today anymore due to the need for clear trustworthiness and reliability. The uploaded data must follow format specifications by Xively and API updates in the upload procedure are periodically required due to changes by Xively. In case of changes the entire widget in CoMaDa 1.0 must be updated resulting in unacceptable interrupts and downtimes for CoMaDa users. Additionally, users demand trustworthy services, which are not necessarily provided, if a third party is involved, because users lose control of their data. Thus, the visualization service in CoMaDa 1.0 was updated by including Google Charts in CoMaDa 1.1 to provide the same services as Xively, specifically visualizing single sensor types (e.g., temperature or humidity), without any third party involvement storing collected sensor data. Additionally, extended visualization services were included like a layered visualization of the same sensor types to improve the comparability of collected data (e.g., temperature measured by different sensors). CoMaDa 1.1 offers herewith a data visualization independent of data storage at third parties.

Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is a fundamental technology of the Internet of Things (IoT). Group communications in the form of broadcasting and multicasting incur efficient message deliveries among resource-constrained sensors in IoT-enabled WSNs. Secure and efficient key management is significant to protect the authenticity, integrity, and confidentiality of multicast messages. This paper develops two group key establishment protocols for secure multicast communications among resource-constrained devices in IoT. The applicability of the two protocols are analyzed and justified by performance and security analysis.

In the centralized Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) architecture there exists a central entity, which acquires, processes and provides information from sensor nodes. Conversely, in the WSN applications in distributed Internet of Things (IoT) architecture, sensor nodes sense data, process, exchange information and perform collaboratively with other sensor nodes and endusers. In order to maintain the trustworthy connectivity and the accessibility of distributed IoT, it is important to establish secure links for end-to-end communication with proper authentication. The authors propose an implicit certificate-based authentication mechanism for WSNs in distributed IoT applications. The developed two-phase authentication protocol allows the sensor nodes and the end-users to authenticate each other and initiate secure connections. The proposed protocol supports the resource scarcity of the sensor nodes, heterogeneity and scalability of the network. The performance and security analysis justify that the proposed scheme is viable to deploy in resource constrained WSNs.

Nowadays, users request comfortable frameworks and development environments independent of the applications. Those solutions should offer as many support as possible, should be user friendly, and allow manipulation and visualization of different things at the same time. Those requirements become very important in the area of wireless sensor networks due to different vendors, wide range of application field, and the high amount of collected data. Currently existing solutions cover only a limited range of service and are usually fixed on hardware, operating system or application. In order to offer the user the wide range of flexibility the CoMaDa framework was developed, which is presented in this paper and combines all above mentioned user requirements by working with virtual representation of real wireless sensor networks and support in real time. CoMaDa offers the user support for configuration of components, network management functionalities, and data visualization at the same time. CoMaDa is build in a flexible way, which allows the user to integrate new features (e.g. personal code, hardware support, visualization option) with less input and, therefore, adapt the existing CoMaDa to every setup as requested.

Usecases for wireless sensor networks, such as building automation or patient care, often collect and transmit sensitive information. Yet, many deployments currently do not protect this data through suitable security schemes. We propose an end-to-end security scheme build upon existing internet standards, specifically the Datagram Transport Layer Security protocol (DTLS). By relying on an established standard existing implementations, engineering techniques and security infrastructure can be reused which enables easy security uptake. We present a system architecture for this scheme and show its feasibility through the evaluation of our implementation.

During the last years the application areas and corresponding requirements for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) raised due to limited resources of devices and requirements of the application. The scenarios (e.g. home networks) call for an integration of a WSN into an existing IP-based infrastructure which is realized by 6LoW-PAN. To save resources and to ensure a long life time of the WSN resource consuming tasks such as transmissions must be reduced. Therefore, we present a Compressed IPFIX protocol. It optimizes the transmission by reducing the packet size and the transmission amount by separation between meta information and data. Additional tasks can be performed on top of IPFIX to optimize the efficient usage of the limited resources.