Over the last decade, Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) have been increasingly targeted by attackers to obtain control over industrial processes that support critical services.Such targeted attacks typically require detailed knowledge of system-specific attributes, including hardware configurations, adopted protocols, and PLC control-logic, i.e., process comprehension.The consensus from both academics and practitioners suggests stealthy process comprehension obtained from a PLC alone, to execute targeted attacks, is impractical.In contrast, we assert that current PLC programming practices open the door to a new vulnerability class, affording attackers an increased level of process comprehension.To support this, we propose the concept of Process Comprehension at a Distance (PCaaD), as a novel methodological and automatable approach towards the system-agnostic identification of PLC library functions.This leads to the targeted exfiltration of operational data, manipulation of control-logic behavior, and establishment of covert command and control channels through unused memory.We validate PCaaD on widely used PLCs through its practical application.

Simulated security assessments (a collective term used here for penetration testing, vulnerability assessment, and related nomenclature) may need standardisation, but not in the commonly assumed manner of practical assessment methodologies. Instead, this study highlights market failures within the providing industry at the beginning and ending of engagements, which has left clients receiving ambiguous and inconsistent services. It is here, at the prior and subsequent phases of practical assessments, that standardisation may serve the continuing professionalisation of the industry, and provide benefits not only to clients but also to the practitioners involved in the provision of these services. These findings are based on the results of 54 stakeholder interviews with providers of services, clients, and coordinating bodies within the industry. The paper culminates with a framework for future advancement of the ecosystem, which includes three recommendations for standardisation.

The past two decades have seen a shift in the multimedia consumption behaviours from that of collectivism and passivity, to individualism and activity. This paper introduces the architectural design, implementation and user evaluation of a second screen application, which is designed to supersede the traditional user control interface for primary screen interaction. We describe how NSMobile, our second screen application, can be used as a pervasive multimedia platform by integrating user experiences on both the second screen and primary screen. The quantitative and qualitative evaluation of user interactions with interactive TV content also contributes to the future design of second screen applications.

Video-on-demand (VoD) is becoming a popular service for commercial content distribution by offering end users the freedom to access recorded programmes. The management of on-demand assets is essential to maximise the efficiency of storage and network utilisation as well as advertisement. This paper introduces our recent efforts in design and implementation of an adaptive VoD archive system in an IPTV infrastructure. The system exploits live statistics on the user behaviours as well as the dynamic popularity of VoD programmes. Using the modelled programme popularity function, the VoD archive is capable of managing the VoD repository by adapting to the most recent user requests. The design has greatly improved the activity of VoD repository and user experience in on-demand services.

The paper introduces NextShareMobile, an integrated second screen application. Design and evaluations are presented.

This paper introduces the recent design and development of a converged IPTV service that has been deployed within a live test-bed (Living Lab) at Lancaster University for thousands of students. High quality audio-visual content is distributed over heterogeneous IP-based content networks, on both set-top box and web-based platforms. Peer-to-peer (P2P) technologies are exploited to provide energy efficient and low-cost delivery for commercial and user-generated content. The infrastructure and functional components are first presented exploring a number of key designs that facilitate the entire eco-system of content ingest, transcoding, P2P tracking, distribution, statistics, end systems, as well as integration of social networking. Due to the dynamic nature of P2P distribution, a quality measurement service with respect to user experience is also essential for the service evaluation and diagnosis. A multimodal QoE measurement framework which evaluates the IPTV services by collaborating measurements with a variety of different aspects is presented. Results of a use case are also described to verify the effectiveness of the measurement framework in exploiting relevant metrics from service components.