In capillary machine-to-machine (M2M) communications, which is being considered as a feasible network solution for M2M applications, because of physical resource constraints and deployment conditions, an energy-efficient and scalable medium access control (MAC) protocol is crucial for numerous M2M devices to concurrently access wireless channels. Therefore, this paper presents a unified MAC layer architecture for resource-constrained M2M devices in capillary M2M networks [named as resource-constrained MAC architecture (RCMA)], which has a unified (monolithic) framework consisting of essential functional components to support MAC-related operations of M2M devices: multi-channel hybrid MAC (McHM), logical link control (LLC), time synchronizer (TS), and device on--off scheduler (DO2S). McHM provides a baseline MAC protocol for an entire capillary M2M system that combines the benefit of both contention-based carrier sense multiple access and schedule-based time division multiple access schemes, whereas the other three components help in the McHM operations. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the RCMA, we implement the whole stack using the QualNet simulator. Experimental results show that the RCMA outperforms the conventional ZigBee stack in terms of energy efficiency and scalability, even under heavy traffic conditions.

ABSTRACT Smart metering application has received a lot of attention from the research community lately. Usually, low power and lossy network runs on routing protocol for low power and lossy networks protocol, which constructs a directed acyclic graph structure for its normal operation. In this paper, we devise a wormhole attack scenario in such a network. Furthermore, we propose a Merkle tree‐based authentication mechanism, which runs on the notion of constructing a tree of hashed security information. We analyze the approach by formulating the wormhole attack scenario as a graph theoretic problem and show the effectiveness of the proposed Merkle tree‐based approach for authenticating communications. Furthermore, we perform simulations in network simulator 2 to observe the network performance by adopting a Merkle tree‐based approach to prevent from disrupting the links, and we observe better throughput, reduction in jitter, and end‐to‐end delay as compared with scenarios with wormhole attacks and no avoidance mechanism. In the end, we take a step toward optimizing the performance of the mechanism by proposing an effective tree traversal algorithm, which works on the notion of electing nodes as a root in a large scale network from where a Merkle tree will be originated. The mechanism with the traversal algorithm assists in managing the authentication in a huge network, which is broken down into many trees avoiding wormhole attacks in the network. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

ABSTRACT Rogue access points (APs) have been used in several attacks such as packet sniffing and man‐in‐the‐middle attacks. It is becoming a serious security threat to users in public and enterprise networks. Moreover, it is easy to install malicious APs using mobile devices and networks, and existing solutions do not effectively detect these rogue APs. In this paper, we propose a method to detect rogue APs over mobile networks using round‐trip time measurements, without relying on information from authorized lists of APs or users. Through experiments, we proved that our proposed method could detect rogue APs successfully. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This study presents the design and performance evaluation of a latency bounded and medium access control (MAC) scheme (abbreviated to LB-MAC) for wireless sensor networks that require time-critical communication. LB-MAC provides the predictability for an end-to-sink data delivery time through the time division multiple access (TDMA) multi-channel transmission frame assignment considering the routing path of a tree network. In addition, it uses the traffic-based slot assignment mechanism at every transmission frame to achieve energy efficiency. The feasibility and effectiveness of LB-MAC is demonstrated through extensive simulation based comparisons with prior research.

Mobile Internet and Computer Communication is a part of our daily life. People use mobile Internet and network communication applications such as YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook, as well as mobile web and e-mail via mobile communication devices such as smartphones, tablet PCs, and embedded mobile devices. We are also moving to an era of cloud computing services that store important and proprietary information on remote machines, which are accessible through various networks and mobile internet environments. Although such applications may help businesses and also make personal services more efficient, they are vulnerable to attacks, which include various communication and network infringement, system violation, stealing data, and obstructing the operations of a business or a person. In addition, the environment of the Next Generation Communications and Networks has raised many issues on heterogeneous communications system and network security, which are vulnerable to various attacks. This special issue of Security and Communication Networks highlights the latest research results and presents novel and innovative security and privacy techniques for Next Generation Communication and Network Security. It summarizes the current state-of-the-art research and provides valuable insights into future directions and challenges in the field. The first paper, “The Effective Method of Database Server Forensics on the Enterprise Environment” by Son et al., addresses that a method of detecting a server and acquiring and investigating data in the server can be effectively used for such an investigation on the enterprise environment. For the existing investigation on server systems, severs should be shut down, and disk imaging should be conducted first. However, such a method may inflict great losses on the company in some cases. That is why we need a method to acquire data of a server in online state, and this study discusses this method. Besides, on the basis of methodology, this study attempts to determine a possibility that this new forensic investigation method can be practically used by directly applying this method to SQL Server and MySQL databases. The second paper, “Detection of Botnets before Activation: An Enhanced Honeypot System for Intentional Infection and Behavioral Observation of Malware” by Moon et al., introduces a system that is designed to detect botnets prior to their activation. Predetection of botnets becomes available with our enhanced honeypot system that allows us to intentionally infect virtual machines in honeynets. The third paper, “Adaptive Scheduling Strategies for Cloud-based Resource Infrastructures” by Deng Lingli et al., proposes to employ linear programming algorithms for global resource scheduling to reduce the extra cost, including power consumption as well as operation expenditures, for remote resource access in a cloud-based resource pool. Unlike previous static work in this field, the proposed scheduler adapts the problem-modeling granularity and resolution algorithm to the changing demands of an integral procedure comprising various stages including the initial construction and subsequent operation/extension of a cloud-based resource infrastructure. The fourth paper, “Bayesian Approach with Maximum Entropy Principle for Trusted Quality of Web Service Metric in E-commerce Applications” by Shangguang Wang et al., proposes a trusted QoWS metric approach, that is, Bayesian Approach with Maximum Entropy Principle. The key of our proposed approach is to extract QoWS prior distribution of Web service by using Maximum Entropy Principle and then to infer QoWS posterior distribution of Web service by using Bayesian Approach. The fifth paper, “Identity-based Construction for Secure and Efficient Handoff Authentication Schemes in Wireless Networks” by Yinghui Zhang et al., proposes a new identity-based construction for secure and efficient handoff authentication schemes, in which an identity-based online/offline encryption scheme is the primary ingredient. Compared with the scheme of Kim et al., our construction enjoys desirable efficiency in terms of the computation cost and the communication cost. The sixth paper, “Detecting SYN Flooding Attacks based on Traffic Prediction” by Shangguang Wang et al., proposes a detection approach that makes use of SYN traffic prediction to determine whether SYN flooding attacks happen at the early stage. We first adopt gray prediction model to predict SYN traffic, and then, we employ cumulative sum algorithm to detect SYN flooding attack traffic among forecasted SYN traffic. The seventh paper, “Study on the Security of the Extended Version for the ISO/IEC International Standardized Block Cipher SEED” by Jongsung Kim, analyzes the block cipher SEED-192, which is an extended version of the ISO/IEC block cipher SEED. The eighth paper, “Self-organizing Life Cycle Management of Mobile Ad Hoc Networks” by Candido Caballero-Gil et al., includes the performance evaluation of the scheme, and the obtained experimental results show that SLCM significantly improves both the quality and the security of life cycle management of self-organized MANETs. The ninth paper, “On the Security of PPPoE Network” by Fanbao Liu et al., points out that PPPoE cannot be used anymore until all of the weak authentication protocols including PAP, CHAP, and Microsoft CHAP are abolished right now and replaced with more secure Extensible Authentication Protocols. The 10th paper, “Proactive Recovery Approach for Intrusion Tolerance with Dynamic Configuration of Physical and Virtual Replicas” by Feng Zhao et al., describes an approach for tolerating intrusions, or more precisely, damages to replicated data, through dynamic configuration of physical and virtual replicas, which follows a general approach called proactive recovery, and proposes to dynamically adjust recovery frequency to handle potentially changing fault rate. The 11th paper, “A Quantitative Approach to Estimate the Security Risk of a Website using the Whitelist Database” by Young-Gab Kim et al., presents a quantitative approach for evaluating the phishing possibility of a given website by using the refined security risk elements for domain and web page. Design and implementation of the website risk assessment system for antiphishing are also included. The 12th paper, “A Partially Reconstructed Previous Gmail Session by Live Digital Evidences Investigation through Volatile Data Acquisition” by Chu Hai-Cheng et al., pinpoints the imminent threat of IT savvy cyber criminals and the corresponding counter procedures used to crack criminal cases if web-based e-mail utilities are essentially involved. This paper is focused on the prevalent e-mail utility, Gmail, as the research subject. The 13th paper, “Quantitative Intrusion Intensity Assessment for Intrusion Detection Systems” by Dong-Seong Kim et al., describes a new approach named Quantitative Intrusion Intensity Assessment (QIIA) that exploits proximity metrics computation so that it provides intrusion (or normal) quantitative intensity value. It is capable of representing how an instance of audit data is proximal to intrusion or normal in a numerical value. The last paper, “Simple SMS Spam Filtering on Independent Mobile Phone” by Nuruzzaman M et al., proposes to filter SMS spam on independent mobile phones by using Text Classification techniques. The training, filtering, and updating processes are performed on an independent mobile phone. The mobile phone has storage, memory, and CPU limitations compared with a computer. We are thankful to all those authors who considered submitting their work to this Special Issue, irrespective of whether their papers could be accepted or not. Also, we are grateful to the editor-in-chief, Professor Hsiao-Hwa Chen, and the editorial staff of this journal for supporting the launch of this Special Issue. Prof. Taeshik Shon received his PhD degree in Information Security from Korea University, Seoul, Korea and his MS and BS degrees in Computer Engineering from Ajou University, Suwon, Korea. While he was working toward his PhD degree, he was awarded a KOSEF scholarship to be a research scholar in the Digital Technology Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, U.S.A., from February 2004 to February 2005. From August 2005 to February 2011, Dr. Shon had been a senior engineer in the Convergence S/W Lab, DMC R&D Center of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. He is currently a professor at the Division of Information and Computer Engineering, College of Information Technology, Ajou University, Suwon, Korea. He was awarded the Gold Prize for the Sixth Information Security Best Paper Award from the Korea Information Security Agency in 2003, the Honorable Prize for the 24th Student Best Paper Award from Microsoft-KISS, 2005, the Bronze Prize for the Samsung Best Paper Award, 2006, and the Second Level of TRIZ Specialist certification in compliance with the International TRIZ Association requirements, 2008. He is also serving as a guest editor, an editorial staff, and a review committee of Computers and Electrical Engineering—Elsevier, Mobile Network and Applications—Springer, Security and Communication Networks—Wiley InterScience, Wireless Personal Communications—Springer, Journal of The Korea Institute of Information Security and Cryptology, IAENG International Journal of Computer Science, and other journals. His research interests include convergence platform security, mobile cloud computing security, mobile/wireless network security, WPAN/WSN security, anomaly detection algorithms, and machine learning applications. Dr. Costas Lambrinoudakis holds a BSc (Electrical and Electronic Engineering) from the University of Salford (1985), an MSc (Control Systems) from the University of London (Imperial College—1986), and a PhD (Computer Science) from the University of London (Queen Mary and Westfield College—1991). Currently, he is an assistant professor at the Department of Digital Systems, University of Piraeus, Greece. From 1998 until 2009, he has held teaching position with the University of the Aegean, Department of Information and Communication Systems Engineering, Greece. His current research interests are in the areas of Information and Communication Systems Security and of Privacy Enhancing Technologies. He is an author of more than 85 scientific publications in refereed international journals, books, and conferences, most of them on ICT security and privacy protection issues. He has served as program committee chair of two international scientific conferences and as a member on the program and organizing committees of many others. Also, he participates in the editorial board of two international scientific journals, and he acts as a reviewer for more than 20 journals. He has been involved in many national and EU funded R&D projects in the area of Information and Communication Systems Security. He is a member of the ACM and the IEEE. Prof. Zhou is the chair of the Department of Computer Science, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. He is the director of Distributed and Internet Systems Lab and the director and cofounder of PhD in Engineering with a focus in security degree program. He obtained BS, MS, and PhD degrees in Computer Science from Nanjing University, China, in 1994, 1997, and 2000, respectively. He was a visiting scientist in 1999 and a postdoctorate research associate in 2000 at the Paderborn Center for Parallel Computing, University of Paderborn, Germany. His research is mainly in computer network systems, more specifically, autonomic computing in data centers, cloud computing, server virtualization, scalable Internet services and architectures, and computer network security. His research was supported in part by National Science Foundation, Air Force, and Army. He was a recipient of NSF CAREER Award 2009. He received the 2010–2011 University Faculty Award for Excellence in Research. He is a general cochair of the IEEE ICCCN 2012, a TPC cochair of the IEEE ICCCN 2011, a TPC vice chair of the IEEE GLOBECOM 2010, ICCCN 2009, HPCC 2008, and IEEE/IFIP EUC 2008, and the workshop general chair of the IEEE ICCCN 2010, ICCCN 2007, and IFIP EUC 2006. He served ACM Transactions on Autonomous and Adaptive Systems and the Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing as a guest editor. He is an associate editor of Elsevier's Computer Communications and Journal of Network and Computer Applications.

ABSTRACT This paper presents a robust and secure hybrid connectivity framework for ubiquitous convergence in a home environment. The proposed hybrid connectivity framework is based on various consumer electronics and mobile devices with wireless interfaces such as IEEE 802.15.4 (e.g., radio frequency for consumer electronics (RF4CE) or ZigBee) and IEEE 802.11. In particular, this framework involves an RF4CE‐based WiFi zero‐configuration scheme. It simplifies connectivity by means of secure key distribution and a simple WiFi configuration involving WiFi‐capable devices. To validate our framework, we analyzed the system and security performance using real hardware prototypes. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The advent of converged environment merged with wireless sensor networks (WSNs) and mobile networks can have the possibility on enabling us to experience variety of ubiquitous applications based on multi-sensor attached smartphones. However, most of current researches are failed to recognise the fact that there are many drawbacks to break through between the heterogeneous networks such as a WSN and mobile network. In this study, the authors propose the authentication and key agreement protocol that efficiently reduces the overall computational and communication costs in the next generation converged network. The enhanced security procedures are operated through the mobile network in order to maximise the lifetime of the sensor networks and to apply the combined capabilities of both networks. The authors show the presented novel design can show the feasibility to minimise the usage of the sensor networks with the battery-powered sensors in comparison with the existing authentication models, and can be deployed under the standard architectures.

Energy efficiency is one of important issues in the resource constrained wireless sensor network. In this paper, we propose the authentication and key agreement protocol that efficiently reduces the overall computational and communication costs in the next generation converged network. The enhanced security procedures are operated through the mobile network in order to maximize the lifetime of the sensor networks and to apply the combined capabilities of both networks.

This paper is to present a new novel architecture to provide smart and easy control and sharing between various CE and IT devices. The proposed architecture is based on RF4CE which has a reliable standard enhances the IEEE 802.15.4 standard by providing a simple networking layer and standard application profiles that can be used to create a multi-vendor interoperable solution for use within the home. We develop H/W prototype and demonstrate verification scenarios using RF4CE-based Wireless Auto Configuration (REWACON) architecture.

Existing wireless access (mobile) routers are commonly based on the network address and port translation (NAPT) technique which permits simultaneously sharing a subscriber's connection to the core network with multiple users. However, the NAPT architecturally makes the users invisible on the core network side, thus becoming a user-oriented connection-sharing technique. In this paper, we propose a novel service provider-oriented wireless broadband (Libra) unlicensed nomadic access relay station (WiNNERS) for helping WiBro network service providers to make their business more lucrative by accommodating unlicensed band users as subscribers into their network. The WiNNERS offers service providers the capability to directly manage each of the unlicensed band users at the core network side. This direct management allows the service providers to flexibly and simply handle QoS, access control, and billing for each unlicensed band user. In order to distinguish each of the unlicensed band users, the WiNNERS constructs a virtual tunnel from each user's terminal to the core network access control router (ACR) using connection identifier (CID) which is defined for service (traffic) flow management within the WiBro system. Consequently, our proposed service provider-oriented relay station can be included into the WiBro network system with minimum modifications.