No abstract

The number of Resource-Limited Wireless Devices utilized in many areas of IT is growing rapidly. Some of the applications of these devices pose real security threats that can be addressed using authentication and cryptography. Many of the available authentication and encryption software solutions are predicated on the availability of ample processing power and memory. These demands cannot be met by the majority of ubiquitous computing devices, thus there is a need to apply lightweight cryptography primitives and lightweight authentication protocols that meet these demands in any application of security to devices with limited resources. A security framework is presented here that combines aspects of the Gossamer protocol and the Scalable Encryption Algorithm (SEA) to provide an implementation of inter-device security. The Gossamer Protocol is additionally used as a means of exchanging session keys for use with the SEA encryption protocol. Our system performed well with the code space requirements smaller than 600 bytes (excluding shared libraries) and a performance of 27 milliseconds per one 96-bit block of data.

The benefits of Cloud computing include reduced costs, high reliability and the immediate availability of additional computing resources as needed. Despite such advantages, Cloud Service Provider (CSP) consumers need to be aware that the Clouds poses its own set of unique risks that are not typically associated with storing and processing one's own data internally using privately owned infrastructure. New techniques such as Searchable Encryption are being deployed to enable data to be encrypted online. Despite being a relatively obscure form of Cryptography, Searchable Encryption is now at the point that it can be deployed and used within the Cloud. Searchable Encryption can allow CSP customers to store their data in encrypted form, while retaining the ability to search that data without disclosing the associated decryption key(s) to CSPs. Searchable Encryption is a diverse subject that exists in many forms. Searchable Symmetric Encryption (SSE) which has its roots in plaintext searching is one such form. Although symmetrically encrypted ciphertext cannot be searched in the same manner; nonetheless, many of the principles that apply to plaintext searching also apply to SSE. In its most basic form, SSE is nothing more than an Inverted Index-a mechanism that has been used in plaintext Information Retrieval (IR) for decades-that has been modified and adapted for use with ciphertext. We implement an SSE scheme and evaluate the efficiency of storing and retrieving data from the cloud. The results showed that carrying out a task using SSE is directly proportional to the amount of information involved. In the case of constructing an IR Inverted Index, the results show that the time taken to generate an IR Inverted Index is directly proportional to the number of Terms contained in the underlying Document Collection. Converting the same IR Inverted Index to an SSE Inverted Index is directly proportional to the number of Postings contained within the IR Inverted Index, while the time taken to encrypt the underlying Document Collection is directly proportional to the number of Terms contained within the Document Collection. In relation to searching in SSE, the time taken to identify and decrypt the set of Postings associated with a given Lexicon Term is directly proportional to the number of Postings. We believe that SSE is efficient enough to be deployed in a Cloud environment especially when results only have to be returned to the user in small quantities. When applied to large Sets, SSE querying can become inefficient as its search time is directly proportional to the number of matching. SSE however is designed to achieve efficient search speeds whilst maintaining Data Privacy.

The authors implement common attacks on a DNS server and demonstrate that DNSSEC is an effective solution to counter DNS security flaws. This research demonstrates how to counter the zone transfer attack via the generation of DNSSEC keys on the name servers which prevent attackers from obtaining a full zone transfer as its request for the transfer without the keys was denied by the primary server. This article also provides a detailed scenario of how DNSSEC can be used as a mechanism to protect against the attack if an attacker tried to perform Cache Poisoning. The authors ultimately show that a DNSSEC server will not accept responses from unauthorised entities and would only accept responses which are authenticated throughout the DNSSEC chain of trust.

Aging populations across the world are facing a number of challenges in the context of health and healthcare. These challenges are driven by the aging process and the illnesses associated with aging. Healthcare for older people has become a point of concern with most health organizations, and this is particularly the case with palliative care. In this instance, the movement of the patient may be restricted to a room with no or limited access to the outdoors. This research focuses on the active integration of immersive technologies with healthcare. By addressing the problem of providing patients with the experience of being present in an outdoors space, the associated psychological and physiological benefits can be identified. In this mixed methods research paper, the impact of a crossover study to discern technology preferences in relation to immersive technologies among a sample of older people is reported. In addition, the study highlights factors that contribute to a meaningful immersive experience that can improve psychological and physiological wellbeing. The study identifies that there are two significant categorical aspects that contribute to such immersive experiences, technological aspects (including, for example, the weight of headsets, visual impairment, pixelation, and gamification) and emotive aspects (for example, joy, anger, and fear). The study suggests that older people prefer immersive Virtual Reality (VR) environments rather than 360 video experiences. This can be attributed to the greater flexibility in the provision of interactivity in virtual reality systems.