scholarly journals Avoidance of Cybersecurity Threats with the Deployment of a Web-based Blockchain-Enabled Cybersecurity Awareness Model

Author(s):  
Abdul Razaque ◽  
Abrar M Alajlan ◽  
Noussaiba Melaoune ◽  
Munif Alotaibi ◽  
Bandar Alotaibi ◽  
...  

The ignorance of or lack of knowledge about cybersecurity aspects causes a critical problem regarding confidentiality and privacy. This security problem will continue to exist even if the user possesses less expertise in information security. The modern IT technologies are well developed, and almost everyone uses the features of IT technologies and services within the Internet. However, people are being affected due to cybersecurity threats. People can adhere to the recommended cybersecurity guidelines, rules, adopted standards, and cybercrime preventive measures. However, it is not possible to entirely avoid cybercrimes. Cybercrimes often lead to sufficient business losses and spread forbidden themes (hatred, terrorism, child porn, etc.). Therefore, to reduce the risk of cybercrimes, a web-based Blockchain-enabled cybersecurity awareness program (WBCA) process is introduced in this paper. The proposed web-based cybersecurity awareness program trains users to improve their security skills. The proposed program helps with understanding the common behaviors of cybercriminals and improves user knowledge of cybersecurity hygiene, best cybersecurity practices, modern cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and trends. Furthermore, the proposed WBCA uses the Blockchain technology to protect the model from the potential threats. The proposed model is validated and tested using real-world cybersecurity topics with real users and cybersecurity experts. We anticipate that the proposed program can be extended to other domains, such as national or corporate courses, to increase the cybersecurity awareness level of users.

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (17) ◽  
pp. 7880
Author(s):  
Abdul Razaque ◽  
Abrar Al Ajlan ◽  
Noussaiba Melaoune ◽  
Munif Alotaibi ◽  
Bandar Alotaibi ◽  
...  

Modern information technology (IT) is well developed, and almost everyone uses the features of IT and services within the Internet. However, people are being affected due to cybersecurity threats. People can adhere to the recommended cybersecurity guidelines, rules, adopted standards, and cybercrime preventive measures to largely mitigate these threats. The ignorance of or lack of cybersecurity knowledge also causes a critical problem regarding confidentiality and privacy. It is not possible to fully avoid cybercrimes that often lead to sufficient business losses and spread forbidden themes (disgust, extremism, child porn, etc.). Therefore, to reduce the risk of cybercrimes, a web-based Blockchain-enabled cybersecurity awareness program (WBCA) process is introduced in this paper. The proposed WBCA trains users to improve their security skills. The proposed program helps with understanding the common behaviors of cybercriminals and improves user knowledge of cybersecurity hygiene, best cybersecurity practices, modern cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and trends. Furthermore, the proposed WBCA uses Blockchain technology to protect the program from potential threats. The proposed program is validated and tested using real-world cybersecurity topics with real users and cybersecurity experts. We anticipate that the proposed program can be extended to other domains, such as national or corporate courses, to increase the cybersecurity awareness level of users. A CentOS-based virtual private server is deployed for testing the proposed WBCA to determine its effectiveness. Finally, WBCA is also compared with other state-of-the-art web-based programs designed for cybersecurity awareness.


Author(s):  
Luis Casillas ◽  
Thanasis Daradoumis

This chapter presents a proposal for modeling / simulating experiments conducted by scientists working in common scientific problems, based on gathering and exploiting knowledge elements produced among them. The authors’ approach enables the adaptation of knowledge structures (bounded to scientific problems) and is based on recurrent refining processes that are fed by indicators, which come from collaboration among the scientists involved. This scheme captures a web-based infrastructure, which allows scientists to collaborate on synthesizing experiments online. The proposed model is approached as an ontology that contains scientific concepts and actions. This ontology is linked to the scientific problem and represents both the “common understanding” for such a problem and the way it could be managed by the group. This dynamic ontology will change its structure according to the collaboration acts among scientists. Frequent collaboration over certain elements of the experiment will make them prevail in time. Besides, this process has been defined in a way that provides a global understanding of the scientific treatment that could be applied on any scientific problem. Hence, the ontology represents a virtualization of the scientific experiment. This whole representation is aimed at providing the media for developing e-research among scientists that are working on common problems.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (SPL1) ◽  
pp. 1144-1150
Author(s):  
Muralidharan V A ◽  
Gheena S

Covid -19 is an infectious disease caused by the newly discovered strain of coronavirus. As there is no vaccine discovered, the only way to prevent the spread is through following the practice of social isolation. But prolonged isolation may also lead to psychological stress and problems. The objective of the survey was to assess the knowledge and awareness of preventive measures against Covid 19 amongst small shop owners. A web-based cross-sectional study was conducted amongst the small shop owners.  A structured questionnaire comprising 15-17 questions had been put forth to assess the Covid 19 related knowledge and perception. The shopkeepers were contacted telephonically and responses recorded. The data analysis was performed using IBM SPSS statistics. Although the majority of the population had a positive perception about the preventive measures against the Covid spread, 36% of the shopkeepers were not aware of the preventive measures against the Covid spread. This study found optimal knowledge and perception of the preventive measures against Covid spread among the shopkeepers but misinformation and misunderstanding still prevailing. The shopkeepers are crucial in the prevention of the spread of Covid 19 and educating them might aid us in the fight against Covid- 19. 


Clean Energy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 104-123
Author(s):  
Manish Kumar Thukral

Abstract Renewable-energy resources require overwhelming adoption by the common masses for safeguarding the environment from pollution. In this context, the prosumer is an important emerging concept. A prosumer in simple terms is the one who consumes as well as produces electricity and sells it either to the grid or to a neighbour. In the present scenario, peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading is gaining momentum as a new vista of research that is viewed as a possible way for prosumers to sell energy to neighbours. Enabling P2P energy trading is the only method of making renewable-energy sources popular among the common masses. For making P2P energy trading successful, blockchain technology is sparking considerable interest among researchers. Combined with smart contracts, a blockchain provides secure tamper-proof records of transactions that are recorded in distributed ledgers that are immutable. This paper explores, using a thorough review of recently published research work, how the existing power sector is reshaping in the direction of P2P energy trading with the application of blockchain technology. Various challenges that are being faced by researchers in the implementation of blockchain technology in the energy sector are discussed. Further, this paper presents different start-ups that have emerged in the energy-sector domain that are using blockchain technology. To give insight into the application of blockchain technology in the energy sector, a case of the application of blockchain technology in P2P trading in electrical-vehicle charging is discussed. At the end, some possible areas of research in the application of blockchain technology in the energy sector are discussed.


2018 ◽  
Vol 224 ◽  
pp. 01138
Author(s):  
Yuri Rapatskiy ◽  
Mikhail Zamorenov ◽  
Vadim Kopp ◽  
Yuri Obzherin ◽  
Vladimir Gusev ◽  
...  

In the article a common semi-Markov mathematical model is considered that allows one to investigate the productivity and reliability of various technological processes of mechanical assembly production. The proposed model allows to study, inter alia, technological processes of manufacturing parts with screw and assemblies of threaded connections. Mathematical apparatus of the research is the theory of semi-Markov processes with a common phase space, which operates with a common kind of random variables distribution functions. If the considering process in the system is a subsystem located on a higher level of hierarchy, the hierarchical model for compatibility with each other levels as output simulation parameters required distribution functions. In the proposed model, based on the decision of the Markov renewal equations depend not only on the torque characteristics, but also the distribution function of time per unit of output service according to different kinds of undervalued failures.


Electronics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 210
Author(s):  
Paweł Górecki ◽  
Krzysztof Górecki

This article proposes effective methods of measurements and computations of internal temperature of the dies of the Insulted Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) and the diode mounted in the common case. The nonlinear compact thermal model of the considered device is proposed. This model takes into account both self-heating phenomena in both dies and mutual thermal couplings between them. In the proposed model, the influence of the device internal temperature on self and transfer thermal resistances is taken into account. Methods of measurements of each self and transfer transient thermal impedances occurring in this model are described and factors influencing the measurement error of these methods are analysed. Some results illustrating thermal properties of the investigated devices including the IGBT and the antiparallel diode in the common case are shown and discussed. Computations illustrating the usefulness of the proposed compact thermal model are presented and compared to the results of measurements. It is proved that differences between internal temperature of both dies included in the TO-247 case can exceed even 15 K.


Author(s):  
Naresh Sammeta ◽  
Latha Parthiban

Recent healthcare systems are defined as highly complex and expensive. But it can be decreased with enhanced electronic health records (EHR) management, using blockchain technology. The healthcare sector in today’s world needs to address two major issues, namely data ownership and data security. Therefore, blockchain technology is employed to access and distribute the EHRs. With this motivation, this paper presents novel data ownership and secure medical data transmission model using optimal multiple key-based homomorphic encryption (MHE) with Hyperledger blockchain (OMHE-HBC). The presented OMHE-HBC model enables the patients to access their own data, provide permission to hospital authorities, revoke permission from hospital authorities, and permit emergency contacts. The proposed model involves the MHE technique to securely transmit the data to the cloud and prevent unauthorized access to it. Besides, the optimal key generation process in the MHE technique takes place using a hosted cuckoo optimization (HCO) algorithm. In addition, the proposed model enables sharing of EHRs by the use of multi-channel HBC, which makes use of one blockchain to save patient visits and another one for the medical institutions in recoding links that point to EHRs stored in external systems. A complete set of experiments were carried out in order to validate the performance of the suggested model, and the results were analyzed under many aspects. A comprehensive comparison of results analysis reveals that the suggested model outperforms the other techniques.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph Wronka

Purpose The aim of this paper is to assess the relevance of cryptocurrencies with regard to the money laundering risk on the market and to present widespread money laundering techniques and recognizable patterns of abuse. In addition, this paper aims to find an answer to the question to what extent the measures of the fifth EU Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD) as well as other appropriate preventive measures are sufficient to reduce the money laundering risk in the area of virtual currencies (VC). Design/methodology/approach Firstly, the analysis requires a consideration of the theoretical foundations of money laundering methods, as well as a presentation of the technical foundations of cryptocurrencies and their ecosystem. Secondly, it is discussed to what extent VC are suitable for money laundering, which characteristics enable them to launder money and which new money laundering techniques result from this. In addition, a comparison of different money laundering risk classification is done in relation to VC from the perspective of different actors in the financial market. Findings Owing to their simple electronic storage and transferability, crypto assets pose a concrete risk of money laundering. Their inclusion in the fifth AMLD was therefore a necessary step by the European legislator. However, the question arises to whether the directive and the further preventive measures presented in this paper sufficiently fulfil the objective of reducing the money laundering risk in relation to VC. One positive aspect is the inclusion of the crypto custody business as a financial service in the German Banking Act. According to the definition in Section 1 (1a) sentence 2 no. 6, the offering of wallets is subject to authorization and the offering party becomes an obligated party within the meaning of the Germany Money Laundering Act. From a supervisory point of view, the new licensing requirement is very much welcomed, as the custody of private cryptographic keys entails considerable risks. However, non-custodian wallet providers who do not store the private keys of their users, are not covered. A closer analysis of the amending directive to the fourth EU AMLD reveals that other relevant players in the crypto market, such as mixer and tumbler services, are also not covered. Originality/value It is quite clear that cryptocurrencies and the blockchain technology will continue to accompany one in the coming years. Further credit institutions arising in the market exposed to the described risks will be seen. The paper will therefore present and evaluate possible risk reduction/options for anti-money laundering for new and existing financial institutions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Wenjuan Li ◽  
Shihua Cao ◽  
Keyong Hu ◽  
Jian Cao ◽  
Rajkumar Buyya

The cloud-fog-edge hybrid system is the evolution of the traditional centralized cloud computing model. Through the combination of different levels of resources, it is able to handle service requests from terminal users with a lower latency. However, it is accompanied by greater uncertainty, unreliability, and instability due to the decentralization and regionalization of service processing, as well as the unreasonable and unfairness in resource allocation, task scheduling, and coordination, caused by the autonomy of node distribution. Therefore, this paper introduces blockchain technology to construct a trust-enabled interaction framework in a cloud-fog-edge environment, and through a double-chain structure, it improves the reliability and verifiability of task processing without a big management overhead. Furthermore, in order to fully consider the reasonability and load balance in service coordination and task scheduling, Berger’s model and the conception of service justice are introduced to perform reasonable matching of tasks and resources. We have developed a trust-based cloud-fog-edge service simulation system based on iFogsim, and through a large number of experiments, the performance of the proposed model is verified in terms of makespan, scheduling success rate, latency, and user satisfaction with some classical scheduling models.


2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zaheer Allam

AbstractAs the Blockchain technology is gaining momentum in popular culture through Cryptocurrencies, its full implication and application to businesses, on a concrete and factual level, is still seen to be in its infancy stage. While the technology provides numerous advantages regarding stability, trust, speed and others, the robustness of the technology is not widely disseminated. This is further coupled by the common notion of resistance to change in business management processes. This paper explores the concept of Smart Contracts through the blockchain technology and its relevance to the business sector and further outlines the advantages and limitations of its applicability as of date.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document