<div>The Internet-of-Things (IoT) is one of the fastest-growing technologies in computing, revolutionizing several application domains such as wearable computing, home automation, industrial manufacturing, <i>etc</i>. This rapid proliferation, however, has given rise to a plethora of new security and privacy concerns. For example, IoT devices frequently access sensitive and confidential information (<i>e.g.,</i> physiological signals), which has made them attractive targets for various security attacks. Moreover, with the hardware components in these systems sourced from manufacturers across the globe, instances of counterfeiting and piracy have increased steadily. Security mechanisms such as device authentication and key exchange are attractive options for alleviating these challenges.</div><div><br></div><div>In this dissertation, we address the challenge of enabling low-cost and low-overhead device authentication and key exchange in off-the-shelf embedded systems. The first part of the dissertation focuses on a hardware-intrinsic mechanism and proposes the design of two Physically Unclonable Functions (PUFs), which leverage the memory (DRAM, SRAM) in the system, thus, requiring minimal (or no) additional hardware for operation. Two lightweight authentication and error-correction techniques, which ensure robust operation under wide environmental and temporal variations, are also presented. Experimental results obtained from prototype implementations demonstrate the effectiveness of the design. The second part of the dissertation focuses on the application of these techniques in real-world systems through a new end-to-end authentication and key-exchange protocol in the context of an Implantable Medical Device (IMD) ecosystem. Prototype implementations exhibit an energy-efficient design that guards against security and privacy attacks, thereby making it suitable for resource-constrained devices such as IMDs.</div><div><br></div>

<p>The detection of anomalies in real-world networks is applicable in different domains; the application includes, but is not limited to, credit card fraud detection, malware identification and classification, cancer detection from diagnostic reports, abnormal traffic detection, identification of fake media posts, and the like. Many ongoing and current researches are providing tools for analyzing labeled and unlabeled data; however, the challenges of finding anomalies and patterns in large-scale datasets still exist because of rapid changes in the threat landscape. </p><p>In this study, I implemented a novel and robust solution that combines data science and cybersecurity to solve complex network security problems. I used Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) model, Louvain algorithm, and PageRank algorithm to identify and group anomalies in large-scale real-world networks. The network has billions of packets. The developed model used different visualization techniques to provide further insight into how the anomalies in the network are related. </p><p>Mean absolute error (MAE) and root mean square error (RMSE) was used to validate the anomaly detection models, the results obtained for both are 5.1813e-04 and 1e-03 respectively. The low loss from the training phase confirmed the low RMSE at loss: 5.1812e-04, mean absolute error: 5.1813e-04, validation loss: 3.9858e-04, validation mean absolute error: 3.9858e-04. The result from the community detection shows an overall modularity value of 0.914 which is proof of the existence of very strong communities among the anomalies. The largest sub-community of the anomalies connects 10.42% of the total nodes of the anomalies. </p><p>The broader aim and impact of this study was to provide sophisticated, AI-assisted countermeasures to cyber-threats in large-scale networks. To close the existing gaps created by the shortage of skilled and experienced cybersecurity specialists and analysts in the cybersecurity field, solutions based on out-of-the-box thinking are inevitable; this research was aimed at yielding one of such solutions. It was built to detect specific and collaborating threat actors in large networks and to help speed up how the activities of anomalies in any given large-scale network can be curtailed in time.</p><div><div><div> </div> </div> </div> <br>

<div> The Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) technology has evolved exponentially in recent years. Smaller and less expensive devices allow a world of new applications in different areas, but as this progress can be beneficial, the use of UAVs with malicious intentions also poses a threat. UAVs can carry weapons or explosives and access restricted zones passing undetected, representing a real threat for civilians and institutions. Acoustic detection in combination with machine learning models emerges as a viable solution since, despite its limitations related with environmental noise, it has provided promising results on classifying UAV sounds, it is adaptable to multiple environments, and especially, it can be a cost-effective solution, something much needed in the counter UAV market with high projections for the coming years. The problem addressed by this project is the need for a real-world adaptable solution which can show that an array of acoustic sensors can be implemented for the detection and localization of UAVs with minimal cost and competitive performance.<br><br></div><div> In this research, a low-cost acoustic detection system that can detect, in real time, about the presence and direction of arrival of a UAV approaching a target was engineered and validated. The model developed includes an array of acoustic sensors remotely connected to a central server, which uses the sound signals to estimate the direction of arrival of the UAV. This model works with a single microphone per node which calculates the position based on the acoustic intensity change produced by the UAV, reducing the implementation costs and being able to work asynchronously. The development of the project included collecting data from UAVs flying both indoors and outdoors, and a performance analysis under realistic conditions. <br><br></div><div> The results demonstrated that the solution provides real time UAV detection and localization information to protect a target from an attacking UAV, and that it can be applied in real world scenarios. </div><div><br></div>

Although many counter-drone systems such as drone jammers and anti-drone guns have been implemented, drone incidents are still increasing. These incidents are categorized as deviant act, a criminal act, terrorist act, or an unintentional act (aka system failure). Examples of reported drone incidents are not limited to property damage, but include personal injuries, airport disruption, drug transportation, and terrorist activities. Researchers have examined only drone incidents from a technological perspective. The variance in drone architectures poses many challenges to the current investigation practices, including several operation approaches such as custom commutation links. Therefore, there is a limited research background available that aims to study the intercomponent mapping in unmanned aircraft system (UAS) investigation incorporating three critical investigative domains---behavioral analysis, forensic intelligence (FORINT), and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) forensic investigation. The UAS forensic intelligence-led taxonomy (U-FIT) aims to classify the technical, behavioral, and intelligence characteristics of four UAS deviant actions --- including individuals who flew a drone too high, flew a drone close to government buildings, flew a drone over the airfield, and involved in drone collision. The behavioral and threat profiles will include one criminal act (i.e., UAV contraband smugglers). The UAV forensic investigation dimension concentrates on investigative techniques including technical challenges; whereas, the behavioral dimension investigates the behavioral characteristics, distinguishing among UAS deviants and illegal behaviors. Moreover, the U-FIT taxonomy in this study builds on the existing knowledge of current UAS forensic practices to identify patterns that aid in generalizing a UAS forensic intelligence taxonomy. The results of these dimensions supported the proposed UAS forensic intelligence-led taxonomy by demystifying the predicted personality traits to deviant actions and drone smugglers. The score obtained in this study was effective in distinguishing individuals based on certain personality traits. These novel, highly distinguishing features in the behavioral personality of drone users may be of particular importance not only in the field of behavioral psychology but also in law enforcement and intelligence.

Baigiamajame magistro darbe nagrinėjamos ekologiškos statybinės medžiagos, analizuojami namo dalių konstrukciniai variantai, statant namus iš šių medžiagų. Taip pat sudaroma kompiuterinė sistema, padedanti vartotojui išsirinkti racionaliausią ekologiškų medžiagų panaudojimo variantą. Darbą sudaro trys dalys. Pirmojoje dalyje apžvelgiama ekologiškų statybinių medžiagų samprata, pagrindiniai principai, aprašomas statybinių medžiagų gyvavimo ciklas, aptariama aplinkai nekenksmingų medžiagų situacija Europoje. Antrojoje dalyje plačiau aprašomos gamtai nekenksmingos statybinės medžiagos, galimi tokių medžiagų konstrukciniai variantai. Analizuojami sienų, stogo dangos, šilumos izoliacijos ir šildymo sistemos pritaikymo galimybės statant ekologišką namą. Trečiojoje dalyje nagrinėjamas praktinis ekologiško namo konstrukcijų pritaikymo modelis. Sudaroma alternatyvų ir kriterijų sistema, apibūdinanti nekenksmingo aplinkai namo konstrukcinius elementus. Panaudojant kiekybinius ir kokybinius kriterijus ir galimas medžiagų alternatyvas, atliekama daugiakriterė statybinių medžiagų ir jų konstrukcijų analizė, sudaroma kompiuterinė sistema. / Ecological and environmentally friendly building materials and constructional options, that are used to build houses, are considered in this master work. It also contains the computer system enabling the user to choose the most rational option of ecological materials. This master work consists of three parts: In the first part the concept of ecological building materials and main principles are described. It also contains information about the life cycle of building materials and the situation of environmentally friendly materials in Europe are discussed. The second part describes environmentally friendly building materials and possible structural variations of such materials. It analyzes walls, roof, heat insulation and possibilities of heating system in the ecological house. In the third part the practical model of the ecological house is considered. An alternative and criteria system that describes the environmentally friendly house constructional elements is created. Using quantitative, qualitative criteria and possible material alternatives multiple criteria analysis of building materials and their construction is performed. The computer system is also made.

A l’heure où les Technologies de l’Information et de la Communication envahissent tous les espaces de notre vie quotidienne et permettent une certaine accessibilité à l’école des enfants handicapés mais en même temps bouleversent l’identité et les missions des institutions scolaires, ces outils nous obligent à interroger les fondations de la transmission et des apprentissages tout particulièrement liées à la maîtrise de la langue. L’étude propose une réflexion sur les perspectives offertes par ces outils, pour mieux prendre en compte les besoins des enfants handicapés moteurs avec troubles associés, en matière d’estime de soi, de réussite et d’autonomie mais également pour mieux révéler et mieux développer les stratégies de ces élèves. D’une part, notre étude décrit, selon une approche ethnographique, l’observation et l’analyse de vidéos de trois élèves en cours d’apprentissage médié par un outil numérique traçant conçu à cette occasion, et les rétroactions réflexives induites à partir des traces produites. D’autre part, notre étude analyse les résultats d’une enquête réalisée auprès d’enseignants spécialisés ayant utilisé notre outil avec centaine d’enfants en situation de handicap. L’enquête interroge les utilisateurs sur nos hypothèses relatives aux traces auditives et visuelles et à l’apport de l’outil en matière de développement de la conscience phonologique, morphologique et syntaxique et l’émergence de la métacognition, afin de conforter ou non les observations réalisés avec les trois enfants. Pour ces enfants présentant un handicap moteur associé à des troubles instrumentaux importants (langagiers, mnésiques, attentionnels…), nous avons privilégié, dans cet outil, le retour vocal comme trace auditive, la personnalisation et l’enregistrement de l’environnement de travail, la réflexivité augmentée sous la forme d’un retour visuel dynamique sur chacune des actions de l’enfant à l’aide d’un module « traceur », et l’enregistrement de tous les événements de l’historique « rejouables » a posteriori, dans un module « film ». Outil utilisé comme moyen de scolarisation et d’apprentissage de contenus, Pictop se veut être, en même temps et avant tout, une aide au développement de contenants de pensées. Cette étude ouvre des perspectives sur des utilisations nouvelles des traces informatiques au service des apprentissages et de l’autonomie, particulièrement importantes pour des enfants handicapés, mais probablement utiles à d’autres élèves. / In our time, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has become all-pervading in our daily life and allows disabled children more access to the school system, while at the same time drastically changing the way we define the identity and missions of such institution s: ICT tools therefore lead us to question the very foundations of learning and teaching, especially as regards linguistic skills.This study offers a few perspectives on these tools and the possibilities they entail, in order to improve both the assessment of the needs of children with motor disability and associated disorders, in terms of self-esteem, success and autonomy, and the identification and development of strategies for these pupils. Our study first describes, from an ethnographical point of view, the observation and analysis of three videos by three pupils engaged in a course of learning via a digital tracer tool designed especially for the experiment, and the reflexive feedback derived from the traces that were produced. The study then goes on to analyze the results of a survey done with specialized teachers who used our digital tool with a hundred handicapped children. The survey questions users about our initial hypotheses concerning auditory and visual traces, and the tool’s contribution to the development of phonological, morphological and syntactical consciousness, as well as the emergence of metacognition, in order to confirm or disconfirm our observations on the case of the three children mentioned above. For these children with motor disability associated with severe sensory disabilities (linguistic, mnemonic, attention-related) we have privileged, in this tool, vocal feedback as auditory trace, personalization and registering of the work environment, increased reflexivity in the form of a dynamic visual feedback on every action of the child with the help of a “tracer” module, and recording of all events of the history likely to be replayed after the event in a “film” module. A tool used as a means of schooling and learning, Pictop is intended, first and foremost, as an aid to the development of thought contents. This study offers perspectives on new uses of digital traces as an instrument learning and autonomy, especially important for handicapped children, but probably useful to other pupils as well.

Esta tese objetiva propor uma metodologia de especificação de requisitos de usabilidade e segurança orientada para arquitetura (MERUSA) aplicável a sistemas digitais de automação distribuídos e abertos. A estratégia utilizada para atingir esse objetivo consiste no desenvolvimento de uma metodologia focalizada nos processos de elicitação e análise dos requisitos de usabilidade e segurança, sincronizada com a evolução da arquitetura do sistema computacional. O modelo de referência ODP (Open Distributed Process) é utilizado como uma referência básica desse processo, fornecendo conceitos, procedimentos e modelos adequados à especificação e ao desenvolvimento de sistemas distribuídos e abertos de automação (orientados a objeto ou não), permitindo obter uma infra-estrutura coerente e gerenciável, com exigentes requisitos de integração. A eficácia da metodologia é verificada com a sua aplicação a um meta-modelo de especificação de projeto para sistemas digitais de controle distribuído de transmissão de energia para o sistema elétrico brasileiro. / This thesis purposes one new architecture oriented safety and usability requirements specification methodology (MERUSA) applied to open and distributed automation digital systems. The strategy used to achieve this goal consists on the development of a methodology centered on safety and usability requirement elicitation and analysis processes, synchronized with computational system architectural evolution. The RM-ODP (Reference Model of Open Distributed Process) is used as basic reference of this process. This pattern. supplies concepts, procedures and models appropriated to open and distributed system specification and development (object oriented or not), providing one coherent and manageable framework, with strong integration requirements. The methodology effectiveness is verified with its application to a project specification meta-model for energy transmission distributed control digital systems of Brazilian electrical system.

Esta tese objetiva propor uma metodologia de especificação de requisitos de usabilidade e segurança orientada para arquitetura (MERUSA) aplicável a sistemas digitais de automação distribuídos e abertos. A estratégia utilizada para atingir esse objetivo consiste no desenvolvimento de uma metodologia focalizada nos processos de elicitação e análise dos requisitos de usabilidade e segurança, sincronizada com a evolução da arquitetura do sistema computacional. O modelo de referência ODP (Open Distributed Process) é utilizado como uma referência básica desse processo, fornecendo conceitos, procedimentos e modelos adequados à especificação e ao desenvolvimento de sistemas distribuídos e abertos de automação (orientados a objeto ou não), permitindo obter uma infra-estrutura coerente e gerenciável, com exigentes requisitos de integração. A eficácia da metodologia é verificada com a sua aplicação a um meta-modelo de especificação de projeto para sistemas digitais de controle distribuído de transmissão de energia para o sistema elétrico brasileiro. / This thesis purposes one new architecture oriented safety and usability requirements specification methodology (MERUSA) applied to open and distributed automation digital systems. The strategy used to achieve this goal consists on the development of a methodology centered on safety and usability requirement elicitation and analysis processes, synchronized with computational system architectural evolution. The RM-ODP (Reference Model of Open Distributed Process) is used as basic reference of this process. This pattern. supplies concepts, procedures and models appropriated to open and distributed system specification and development (object oriented or not), providing one coherent and manageable framework, with strong integration requirements. The methodology effectiveness is verified with its application to a project specification meta-model for energy transmission distributed control digital systems of Brazilian electrical system.

Com a necessidade cada vez maior de agilizar a entrega de novos desenvolvimentos ao cliente e de diminuir o tempo de desenvolvimento das aplicações, a priorização de casos de teste possibilita a detecção das falhas presentes na aplicação mais rapidamente por meio da ordenação dos casos de teste a serem executados. E, com isso, possibilita também que a correção destas falhas inicie o mais brevemente possível. Entretanto, quando os casos de teste a serem priorizados são testes automatizados de sistema, critérios tradicionais utilizados na literatura como cobertura de código ou modelos do sistema deixam de ser interessantes, dada a característica inerente deste tipo de teste na qual a organização e a modelagem adotadas são ignoradas por se tratarem de testes de caixa preta. Considerando a hipótese de que casos de teste automatizados grandes testam mais partes da aplicação e que casos de teste similares podem estar testando a mesma área da aplicação, parece válido crer que a execução dos casos de teste de sistema priorizando os testes mais complexos pode alcançar resultados positivos quando comparada à execução não ordenada dos casos de teste. É neste cenário que este trabalho propõe o uso dos grafos de chamadas dos próprios casos de teste como critério para priorização destes, priorizando assim a execução dos casos de teste com a maior quantidade de nós no seu grafo. A abordagem proposta neste trabalho mostrou, por meio de dois estudos de caso, ser capaz de melhorar a taxa de detecção de falhas em relação à execução não ordenada dos casos de teste. Além disso, a abordagem proposta obteve resultados semelhantes as abordagens tradicionais de priorização utilizando cobertura de código da aplicação. / With the increasing need to streamline the delivery of new developments to the customer and reduce application development time, test case prioritization allows a quicker detection of faults present in the application through the ordering of test cases to be executed. Besides that, a quicker detection enables also the correction of these faults to start as soon as possible. However, when the test cases to be prioritized are automated system tests, traditional criteria used in the literature like code coverage or system models become uninteresting, given that this type of test case, classified as black box test, ignores how the application was coded or modeled. Considering the hypothesis that bigger automated test cases verify more parts of the application and that similar test cases may be testing the same application areas, it seems valid to believe that giving a higher priority to more complex test cases to be executed first can accomplish positive results when compared to the unordered execution of test cases. It is on this scenario that this project studies the usage of call graphs from test cases as the criterion to prioritize them, increasing the priority of the execution of test cases with the higher number of nodes on the graph. The approach proposed in this document showed through two case studies that it is capable of improving fault detection rate compared to unordered test cases. Furthermore, the proposed approach achieved similar results when compared to a traditional prioritization approach using code coverage of the application.

Com a necessidade cada vez maior de agilizar a entrega de novos desenvolvimentos ao cliente e de diminuir o tempo de desenvolvimento das aplicações, a priorização de casos de teste possibilita a detecção das falhas presentes na aplicação mais rapidamente por meio da ordenação dos casos de teste a serem executados. E, com isso, possibilita também que a correção destas falhas inicie o mais brevemente possível. Entretanto, quando os casos de teste a serem priorizados são testes automatizados de sistema, critérios tradicionais utilizados na literatura como cobertura de código ou modelos do sistema deixam de ser interessantes, dada a característica inerente deste tipo de teste na qual a organização e a modelagem adotadas são ignoradas por se tratarem de testes de caixa preta. Considerando a hipótese de que casos de teste automatizados grandes testam mais partes da aplicação e que casos de teste similares podem estar testando a mesma área da aplicação, parece válido crer que a execução dos casos de teste de sistema priorizando os testes mais complexos pode alcançar resultados positivos quando comparada à execução não ordenada dos casos de teste. É neste cenário que este trabalho propõe o uso dos grafos de chamadas dos próprios casos de teste como critério para priorização destes, priorizando assim a execução dos casos de teste com a maior quantidade de nós no seu grafo. A abordagem proposta neste trabalho mostrou, por meio de dois estudos de caso, ser capaz de melhorar a taxa de detecção de falhas em relação à execução não ordenada dos casos de teste. Além disso, a abordagem proposta obteve resultados semelhantes as abordagens tradicionais de priorização utilizando cobertura de código da aplicação. / With the increasing need to streamline the delivery of new developments to the customer and reduce application development time, test case prioritization allows a quicker detection of faults present in the application through the ordering of test cases to be executed. Besides that, a quicker detection enables also the correction of these faults to start as soon as possible. However, when the test cases to be prioritized are automated system tests, traditional criteria used in the literature like code coverage or system models become uninteresting, given that this type of test case, classified as black box test, ignores how the application was coded or modeled. Considering the hypothesis that bigger automated test cases verify more parts of the application and that similar test cases may be testing the same application areas, it seems valid to believe that giving a higher priority to more complex test cases to be executed first can accomplish positive results when compared to the unordered execution of test cases. It is on this scenario that this project studies the usage of call graphs from test cases as the criterion to prioritize them, increasing the priority of the execution of test cases with the higher number of nodes on the graph. The approach proposed in this document showed through two case studies that it is capable of improving fault detection rate compared to unordered test cases. Furthermore, the proposed approach achieved similar results when compared to a traditional prioritization approach using code coverage of the application.