Research
Previous & Current Projects
Cloud Computing Security
Cloud Computing Security research at CyberViz is primary concerned with security of cloud computing systems and intra-cloud and inter cloud networks. Protection of Cloud computing systems involves investigation into defense techniques to detect and prevent intrusion attempts on virtual machines (VMs) and hypervisors. We are currently developing moving target defense based techniques to protect VMs and hypervisors from side-channel attacks from co-locating VMs. Cloud network security topic is focused on the design and development of a framework for analyzing the security and performance of the wide area network and intra cloud network between the cloud subscriber and cloud provider. The purpose of this framework is to provide cloud user better security and performance guarantees. To this end, we are developing analytical models to facilitate the measurement of cloud network security and performance. For more details on the various projects in this area, please visit the following webpages.
Moving Target Defense for Cloud Data Centers
Secure IP Geolocation for Locating Data in the Cloud
Security Risk Assessment of Cloud Network
Smartphone Security
Recently, the smartphone and tablet industry has seen tremendous growth due to the widespread adoption of devices based on Google’s Android and Apple’s IOS platforms. The worldwide market penetration of Android based smartphone and lack of a secure platform has attracted attention of malware developers. There has been an exponential increase in malware incidents on Android based smartphones. Specifically, search engine poisoning and social network attacks are the most common types of malware observed on Android smartphones. We are currently developing a cloud centric malware detection and response mechanism to protect Android-based smartphones from the aforementioned malware. For more details on the project, please visit the following web pages.
Detection of BlackHat Search Engine Optimization and Social Network Attacks on Android smartphones
Development of Classifiers to Detect Android Malware on Cloud Computing Platform
Smartphone Cloud Performance and Security Monitor
Cognitive Radio Network Security
The main objective of cognitive radio networking is to develop radios that can sense the existing spectrum and identify and use free frequency bands. The motivation for these radios comes from the apparent scarcity of spectrum as indicated by the multiple allocation of most bands by the FCC. Our research efforts focus on developing mechanisms for opportunistic spectrum access which have the potential to mitigate spectrum scarcity and meet the increasing demand for spectrum. Specifically, we are addressing the problem of satisfying Quality of Service (QoS) requirements for multiple Secondary Users (SU) in an Cognitive Radio Network (CRN). The wide-spread adoption of services implemented on cloud computing infrastructures has the potential to mitigate the aforementioned problem. We are currently developing game theoretic and Markov Decision Process models in the context of cloud computing to meet the QoS requirements of SUs. We are also working on the problem of defending against primary user emulation attacks on CRN. Our technique is based on a stochastic model which can differentiate the signals between the primary user and the adversary. For more details on the project, please visit the following web pages.
Secure Resource Allocation on Cloud computing based Cognitive Radio Network
Stochastic model based Defense to Detect Primary User Emulation Attacks
Visual Analytics
Information systems are becoming larger and complex. These systems generate huge amounts of data. Security of these systems involve analysis of the data generated on a daily basis. To analyze denial of service, detecting location of attacker, data integrity, etc., there is a need for faster and accurate analysis of data. Visualization has been shown to expedite the data analysis process. We are developing visual analytic software and hardware systems to enhance data analysis for modern information systems. For more details, please visit the following web pages.
IP Geolocation Visualization
Virtual Assembly and Design System