Special Section on Secure Computer Architectures

The evolution of communication networks and information systems, to support wireless access, cloud and grid computing, and big data, provides great business opportunities. However, it also generates a new trend of sophisticated network threats and offers several challenges in securing information and systems confidentiality, integrity and availability. The traditional techniques used by security experts are mostly static and lack the much needed characteristics of adaptation and self-organization, computational efficiency and error resilience to deal with evolving attacks. The inherent characteristics of computational intelligence (CI) paradigms provide a promising alternative that has gained popularity resulting in significant applications in information security. There is a plethora of CI paradigms commonly used in this domain including artificial neural networks, evolutionary computing, fuzzy systems, and swarm intelligence. This chapter provides an overview of the widely-recognized CI paradigms and shades the light on some of their potential applications in information security.

The evolution of communication networks and information systems, to support wireless access, cloud and grid computing, and big data, provides great business opportunities. However, it also generates a new trend of sophisticated network threats and offers several challenges in securing information and systems confidentiality, integrity and availability. The traditional techniques used by security experts are mostly static and lack the much needed characteristics of adaptation and self-organization, computational efficiency and error resilience to deal with evolving attacks. The inherent characteristics of computational intelligence (CI) paradigms provide a promising alternative that has gained popularity resulting in significant applications in information security. There is a plethora of CI paradigms commonly used in this domain including artificial neural networks, evolutionary computing, fuzzy systems, and swarm intelligence. This chapter provides an overview of the widely-recognized CI paradigms and shades the light on some of their potential applications in information security.

Introduction to Machine Learning with Applications in Information Security provides a class-tested introduction to a wide variety of machine learning algorithms, reinforced through realistic applications. The book is accessible and doesn’t prove theorems, or otherwise dwell on mathematical theory. The goal is to present topics at an intuitive level, with just enough detail to clarify the underlying concepts. The book covers core machine learning topics in-depth, including Hidden Markov Models, Principal Component Analysis, Support Vector Machines, and Clustering. It also includes coverage of Nearest Neighbors, Neural Networks, Boosting and AdaBoost, Random Forests, Linear Discriminant Analysis, Vector Quantization, Naive Bayes, Regression Analysis, Conditional Random Fields, and Data Analysis. Most of the examples in the book are drawn from the field of information security, with many of the machine learning applications specifically focused on malware. The applications presented are designed to demystify machine learning techniques by providing straightforward scenarios. Many of the exercises in this book require some programming, and basic computing concepts are assumed in a few of the application sections. However, anyone with a modest amount of programming experience should have no trouble with this aspect of the book. Instructor resources, including PowerPoint slides, lecture videos, and other relevant material are provided on an accompanying website: http://www.cs.sjsu.edu/~stamp/ML/. For the reader’s benefit, the figures in the book are also available in electronic form, and in color. About the Author Mark Stamp has been a Professor of Computer Science at San Jose State University since 2002. Prior to that, he worked at the National Security Agency (NSA) for seven years, and a Silicon Valley startup company for two years. He received his Ph.D. from Texas Tech University in 1992. His love affair with machine learning began in the early 1990s, when he was working at the NSA, and continues today at SJSU, where he has supervised vast numbers of master’s student projects, most of which involve a combination of information security and machine learning.

Randomness has stimulated mankind's attention and imagination ever since we began to observe the behavior of nature. It was by understanding the randomness and patterns that humans learned to control crops, for example, which led to the creation of the first communities. In the modern world, with the aim of mimicking the randomness of natural phenomena, computers are used to generate sequences that look as random as possible running pseudo-random number generators (PRNG). PRNGs have diverse applications in information security, digital games, simulations, modeling, gambling, arts, among others. Despite this fact, existing methods of randomness measure do not offer a definitive solution to the need of classifying PRNGs. The main methods of randomness measurement consist of statistical tests through which the sequences generated by the algorithms are analyzed. Once PRNGs are analyzed by these test suits, they are considered (un)satisfactory random. This paper explores an aspect that has been neglected in statistical tests: the spatial distribution of pseudo-random sequences. It is conjectured that this distribution is the source of undisclosed patterns in test suites. One way to study this arrangement more depth is using models that explore the relation of values and iterations. The relation of elements in space has to be the basis of the paradigm. This work applies theory of graphs and computational geometry methods to find patterns in pseudo-random sequences. The analyzed sequences are plotted in a Cartesian plan generating a set of points that are converted into graphs considering the Euclidean distance between the points within a radius. The best combination of descriptors formed by measurements of graphs and geometric properties is selected. When patterns emerge, one can point out flaws in the widely used methods for measuring PRNGs quality. It is intended to suggest a complementary approach for the evaluation of PRNGs, contributing to a better classification of the PRNGs and, consequently, to cause improvements in the studies on information security. This includes identifying patterns in sequences generated by algorithms that are considered pseudo-random by current statistical tests and thus identifying the limitations of these assessments.

How to Cheat at Managing Information Security

Tree data analysis has many applications in information security. In particular, HTML pages' DOM trees are an important target of analysis because web pages can be vectors for, and targets of, major cyberattacks like phishing. Previous attempts to incorporate tree data analysis into security applications, however, have been hampered by the lack of efficient methods for tree data analysis in machine learning. As such, most security research has focused on data representable as vectors of real numbers, like most machine learning work. Recent work, however, has yielded several efficiency break-throughs in tree analysis. One example is kernel methods, a methodological bridge that fills the gap between discretely-structured data (like trees) and multivariate analysis. Kernel methods enable applying a variety of multivariate analysis techniques such as SVM and PCA to trees. The method we are interested in is the subpath kernel. The subpath kernel offers the following advantages: (1) it is invariant over ordered and unordered trees; (2) it can be computed using an extremely fast linear-time algorithm compared to the quadratic time required to compute values of most tree kernels; (3) its excellent prediction accuracy has been proven through intensive experiments. This paper proposes a subpath kernel-based method for tree-structured security data. To demonstrate the effectiveness of our method, we apply it to the problem of detecting fake e-commerce sites, a sub-problem of phishing detection with a significant real-world financial cost. In an experiment on a real dataset of fake sites provided by a major e-commerce company, our method exhibited accuracy as high as 0.998 when training SVM with as few as 1,000 instances. Its generalization efficiency is also excellent: with only 100 training instances, the accuracy score reaches 0.996. While previous phishing detection methods relied on textual content, URL components, and blacklists, our approach is the first to leverage DOM trees, which makes it both more effective and more robust against adversarial attacks. Unlike URL or content changes, changing a page's DOM structure incurs large costs to criminals.

Gallium-doped MXene/cellulose nanofiber composite membranes with electro/photo thermal conversion property for high performance electromagnetic interference shielding

Achieving high‐temperature‐resistant afterglow is highly desirable yet challenging, primarily due to exciton deactivation at elevated temperatures. In this work, a co‐pyrolysis strategy was proposed to achieve such afterglow by modulating the emission dynamics of organic molecules through introducing of structural defects. These defects facilitate exciton transfer to guest molecules, extending and balancing the lifetimes of both thermally activated delayed fluorescence and phosphorescence processes. The structural defects also promote thermoluminescence, wherein elevated temperatures trigger the release of trapped electrons to the guest molecules, thereby contributing significantly to the exceptional high‐temperature afterglow stability. Additionally, the pyrolysis process generates ammelide, which protects excitons from deactivation. These synergistic effects yield afterglow materials exhibiting a photoluminescence quantum yield of 59.9% and an emission lifetime of 3.5 s. Remarkably, intense afterglow emission persists from 25 to 150°C with negligible changes in emission color, intensity, and decay kinetics. These findings provide valuable insights for modulating the emission dynamics of afterglow materials, suggesting promising applications in information security, biomedical diagnosis, and chemical sensing.

Low‐dimensional metal halides have emerged as promising anti‐counterfeiting materials. However, achieving a multi‐mode and multi‐color anti‐counterfeiting system in metal halides remains challenging. In this study, copper‐halide (TBP)2Cu4Br6 (TBP+ = C16H36P+) single crystals are synthesized using a cooling crystallization method, which exhibits efficient dual‐band emissions (542 and 708 nm), large Stokes shifts (282 and 330 nm), and a high photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) of 92.7% for 542 nm. These exceptional properties are attributed to the unique 0D structure of (TBP)2Cu4Br6 single crystals, which facilitates the formation of two different self‐trapped excitons (STEs). Furthermore, based on (TBP)2Cu4Br6, a multi‐mode and multi‐color digital anti‐counterfeiting system integrated is designed with Morse code information encryption, demonstrating promising applications in information security and anti‐counterfeiting. This work not only illustrates an emitter in copper halides but also paves the way for achieving multi‐mode and multi‐color anti‐counterfeiting systems.

Information security and temperature sensing play vital roles in various areas such as financial transactions, product authentication, and privacy protection. However, integrating precise control in information security technologies with highly sensitive temperature sensing remains a significant challenge. Here, a multilayer core–shell upconversion nanoparticle (UCNP) system is presented that enables dynamic dual‐color emission switching and highly sensitive temperature sensing through controlled energy transfer mechanisms. By tuning the excitation wavelength, power density, and pulse width, the system exhibits a green‐to‐blue emission transition with multimodal tunability. Using fluorescence intensity ratio techniques, maximum relative sensitivity of 1.85% K−1, demonstrating superior temperature detection performance is achieved. Furthermore, the tunable multicolor emission properties of UCNPs enable diverse applications in information security, including dynamic pattern recognition, Morse code encryption, and quick response code‐based anti‐counterfeiting. This research not only broadens the application scope of UCNPs in security and environmental monitoring but also offers perspectives on the design of multifunctional optical materials.

A dual-stimuli-responsive intelligent layered lanthanide hydroxide for application in information security and latent fingerprint identification

Implementing and Analyzing a Recursive Technique for Building Path Oblivious RAM

The article addresses the problem of the discrepancy between declared information security policies, the requirements of standards and protocols, and the actual functioning of organizational information infrastructures. In practice, components of comprehensive information security systems (CISS) are often developed formally, without considering real risks, characteristics of network protocols, or compliance with international and national security standards. As a result, information security policies are not aligned with technical configuration parameters, leading to fragmentation of protection mechanisms and a decrease in overall system effectiveness. Another critical issue is the continued use of outdated or insecure protocols that remain operational due to the absence of systematic compliance control mechanisms. This study proposes a method for integrating information security policies, standard requirements (ISO/IEC 27001:2022, NIST SP 800-53, Ukrainian ND TZI), and secure network protocols (TLS 1.3, SSHv2, DNSSEC, IPSec) into the process of developing a comprehensive information security system. The method consists of four stages: asset and protocol analysis, development and formalization of security policies, compliance mapping with standards, and construction of an integrated CISS architecture based on the obtained results. To quantitatively assess the consistency of CISS components, a compliance scoring algorithm is introduced, enabling objective evaluation of the information infrastructure’s conformity with regulatory requirements and internal policies. Experimental validation of the method in a test environment demonstrated an increase in compliance with standards from 52% to 92%, the elimination of outdated or insecure protocols (FTP, SMB1, HTTP), and improved accuracy of CISS parameterization due to automated mapping of policies to technical security mechanisms. The obtained results confirm the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method for designing and modernizing CISS in organizations of various types. The purpose of this study is to develop a method for integrating information security policies, standards, and protocols into the formation of a comprehensive information security system within an organization.

China׳s information security standardization: Analysis from the perspective of technical barriers to trade principles

Security facilities of information systems with high security requirements should be consistently and continuously developed, used, and maintained based on some common standards of information security. However, there is no engineering environment that can support all tasks in security engineering consistently and continuously. To construct a security engineering environment, a database that can manage all data concerning all tasks in security engineering is indispensable. This paper presents an Information Security Engineering Database System, named that we are developing based on ISO standards, and shows its some possible applications. ISEDS manages data of ISO standards of information security and various cases of system development and maintenance. We adopted the international standard ISO/IEC 15408 (Common Criteria) for information security evaluation as one of ISO standards to underlie ISEDS, and implemented major functions of ISEDS and its application tools to manage and use data oflSO/IEC 15408. Developers, users, and maintainers can create, correct, and verify specification documents of security facilities with the application tools.