Preservation of privacy of users’ personal data has always been a critical issue to deal with. Th... more Preservation of privacy of users’ personal data has always been a critical issue to deal with. This issue in the Internet of Things (IoT), which facilitates millions of applications, has become even more challenging. Currently, several approaches and methods are available to safeguard privacy but each of them suffers from one or more anomalies. In particular, Trusted Third-Party approach relies on the trust of a third-party server, Cooperation needs the trust of other peers, Obfuscation is known to return inaccurate results, and Dummy generates too much overhead. Moreover, these and most of the other well-known approaches deal only with specific types of applications linked to the location-based services. In this paper, we present two new methods, namely: Blind Third Party (BTP) and Blind Peers ( B L P ), and combine them to form a new one to be known as the Blind Approach ( B L A ). With the help of simulation results we shall demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of B L A ...
This paper proposes and presents the details of an agent-based architecture that has the capacity... more This paper proposes and presents the details of an agent-based architecture that has the capacity to model, simulate the movement of, and guide crowds with panic behavior in highly-dense areas in the events of manmade and natural threats. The most populated human gathering in the world, the Muslim pilgrimage event (also known as Hajj) which attracts more than two million people in six days is chosen to guide the identification of the requirements and main concepts of the agent simulation. The inferred requirements are used to guide the selection of an appropriate simulation tool following an extensive survey of potential simulation tools. The architecture uses software agents to represent groups of people along with their real time characteristics such as density, movements and panic levels, collected from various data sources. Support vector machine is combined with the fuzzy logic theory to predict pilgrims' behaviors and movements in case of panic situations. Initial simulati...
In the last few years, the wireless body area network (WBAN) has emerged as an appealing and viab... more In the last few years, the wireless body area network (WBAN) has emerged as an appealing and viable option in the e-health application domain. WBAN technology is primarily used to offer continuous screening of health data to patients, independent of their location, time, or activity. A WBAN, on the other hand, is vulnerable to different cyberattacks due to the openness of the wireless environment and the privacy of people’s physiological data. A highly efficient and secure cryptographic scheme that can fulfill the needs of resource-constrained WBAN sensors and devices is considered necessary. First, we take a look at the most up-to-date security solutions for WBANs. Then, we go through some of the underlying concerns and challenges with WBAN security. We propose a new framework called secure channel free certificateless signcryption scheme for WBANs based on a hyperelliptic curve that can meet security requirements such as confidentiality, anonymity, integrity, resistance against un...
International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications
Social media has become one of the most important sources of news in our lives, but the process o... more Social media has become one of the most important sources of news in our lives, but the process of validating news and limiting rumors remains an open research issue. Many researchers have suggested using Blockchain to solve this problem, but it has traditionally failed due to the large volume of data and users in such environments. In this paper, we propose to modify the structure of the Blockchain while preserving its main characteristics. We achieve this by integrating customize blockchain with the Text Mining (TM) algorithm to create a modified Light Weight chain (LWC). LWC will speed up the verification process, which is carried out through proof of good history where the nodes will have the weights according to their previous posts. Moreover, the LWC will be compatible with different applications such as verifying the authenticity of news or legal religious ruling (fatwas). In this research, we have implemented a simple model to simulate the proposed LWC for the detection of fake news and preserving the characteristics and features of the traditional Blockchain. The results on experimental data reflect the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm in establishing the chain.
Connected vehicles and smart cars have become highly reliant on location-based services (i.e. LBS... more Connected vehicles and smart cars have become highly reliant on location-based services (i.e. LBS) to provide accurate, personalized and intelligent services. However, location-based services have endangered its users to considerable risks concerning the privacy and security of users' personal data. Although existing research provides a myriad of methods to improve and protect user privacy in LBS applications, most of these methods are concerned with handling static queries and non-mobile objects only. Moreover, various issues and challenges still persist with regards to the need to trust third parties, overloading of the user, and low accuracy of the returned results. This paper contributes a Double Obfuscation Approach (referred to as DOA) that applies two phases of obfuscation consecutively whilst integrating two differing privacy protection approaches, namely Obfuscation and Trusted Third Party, and two techniques, namely fog caching technology and mix zone. In essence, the DOA obfuscates and hides the identity and location of its users using the fog nodes, which operate as a trusted third party (TTP), and without the need to reveal the identity of the users or trust the cooperating nodes. Moreover, this paper presents a DOA algorithm that improves the overall user privacy and system performance using the fog nodes, which split the responses of each query into five parts, thus reducing the processing time of the results by the user and enhancing the overall accuracy where the user directly selects the most suitable parts based on his current location. Overall, the hybrid DOA approach empowers the users of connected vehicle applications to protect their privacy through an algorithm that caters for the dynamic nature of user queries and mobility of objects. The results of our comparative simulations against well-known hybrid privacy protection methods demonstrate the superiority of the proposed Double Obfuscation Approach especially with respect to user privacy whilst maintaining a nominal overhead on the user, reduced response time and high accuracy of the obtained results. INDEX TERMS Obfuscation, trusted third party, location based services, Internet of Things, privacy, connected vehicles.
International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications
The vision of the Internet of Things (IoT) is based on the idea of offering connectivity to every... more The vision of the Internet of Things (IoT) is based on the idea of offering connectivity to every physical object (e.g., thermometers, banknotes, smart TVs, bicycles, etc.). This connectivity ensures that immediate information about these objects and their surroundings can be obtained and therefore decisions can be taken based on real-time information. This allows increased productivity and efficiency. One of the most important implementations of the IoT is the smart (or digital) cities where the information collected from the connected devices is used in, for instance, configuring energy systems, enhancing the traffic, controlling pollution or ensuring security. However, there is no guarantee that all objects will provide information because, for example, some may be out of service or have lost connectivity bearing in mind that many objects in an IoT network are characterized by their limited resources (e.g., battery life, computing, and connection capacity). Moreover, the decision in an IoT network is mostly based on the information provided by a subset of the objects rather than all of them. In addition, the obtained information can be contradictory for many reasons, such as a defect in the object or malicious interference either in the object itself or during the communication process. Therefore, it is necessary to provide a measure that reflects to what extent the decision in an IoT network is trustful. In this paper, an approach based on statistical science is proposed to measure the trustworthiness of information collected from heat sensors. An architecture and algorithm, based on the confidence interval measurement to reduce the time taken to verify and check the trustworthiness of network sensors or any other type of IoT device.
Conventional paper currency and modern electronic currency are two important modes of transaction... more Conventional paper currency and modern electronic currency are two important modes of transactions. In several parts of the world, conventional methodology has clear precedence over its electronic counterpart. However, the identification of forged currency paper notes is now becoming an increasingly crucial problem because of the new and improved tactics employed by counterfeiters. In this paper, a machine assisted system—dubbed DeepMoney—is proposed which has been developed to discriminate fake notes from genuine ones. For this purpose, state-of-the-art models of machine learning called Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) are employed. GANs use unsupervised learning to train a model that can then be used to perform supervised predictions. This flexibility provides the best of both worlds by allowing unlabelled data to be trained on whilst still making concrete predictions. This technique was applied to Pakistani banknotes. State-of-the-art image processing and feature recognitio...
International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications, 2018
The vision of the Internet of Things (IoT) is based on the idea of offering connectivity to every... more The vision of the Internet of Things (IoT) is based on the idea of offering connectivity to every physical object (e.g., thermometers, banknotes, smart TVs, bicycles, etc.). This connectivity ensures that immediate information about these objects and their surroundings can be obtained and therefore decisions can be taken based on real-time information. This allows increased productivity and efficiency. One of the most important implementations of the IoT is the smart (or digital) cities where the information collected from the connected devices is used in, for instance, configuring energy systems, enhancing the traffic, controlling pollution or ensuring security. However, there is no guarantee that all objects will provide information because, for example, some may be out of service or have lost connectivity bearing in mind that many objects in an IoT network are characterized by their limited resources (e.g., battery life, computing, and connection capacity). Moreover, the decision in an IoT network is mostly based on the information provided by a subset of the objects rather than all of them. In addition, the obtained information can be contradictory for many reasons, such as a defect in the object or malicious interference either in the object itself or during the communication process. Therefore, it is necessary to provide a measure that reflects to what extent the decision in an IoT network is trustful. In this paper, an approach based on statistical science is proposed to measure the trustworthiness of information collected from heat sensors. An architecture and algorithm, based on the confidence interval measurement to reduce the time taken to verify and check the trustworthiness of network sensors or any other type of IoT device.
International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications, 2018
The vision of the Internet of Things (IoT) is based on the idea of offering connectivity to every... more The vision of the Internet of Things (IoT) is based on the idea of offering connectivity to every physical object (e.g., thermometers, banknotes, smart TVs, bicycles, etc.). This connectivity ensures that immediate information about these objects and their surroundings can be obtained and therefore decisions can be taken based on real-time information. This allows increased productivity and efficiency. One of the most important implementations of the IoT is the smart (or digital) cities where the information collected from the connected devices is used in, for instance, configuring energy systems, enhancing the traffic, controlling pollution or ensuring security. However, there is no guarantee that all objects will provide information because, for example, some may be out of service or have lost connectivity bearing in mind that many objects in an IoT network are characterized by their limited resources (e.g., battery life, computing, and connection capacity). Moreover, the decision in an IoT network is mostly based on the information provided by a subset of the objects rather than all of them. In addition, the obtained information can be contradictory for many reasons, such as a defect in the object or malicious interference either in the object itself or during the communication process. Therefore, it is necessary to provide a measure that reflects to what extent the decision in an IoT network is trustful. In this paper, an approach based on statistical science is proposed to measure the trustworthiness of information collected from heat sensors. An architecture and algorithm, based on the confidence interval measurement to reduce the time taken to verify and check the trustworthiness of network sensors or any other type of IoT device.
Businesses need trust to confidently perform trade among each other. Centralized business models ... more Businesses need trust to confidently perform trade among each other. Centralized business models are the only mature solutions available to perform trades over the Internet. However, they have many problems which includes but are not limited to the fact that these create bottleneck on the server as well as requires trusted third parties. Recently, decentralized solutions have gained significant popularity and acceptance for future businesses. The wide acceptance of such systems is indeed due to the trust management among various untrusted business stakeholders. Many solutions have been proposed in this regard to provide decentralized infrastructure for various business models. A standard solution that is acceptable to the industry is still in demand. Hyperledger umbrella Blockchain projects, that are supported by IBM and many other industry big players are gaining popularity due to its efficient and pluggable design. In this study, the author present the idea of utilizing Blockchain to design a Value-Added Tax (VAT) system for Saudi Arabia's newly introduced tax system. The reason to select this business model for VAT is twofold. First, it provides an untampered distributed ledger, which cannot be deceived by any party. Each transaction in the system cannot go unnoticed by the smart contract. Secondly , it provides a transparent record, and updates all involved parties regarding each activity performed by stakeholders. The newly proposed system will provide a transparent database of VAT transactions according to our smart contract design and at each stage of supply chain, tax will be deducted and stored on peer-to-peer network via consensus process. The author believes that the proposed solution will have significant impact on VAT collection in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Preparing SDL code generation for realtime embedded systems modeling
SDL is used increasingly for the development of Real time embedded systems. Nevertheless, the ass... more SDL is used increasingly for the development of Real time embedded systems. Nevertheless, the associated code generators do not integrate the management of temporal constraints. In this paper, we propose a real-time semantics to SDL for the modeling of real-time systems in order to prepare the code generation.
The use of SDL has arisen as a promising way of dealing with the increasing complexity of embedde... more The use of SDL has arisen as a promising way of dealing with the increasing complexity of embedded real-time systems. However, SDL does not take into account non-functional aspects, such as the time requirements, that are especially important in the context of real-time systems. Furthermore, the associated code generators do not integrate the management of temporal constraints. A real-time semantic extension to SDL for real-time systems modelling is proposed. The real time profile is added to SDL in order to prepare the real-time code generation. To illustrate the proposal, an example of a speed regulator is presented.
Preservation of privacy of users’ personal data has always been a critical issue to deal with. Th... more Preservation of privacy of users’ personal data has always been a critical issue to deal with. This issue in the Internet of Things (IoT), which facilitates millions of applications, has become even more challenging. Currently, several approaches and methods are available to safeguard privacy but each of them suffers from one or more anomalies. In particular, Trusted Third-Party approach relies on the trust of a third-party server, Cooperation needs the trust of other peers, Obfuscation is known to return inaccurate results, and Dummy generates too much overhead. Moreover, these and most of the other well-known approaches deal only with specific types of applications linked to the location-based services. In this paper, we present two new methods, namely: Blind Third Party (BTP) and Blind Peers ( B L P ), and combine them to form a new one to be known as the Blind Approach ( B L A ). With the help of simulation results we shall demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of B L A ...
This paper proposes and presents the details of an agent-based architecture that has the capacity... more This paper proposes and presents the details of an agent-based architecture that has the capacity to model, simulate the movement of, and guide crowds with panic behavior in highly-dense areas in the events of manmade and natural threats. The most populated human gathering in the world, the Muslim pilgrimage event (also known as Hajj) which attracts more than two million people in six days is chosen to guide the identification of the requirements and main concepts of the agent simulation. The inferred requirements are used to guide the selection of an appropriate simulation tool following an extensive survey of potential simulation tools. The architecture uses software agents to represent groups of people along with their real time characteristics such as density, movements and panic levels, collected from various data sources. Support vector machine is combined with the fuzzy logic theory to predict pilgrims' behaviors and movements in case of panic situations. Initial simulati...
In the last few years, the wireless body area network (WBAN) has emerged as an appealing and viab... more In the last few years, the wireless body area network (WBAN) has emerged as an appealing and viable option in the e-health application domain. WBAN technology is primarily used to offer continuous screening of health data to patients, independent of their location, time, or activity. A WBAN, on the other hand, is vulnerable to different cyberattacks due to the openness of the wireless environment and the privacy of people’s physiological data. A highly efficient and secure cryptographic scheme that can fulfill the needs of resource-constrained WBAN sensors and devices is considered necessary. First, we take a look at the most up-to-date security solutions for WBANs. Then, we go through some of the underlying concerns and challenges with WBAN security. We propose a new framework called secure channel free certificateless signcryption scheme for WBANs based on a hyperelliptic curve that can meet security requirements such as confidentiality, anonymity, integrity, resistance against un...
International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications
Social media has become one of the most important sources of news in our lives, but the process o... more Social media has become one of the most important sources of news in our lives, but the process of validating news and limiting rumors remains an open research issue. Many researchers have suggested using Blockchain to solve this problem, but it has traditionally failed due to the large volume of data and users in such environments. In this paper, we propose to modify the structure of the Blockchain while preserving its main characteristics. We achieve this by integrating customize blockchain with the Text Mining (TM) algorithm to create a modified Light Weight chain (LWC). LWC will speed up the verification process, which is carried out through proof of good history where the nodes will have the weights according to their previous posts. Moreover, the LWC will be compatible with different applications such as verifying the authenticity of news or legal religious ruling (fatwas). In this research, we have implemented a simple model to simulate the proposed LWC for the detection of fake news and preserving the characteristics and features of the traditional Blockchain. The results on experimental data reflect the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm in establishing the chain.
Connected vehicles and smart cars have become highly reliant on location-based services (i.e. LBS... more Connected vehicles and smart cars have become highly reliant on location-based services (i.e. LBS) to provide accurate, personalized and intelligent services. However, location-based services have endangered its users to considerable risks concerning the privacy and security of users' personal data. Although existing research provides a myriad of methods to improve and protect user privacy in LBS applications, most of these methods are concerned with handling static queries and non-mobile objects only. Moreover, various issues and challenges still persist with regards to the need to trust third parties, overloading of the user, and low accuracy of the returned results. This paper contributes a Double Obfuscation Approach (referred to as DOA) that applies two phases of obfuscation consecutively whilst integrating two differing privacy protection approaches, namely Obfuscation and Trusted Third Party, and two techniques, namely fog caching technology and mix zone. In essence, the DOA obfuscates and hides the identity and location of its users using the fog nodes, which operate as a trusted third party (TTP), and without the need to reveal the identity of the users or trust the cooperating nodes. Moreover, this paper presents a DOA algorithm that improves the overall user privacy and system performance using the fog nodes, which split the responses of each query into five parts, thus reducing the processing time of the results by the user and enhancing the overall accuracy where the user directly selects the most suitable parts based on his current location. Overall, the hybrid DOA approach empowers the users of connected vehicle applications to protect their privacy through an algorithm that caters for the dynamic nature of user queries and mobility of objects. The results of our comparative simulations against well-known hybrid privacy protection methods demonstrate the superiority of the proposed Double Obfuscation Approach especially with respect to user privacy whilst maintaining a nominal overhead on the user, reduced response time and high accuracy of the obtained results. INDEX TERMS Obfuscation, trusted third party, location based services, Internet of Things, privacy, connected vehicles.
International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications
The vision of the Internet of Things (IoT) is based on the idea of offering connectivity to every... more The vision of the Internet of Things (IoT) is based on the idea of offering connectivity to every physical object (e.g., thermometers, banknotes, smart TVs, bicycles, etc.). This connectivity ensures that immediate information about these objects and their surroundings can be obtained and therefore decisions can be taken based on real-time information. This allows increased productivity and efficiency. One of the most important implementations of the IoT is the smart (or digital) cities where the information collected from the connected devices is used in, for instance, configuring energy systems, enhancing the traffic, controlling pollution or ensuring security. However, there is no guarantee that all objects will provide information because, for example, some may be out of service or have lost connectivity bearing in mind that many objects in an IoT network are characterized by their limited resources (e.g., battery life, computing, and connection capacity). Moreover, the decision in an IoT network is mostly based on the information provided by a subset of the objects rather than all of them. In addition, the obtained information can be contradictory for many reasons, such as a defect in the object or malicious interference either in the object itself or during the communication process. Therefore, it is necessary to provide a measure that reflects to what extent the decision in an IoT network is trustful. In this paper, an approach based on statistical science is proposed to measure the trustworthiness of information collected from heat sensors. An architecture and algorithm, based on the confidence interval measurement to reduce the time taken to verify and check the trustworthiness of network sensors or any other type of IoT device.
Conventional paper currency and modern electronic currency are two important modes of transaction... more Conventional paper currency and modern electronic currency are two important modes of transactions. In several parts of the world, conventional methodology has clear precedence over its electronic counterpart. However, the identification of forged currency paper notes is now becoming an increasingly crucial problem because of the new and improved tactics employed by counterfeiters. In this paper, a machine assisted system—dubbed DeepMoney—is proposed which has been developed to discriminate fake notes from genuine ones. For this purpose, state-of-the-art models of machine learning called Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) are employed. GANs use unsupervised learning to train a model that can then be used to perform supervised predictions. This flexibility provides the best of both worlds by allowing unlabelled data to be trained on whilst still making concrete predictions. This technique was applied to Pakistani banknotes. State-of-the-art image processing and feature recognitio...
International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications, 2018
The vision of the Internet of Things (IoT) is based on the idea of offering connectivity to every... more The vision of the Internet of Things (IoT) is based on the idea of offering connectivity to every physical object (e.g., thermometers, banknotes, smart TVs, bicycles, etc.). This connectivity ensures that immediate information about these objects and their surroundings can be obtained and therefore decisions can be taken based on real-time information. This allows increased productivity and efficiency. One of the most important implementations of the IoT is the smart (or digital) cities where the information collected from the connected devices is used in, for instance, configuring energy systems, enhancing the traffic, controlling pollution or ensuring security. However, there is no guarantee that all objects will provide information because, for example, some may be out of service or have lost connectivity bearing in mind that many objects in an IoT network are characterized by their limited resources (e.g., battery life, computing, and connection capacity). Moreover, the decision in an IoT network is mostly based on the information provided by a subset of the objects rather than all of them. In addition, the obtained information can be contradictory for many reasons, such as a defect in the object or malicious interference either in the object itself or during the communication process. Therefore, it is necessary to provide a measure that reflects to what extent the decision in an IoT network is trustful. In this paper, an approach based on statistical science is proposed to measure the trustworthiness of information collected from heat sensors. An architecture and algorithm, based on the confidence interval measurement to reduce the time taken to verify and check the trustworthiness of network sensors or any other type of IoT device.
International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications, 2018
The vision of the Internet of Things (IoT) is based on the idea of offering connectivity to every... more The vision of the Internet of Things (IoT) is based on the idea of offering connectivity to every physical object (e.g., thermometers, banknotes, smart TVs, bicycles, etc.). This connectivity ensures that immediate information about these objects and their surroundings can be obtained and therefore decisions can be taken based on real-time information. This allows increased productivity and efficiency. One of the most important implementations of the IoT is the smart (or digital) cities where the information collected from the connected devices is used in, for instance, configuring energy systems, enhancing the traffic, controlling pollution or ensuring security. However, there is no guarantee that all objects will provide information because, for example, some may be out of service or have lost connectivity bearing in mind that many objects in an IoT network are characterized by their limited resources (e.g., battery life, computing, and connection capacity). Moreover, the decision in an IoT network is mostly based on the information provided by a subset of the objects rather than all of them. In addition, the obtained information can be contradictory for many reasons, such as a defect in the object or malicious interference either in the object itself or during the communication process. Therefore, it is necessary to provide a measure that reflects to what extent the decision in an IoT network is trustful. In this paper, an approach based on statistical science is proposed to measure the trustworthiness of information collected from heat sensors. An architecture and algorithm, based on the confidence interval measurement to reduce the time taken to verify and check the trustworthiness of network sensors or any other type of IoT device.
Businesses need trust to confidently perform trade among each other. Centralized business models ... more Businesses need trust to confidently perform trade among each other. Centralized business models are the only mature solutions available to perform trades over the Internet. However, they have many problems which includes but are not limited to the fact that these create bottleneck on the server as well as requires trusted third parties. Recently, decentralized solutions have gained significant popularity and acceptance for future businesses. The wide acceptance of such systems is indeed due to the trust management among various untrusted business stakeholders. Many solutions have been proposed in this regard to provide decentralized infrastructure for various business models. A standard solution that is acceptable to the industry is still in demand. Hyperledger umbrella Blockchain projects, that are supported by IBM and many other industry big players are gaining popularity due to its efficient and pluggable design. In this study, the author present the idea of utilizing Blockchain to design a Value-Added Tax (VAT) system for Saudi Arabia's newly introduced tax system. The reason to select this business model for VAT is twofold. First, it provides an untampered distributed ledger, which cannot be deceived by any party. Each transaction in the system cannot go unnoticed by the smart contract. Secondly , it provides a transparent record, and updates all involved parties regarding each activity performed by stakeholders. The newly proposed system will provide a transparent database of VAT transactions according to our smart contract design and at each stage of supply chain, tax will be deducted and stored on peer-to-peer network via consensus process. The author believes that the proposed solution will have significant impact on VAT collection in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Preparing SDL code generation for realtime embedded systems modeling
SDL is used increasingly for the development of Real time embedded systems. Nevertheless, the ass... more SDL is used increasingly for the development of Real time embedded systems. Nevertheless, the associated code generators do not integrate the management of temporal constraints. In this paper, we propose a real-time semantics to SDL for the modeling of real-time systems in order to prepare the code generation.
The use of SDL has arisen as a promising way of dealing with the increasing complexity of embedde... more The use of SDL has arisen as a promising way of dealing with the increasing complexity of embedded real-time systems. However, SDL does not take into account non-functional aspects, such as the time requirements, that are especially important in the context of real-time systems. Furthermore, the associated code generators do not integrate the management of temporal constraints. A real-time semantic extension to SDL for real-time systems modelling is proposed. The real time profile is added to SDL in order to prepare the real-time code generation. To illustrate the proposal, an example of a speed regulator is presented.
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Papers by Ahmad Alkhodre