IoT-SECFOR 2021

The 5th International Workshop on Security and Forensics of IoT

to be held in conjunction with the 16 th International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security
(ARES 2021 – http://www.ares-conference.eu )

August 17 – August 20, 2021

Internet-of-Things (IoT) are becoming increasingly prevalent in our society, as the backbone of interconnected smart homes, smart hospitals, smart cities, smart wearables and other smart environments. IoT leverage embedded technologies equipped with sensors and communication capabilities; they are able to broadcast their presence to other objects and interact with them using different protocols. It was estimated by Gartner and Statista that a number of devices between 20.4 and 31 billion was in use in 2020, which may rise to 75 billion devices by 2025. Along with usability, efficiency, and cost savings benefits, increasingly, the use of IoT pose security risks and raise challenges to digital forensics. The constantly growing IoT botnets, such as Dark Nexus, emphasize the need to focus on these aspects. This workshop aims to bring together researchers and practitioners from both communities – security and forensics – to discuss problems and solutions regarding IoT.

This year, IoT-SECFOR will recognise its best paper with an award sponsored by the University of Kent’s Institute of Cyber Security for Society (iCSS).

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

Adaptive security in IoT
Challenges related to IoT forensics and security
Coexistence of different security protocols in IoT
Covert communication in IoT
Cryptography protocols and algorithms for IoT
Cybercrimes exploiting IoT
Data analysis of IoT for forensic investigation
Data ownership and attack simulation methods for IoT networks and devices
Identification/preservation of evidence for digital forensic investigations involving IoT

Intrusion and malware detection/prevention technologies for IoT
Legal and human aspects of security and forensics of IoT
Models for risk identification and assessment in IoT networks
Privacy and trust in IoT
Security and forensic aspects in cyber physical IoT systems
Security applications and management of IoT
Security architectures and protection mechanisms for IoT
Security in Wireless Sensor Networks applied to IoT
Threat models and attack strategies for IoT

Important Dates
Submission Deadline May 07, 2021
May 14, 2021
Author Notification May 28, 2021
June 04, 2021
Proceedings Version June 13, 2021
ARES EU Symposium August 17, 2021
All-Digital Conference August 17 – August 20, 2021
Program Chair/ Workshop Chair

Virginia N. L. Franqueira
University of Kent, UK

Aleksandra Mileva
University of Goce Delcev, MK

Ville Leppänen
University of Turku, FI

Pedro Inácio
Universidade da Beira Interior, PT

Mauro Conti
University of Padua, IT

Raul H. C. Lopes
Brunel University, JISC & CMS/CERN, UK

Asma Adnane
Loughborough University, UK

Xiaojun Zhai
University of Essex, UK

Program Committee 2021

Farhan Ahmad, Coventry University, UK
Budi Arief, University of Kent, UK
Simona Bernardi, University of Zaragoza, ES
Alessandro Brighente, University of Padova, IT
Luca Caviglione, National Research Council, IT
Tiago Cruz, University of Coimbra, PT
Vesna Dimitrova, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, MK
James Hardy, University of Derby, UK
Siv Hilde Houmb, Statnett SF, NO
Muhammad Taimoor Khan, University of Greenwich, UK
Chhagan Lal, TU Delft, NL
Eleonora Losiouk, University of Padova, IT
Ralf Moura, Vale S.A., BR
John Panneerselvam, University of Leicester, UK
Miguel Pardal, University of Lisboa, PT
Simona Samardziska, Radboud University, NL
Krzysztof Szczypiorski, Warsaw University of Technology, PO
Tomasz Szydlo, AGH University of Science and Technology, PL
Katinka Wolter, Free University of Berlin, DE
Chia-Mu Yu, National Chung Hsing University, TW

Submission Guidelines

The submission guidelines can be found at https://www.ares-conference.eu/conference/submission/ (6-8 pages, a maximum of 10 pages is tolerated).

Double blind review: All papers submitted to EasyChair should be anonymized (no names or affiliations of authors should be visible in the paper) with no obvious self-references.

Submission of a paper implies that should the paper be accepted, at least one of the authors will register and present the paper in the workshop.

Keynote: Internet-of-Forensics: A Decentralized Evidence Management System

Rahul Saha, SPRITZ research group, University of Padova, Italy

Abstract: The proliferation of Internet-of-Things (IoTs) and its extensions in industries, healthcare, supply chain, vehicular networks and energy sector have increased the possibility of the cyber-attacks with various threat vectors. Digital forensics, as a part of forensics science, is complementary to cyber security as it helps to identify the source of the malicious act. Phishing, spoofed identities, vulnerable mobile applications, falsified remote attestation and IPR breaches are some of the examples digital crimes. Digital forensic process solves such problems and provides justification to the verdict of the crime with required evidences. In the process of investigation, these evidences are important point of concern. The investigators collect the evidences such as mobile devices, digital photos, and network connections. These evidences also possess different concerns in terms of data manipulation, device resource exhaustion, evidence management, accuracy etc. Multiple investigators use chain-of-custody for the evidence handling which is an important part of any digital forensic concerns. Moreover, in cross-country platform, for example: cloud forensics, the responsibility of the evidences become critical as the resources are stable with cloud owner. Therefore, digital forensics has a number of concerns of in terms security such as confidentiality, integrity, authenticity, and admissibility of the evidences. To hold the evidences justified till the last point of decision making process in the court room, we need to handle the digital forensics appropriately.

In the presentation, we shall discuss about the digital forensics enablers and connect to the decentralization orientation of it. We shall explore the status of the blockchain-based digital forensic scenario and its future aspects denoting some important research problems. Our discussion will be evolving around the following point (not limited to): digital forensic enabler, decentralization factors of digital forensics, Internet-of-Forensics and open research problems.

Dr. Rahul Saha is a Postdoc researcher in SPRITZ research group, University of Padova under the supervision of Prof. Mauro Conti. Rahul has completed his PhD in Computer Science and Engineering from Lovely Professional University, India in 2018 followed by his present Postdoctoral position. His particular specialization is security dimensions and his publications are noteworthy to prove its significance. Rahul believes on multi-dimensional security in the present increasing network dimensions where a clear focus on changing network applications is underpinned by building various updated security technologies.

Rahul is extensively engaged with various funded projects execution including a funded project from Indian Government as Co-PI, EU-Horizon 2020 project, and industrial projects such as IOTA, and ONTOCHAIN. He is always up to spread his knowledge and to learn from fellow members of the group through brainstorming sessions, project management calls and technical talks.

Rahul is author and co-author of more than 35 indexed publications till date in various domains such as wireless sensor network applications, Internet of Things and its allied domains, network security and cryptography, blockchains where his security sense has been proved significantly. Previously, he also put his knowledge base design some courses for undergraduate students in Lovely Professional University, India. He also served as instructor of Cyberops course from CISCO with his strong passion for networks. Apart from the mentioned topics of the publications, Rahul also possess intense interest in soft computing, cloud computing, and algorithm analysis. His research excellence has been awarded consecutively three times by Lovely Professional University, India. His research expertise makes him a valuable contributor in the revision process of IEEE TDSC, IEEE TFS, IEEE COMST, IEEE Access and IEEE TVT. Rahul is a professional member of IEEE and IACR.