All Outputs (41)

BOAZ, Yet Another Layered Evasion Tool: Evasion Tool Evaluations and AV Testing (2024)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Macfarlane, R., & Xuan Meng, T. (2024, August). BOAZ, Yet Another Layered Evasion Tool: Evasion Tool Evaluations and AV Testing. Presented at blackhat USA 2024, Las Vegas, US

In the rapidly evolving landscape of cybersecurity, there has been an increasing deployment of evasion techniques in organizational vulnerability assessments and found post-discovery of security incidents, owing to the more sophisticated defense mech... Read More about BOAZ, Yet Another Layered Evasion Tool: Evasion Tool Evaluations and AV Testing.

Majority Voting Ransomware Detection System (2023)
Journal Article
Davies, S. R., Macfarlane, R., & Buchanan, W. J. (2023). Majority Voting Ransomware Detection System. Journal of Information Security, 14(4), 264-293. https://doi.org/10.4236/jis.2023.144016

Crypto-ransomware remains a significant threat to governments and companies alike, with high-profile cyber security incidents regularly making headlines. Many different detection systems have been proposed as solutions to the ever-changing dynamic la... Read More about Majority Voting Ransomware Detection System.

Evaluation of live forensic techniques, towards Salsa20-Based cryptographic ransomware mitigation (2023)
Journal Article
Fernandez de Loaysa Babiano, L., Macfarlane, R., & Davies, S. R. (2023). Evaluation of live forensic techniques, towards Salsa20-Based cryptographic ransomware mitigation. Forensic Science International: Digital Investigation, 46, Article 301572. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsidi.2023.301572

Ransomware has been established as one of the largest current threats to organisations, small businesses, governments, and individuals alike. The appearance of cryptocurrencies and the enhancement of encryption key management schemes increased the ca... Read More about Evaluation of live forensic techniques, towards Salsa20-Based cryptographic ransomware mitigation.

Vascular mechanisms of post-COVID-19 conditions: rho-kinase is a novel target for therapy (2023)
Journal Article
Sykes, R. A., Neves, K. B., Alves-Lopes, R., Caputo, I., Fallon, K., Jamieson, N. B., Kamdar, A., Legrini, A., Leslie, H., McIntosh, A., McConnachie, A., Morrow, A., McFarlane, R. W., Mangion, K., McAbney, J., Montezano, A. C., Touyz, R. M., Wood, C., & Berry, C. (2023). Vascular mechanisms of post-COVID-19 conditions: rho-kinase is a novel target for therapy. European Heart Journal - Cardiovascular Pharmacotherapy, 9(4), 371-386. https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjcvp/pvad025

Background
In post-COVID-19 conditions (Long COVID), systemic vascular dysfunction is implicated but the mechanisms are uncertain, and treatment is imprecise.

Methods
Patients convalescing after hospitalisation for COVID-19 and risk-factor match... Read More about Vascular mechanisms of post-COVID-19 conditions: rho-kinase is a novel target for therapy.

Comparison of Entropy Calculation Methods for Ransomware Encrypted File Identification (2022)
Journal Article
Davies, S. R., Macfarlane, R., & Buchanan, W. J. (2022). Comparison of Entropy Calculation Methods for Ransomware Encrypted File Identification. Entropy, 24(10), Article 1503. https://doi.org/10.3390/e24101503

Ransomware is a malicious class of software that utilises encryption to implement an attack on system availability. The target’s data remains encrypted and is held captive by the attacker until a ransom demand is met. A common approach used by many c... Read More about Comparison of Entropy Calculation Methods for Ransomware Encrypted File Identification.

NapierOne: A modern mixed file data set alternative to Govdocs1 (2022)
Journal Article
Davies, S. R., Macfarlane, R., & Buchanan, W. J. (2022). NapierOne: A modern mixed file data set alternative to Govdocs1. Forensic Science International: Digital Investigation, 40, Article 301330. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsidi.2021.301330

It was found when reviewing the ransomware detection research literature that almost no proposal provided enough detail on how the test data set was created, or sufficient description of its actual content, to allow it to be recreated by other resear... Read More about NapierOne: A modern mixed file data set alternative to Govdocs1.

Differential Area Analysis for Ransomware Attack Detection within Mixed File Datasets (2021)
Journal Article
Davies, S. R., Macfarlane, R., & Buchanan, W. J. (2021). Differential Area Analysis for Ransomware Attack Detection within Mixed File Datasets. Computers and Security, 108, Article 102377. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cose.2021.102377

The threat from ransomware continues to grow both in the number of affected victims as well as the cost incurred by the people and organisations impacted in a successful attack. In the majority of cases, once a victim has been attacked there remain o... Read More about Differential Area Analysis for Ransomware Attack Detection within Mixed File Datasets.

Evaluation of Live Forensic Techniques in Ransomware Attack Mitigation (2020)
Journal Article
Davies, S. R., Macfarlane, R., & Buchanan, W. J. (2020). Evaluation of Live Forensic Techniques in Ransomware Attack Mitigation. Forensic Science International: Digital Investigation, 33, Article 300979. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsidi.2020.300979

Ransomware continues to grow in both scale, cost, complexity and impact since its initial discovery nearly 30 years ago. Security practitioners are engaged in a continual "arms race" with the ransomware developers attempting to defend their digital i... Read More about Evaluation of Live Forensic Techniques in Ransomware Attack Mitigation.

Wi-Fi Channel Saturation as a Mechanism to Improve Passive Capture of Bluetooth Through Channel Usage Restriction (2019)
Journal Article
Lowe, I., Buchanan, W. J., Macfarlane, R., & Lo, O. (2019). Wi-Fi Channel Saturation as a Mechanism to Improve Passive Capture of Bluetooth Through Channel Usage Restriction. Journal of Networking Technology, 10(4), 124-155. https://doi.org/10.6025/jnt/2019/10/4/124-155

Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology that provides audio and data links between personal smartphones and playback devices, such as speakers, headsets and car entertainment systems. Since its introduction in 2001, security researchers have s... Read More about Wi-Fi Channel Saturation as a Mechanism to Improve Passive Capture of Bluetooth Through Channel Usage Restriction.

The Importance of Authenticity in Cyber Security Training and Education (2019)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Macfarlane, R., & Mata de Acuna, J. (2019, November). The Importance of Authenticity in Cyber Security Training and Education. Presented at JISC Security Conference, Newcastle, England

The knowledge gap between academy and industry is a challenging issue that educators face every day. In the field of cyber security, it is important that students understand the need of adapting and acquiring new skills that allow them to put their t... Read More about The Importance of Authenticity in Cyber Security Training and Education.

System and method for management of confidential data (2018)
Patent
Buchanan, B., Lo, O., Macfarlane, R., Penrose, P., & Ramsay, B. (2018). System and method for management of confidential data. GB2561176A

This application is for a method of data management to identify confidential digital content on a database by first receiving a management request 302 from a system 304 to carry out data management operations. These include the identification of data... Read More about System and method for management of confidential data.

Method for identification of digital content (2018)
Patent
Buchanan, B., Lo, O., Penrose, P., Ramsay, B., & Macfarlane, R. (2018). Method for identification of digital content. World Intellectual Property Organization

Many areas oi investigation require searching through data that may be oi interest. One example oi data that may be involved in an investigation is copyrighted material that may be suspected of having been obtained or reproduced illegally by a third... Read More about Method for identification of digital content.

Distance Measurement Methods for Improved Insider Threat Detection (2018)
Journal Article
Lo, O., Buchanan, W. J., Griffiths, P., & Macfarlane, R. (2018). Distance Measurement Methods for Improved Insider Threat Detection. Security and Communication Networks, 2018, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/5906368

Insider threats are a considerable problem within cyber security and it is often difficult to detect these threats using signature detection. Increasing machine learning can provide a solution, but these methods often fail to take into account change... Read More about Distance Measurement Methods for Improved Insider Threat Detection.

A methodology for the security evaluation within third-party Android Marketplaces (2017)
Journal Article
Buchanan, W. J., Chiale, S., & Macfarlane, R. (2017). A methodology for the security evaluation within third-party Android Marketplaces. Digital Investigation, 23, 88-98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.diin.2017.10.002

This paper aims to evaluate possible threats with unofficial Android marketplaces, and geo localize the malware distribution over three main regions: China, Europe; and Russia. It provides a comprehensive review of existing academic literature about... Read More about A methodology for the security evaluation within third-party Android Marketplaces.

Evaluation of TFTP DDoS amplification attack (2015)
Journal Article
Sieklik, B., Macfarlane, R., & Buchanan, W. J. (2016). Evaluation of TFTP DDoS amplification attack. Computers and Security, 57, 67-92. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cose.2015.09.006

Web threats are becoming a major issue for both governments and companies. Generally, web threats increased as much as 600% during last year (WebSense, 2013). This appears to be a significant issue, since many major businesses seem to provide these s... Read More about Evaluation of TFTP DDoS amplification attack.

Evaluation of the DFET Cloud. (2015)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Buchanan, W. J., Ramsay, B., Macfarlane, R., Smales, A., Keane, E., Callahan, C., …Popov, O. (2015, September). Evaluation of the DFET Cloud. Paper presented at Cybercrime Forensics Education and Training (CFET) conference

The DFET (Digital Forensics Evaluation and Training) Cloud creates new training methods/techniques to support judicial authorities, law enforcement agencies and associated stakeholders in the fight against cybercrime through the development of a virt... Read More about Evaluation of the DFET Cloud..

Teaching penetration and malware analysis in a cloud-based environment. (2015)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Buchanan, W. J., Ramsay, B., Macfarlane, R., Smales, A., & Russell, G. (2015, June). Teaching penetration and malware analysis in a cloud-based environment. Paper presented at UK Workshop on Cybersecurity Training & Education

This paper outlines evaluation of running a private Cloud-based system over two semesters at Edinburgh Napier University for two modules: Security Testing and Advanced Network Forensics (BEng (Hons) level and focused on Penetration testing and Malwar... Read More about Teaching penetration and malware analysis in a cloud-based environment..

Evaluating Digital Forensic Tools (DFTs). (2014)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Flandrin, F., Buchanan, W. J., Macfarlane, R., Ramsay, B., & Smales, A. (2014). Evaluating Digital Forensic Tools (DFTs). In 7th International Conference : Cybercrime Forensics Education & Training

This paper outlines the key methods used in the evaluation of digital forensics tools.

Approaches to the classification of high entropy file fragments. (2013)
Journal Article
Penrose, P., Macfarlane, R., & Buchanan, W. J. (2013). Approaches to the classification of high entropy file fragments. Digital Investigation, 10(4), 372-384. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.diin.2013.08.004

In this paper we propose novel approaches to the problem of classifying high entropy file fragments. We achieve 97% correct classification for encrypted fragments and 78% for compressed. Although classification of file fragments is central to the sci... Read More about Approaches to the classification of high entropy file fragments..

A forensic image description language for generating test images. (2012)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Russell, G., Macfarlane, R., & Ludwiniak, R. (2012). A forensic image description language for generating test images. In Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Cybercrime Forensics Education & Training

Digital Forensics is a fast developing job market, as well as being topical and interesting, and as such is an area in which University students are keen to develop and study. At Edinburgh Napier University this topic has been taught with flexible an... Read More about A forensic image description language for generating test images..