Outputs (28)

Improved ICS Honeypot Techniques (2023)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
McColm, D., & Macfarlane, R. (2023, June). Improved ICS Honeypot Techniques. Paper presented at International Conference on Computer Security in the Nuclear World: Security for Safety, Vienna, Austria

As work continues to advance the security posture of ICS systems across the UKNDA estate, opportunities arise to consider the deployment of deception technologies. With high-profile attacks on ICS occurring more frequently, and increasing numbers of... Read More about Improved ICS Honeypot Techniques.

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.

Towards Identifying Human Actions, Intent, and Severity of APT Attacks Applying Deception Techniques - An Experiment (2020)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Chacon, J., Mckeown, S., & Macfarlane, R. (2020, June). Towards Identifying Human Actions, Intent, and Severity of APT Attacks Applying Deception Techniques - An Experiment. Presented at IEEE International Conference on Cyber Security and Protection of Digital Services (Cyber Security 2020), Dublin, Ireland

Attacks by Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) have been shown to be difficult to detect using traditional signature-and anomaly-based intrusion detection approaches. Deception techniques such as decoy objects, often called honey items, may be deploye... Read More about Towards Identifying Human Actions, Intent, and Severity of APT Attacks Applying Deception Techniques - An Experiment.

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.

Privacy Parameter Variation using RAPPOR on a Malware Dataset (2018)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Aaby, P., Mata De Acuña, J. J., Macfarlane, R., & Buchanan, W. J. (2018, August). Privacy Parameter Variation using RAPPOR on a Malware Dataset. Presented at 2018 17th IEEE International Conference On Trust, Security And Privacy In Computing And Communications/ 12th IEEE International Conference On Big Data Science And Engineering (TrustCom/BigDataSE), New York, NY, USA

Stricter data protection regulations and the poor application of privacy protection techniques have resulted in a requirement for data-driven companies to adopt new methods of analysing sensitive user data. The RAPPOR (Randomized Aggregatable Privacy... Read More about Privacy Parameter Variation using RAPPOR on a Malware Dataset.

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.

Review of e-Health Frameworks. (2015)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Prajapati, B., Buchanan, W. J., Smales, A., Macfarlane, R., & Spyra, G. (2015, October). Review of e-Health Frameworks. Presented at Health Informatics Conference 2015

In order to improve the quality of health care and widen the accessibility, health care providers are consistently looking to inject information and communication technology to the traditional health care system (Mair, et al., 2012). This process can... Read More about Review of e-Health Frameworks..

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., Blazic, B. J., & 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..

Fast contraband detection in large capacity disk drives (2015)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Penrose, P., Buchanan, W. J., & Macfarlane, R. (2015, March). Fast contraband detection in large capacity disk drives. Presented at DFRWS 2015 Europe, Dublin, Republic of Ireland

In recent years the capacity of digital storage devices has been increasing at a rate that has left digital forensic services struggling to cope. There is an acknowledgement that current forensic tools have failed to keep up. The workload is such tha... Read More about Fast contraband detection in large capacity disk drives.

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

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

Embedding programming skills to support the student journey in networking, security and digital forensics. (2014)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Lawson, A., & Macfarlane, R. (2014, April). Embedding programming skills to support the student journey in networking, security and digital forensics. Paper presented at HEA STEM Annual Learning and Teaching Conference 2014: Enhancing the STEM Student Journey

The development of programming skills by Networking graduates, and Security and Digital Forensics graduates is highly sought after by employers, both in industry, and in academia for staffing research and knowledge exchange projects. Placements offer... Read More about Embedding programming skills to support the student journey in networking, security and digital forensics..