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Publications

Publications by Pedro Filipe Pinto

2023

An Energy-optimized Embedded load balancing using DVFS computing in Cloud Data centers

Authors
Javadpour, A; Sangaiah, AK; Pinto, P; Ja'fari, F; Zhang, WZ; Abadi, AMH; Ahmadi, H;

Publication
COMPUTER COMMUNICATIONS

Abstract
Task scheduling is a significant challenge in the cloud environment as it affects the network's performance regarding the workload of the cloud machines. It also directly impacts the consumed energy, therefore the profit of the cloud provider. This paper proposed an algorithm that prioritizes the tasks regarding their execution deadline. We also categorize the physical machines considering their configuration status. Henceforth, the proposed method assigns the jobs to the physical machines with the same priority class close to the user. Furthermore, we reduce the consumed energy of the machines processing the low-priority tasks using the DVFS method. The proposed method migrates the jobs to maintain the workload balance, or if the machines' class changed according to their scores. We have evaluated and validated the proposed method in the CloudSim library. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method optimized energy consumption by 12% and power consumption by 20%.

2023

Toward a Secure Industrial Wireless Body Area Network Focusing MAC Layer Protocols: An Analytical Review

Authors
Javadpour, A; Sangaiah, AK; Jafari, F; Pinto, P; Memarzadeh-Tehran, H; Rezaei, S; Saghafi, F;

Publication
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL INFORMATICS

Abstract
Monitoring security and quality of service is essential, due to the rapid growth of the number of nodes in wireless networks. In healthcare/industrial environments, especially in wireless body area networks (WBANs), this is even more important. Because the delays and errors can directly affect patients'/scientists' health. To increase the Monitoring Quality of Services (MQoS) in WBANs, a secure medium access control (MAC) protocol needs to be developed to provide optimal services. This article provides a comprehensive review of MAC protocols in WBANs with a technical security analysis approach. Time-based, contention-based, and hybrid protocols are compared in this article, regarding MQoS and their security vulnerabilities. We have considered delay, packet loss, and energy consumption as performance evaluation criteria in WBANs, which may be degraded under a cyberattack. This work shows that there is a research gap in the literature, which is the failure of covering security and privacy issues in the MAC layer protocols.

2023

On the Performance of Secure Sharing of Classified Threat Intelligence between Multiple Entities

Authors
Fernandes, R; Bugla, S; Pinto, P; Pinto, A;

Publication
SENSORS

Abstract
The sharing of cyberthreat information within a community or group of entities is possible due to solutions such as the Malware Information Sharing Platform (MISP). However, the MISP was considered limited if its information was deemed as classified or shared only for a given period of time. A solution using searchable encryption techniques that better control the sharing of information was previously proposed by the same authors. This paper describes a prototype implementation for two key functionalities of the previous solution, considering multiple entities sharing information with each other: the symmetric key generation of a sharing group and the functionality to update a shared index. Moreover, these functionalities are evaluated regarding their performance, and enhancements are proposed to improve the performance of the implementation regarding its execution time. As the main result, the duration of the update process was shortened from around 2922 s to around 302 s, when considering a shared index with 100,000 elements. From the security analysis performed, the implementation can be considered secure, thus confirming the secrecy of the exchanged nonces. The limitations of the current implementation are depicted, and future work is pointed out.

2023

Boosting additive circular economy ecosystems using blockchain: An exploratory case study

Authors
Ferreira, IA; Godina, R; Pinto, A; Pinto, P; Carvalho, H;

Publication
COMPUTERS & INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING

Abstract
The role of new technologies such as additive manufacturing and blockchain technology in designing and implementing circular economy ecosystems is not a trivial issue. This study aimed to understand if blockchain technology can be an enabler tool for developing additive symbiotic networks. A real case study was developed regarding a circular economy ecosystem in which a fused granular fabrication 3D printer is used to valorize polycarbonate waste. The industrial symbiosis network comprised four stakeholders: a manufacturing company that produces polycarbonate waste, a municipality service responsible for the city waste management, a start-up holding the 3D printer, and a non-profit store. It was identified a set of six requirements to adopt the blockchain technology in an additive symbiotic network, bearing in mind the need to have a database to keep track of the properties of the input material for the 3D printer during the exchanges, in addition to the inexistence of mechanisms of trust or cooperation between well-established industries and the additive manufacturing industry. The findings suggested a permissioned blockchain to support the implementation of the additive symbiotic network, namely, to enable the physical transactions (quantity and quality of waste material PC sheets) and monitoring and reporting (additive manufacturing technology knowledge and final product's quantity and price).Future research venues include developing blockchain-based systems that enhance the development of ad-ditive symbiotic networks.

2024

A Prototype for Generating Random Key Sounds to Prevent Keyboard Acoustic Side-Channel Attacks

Authors
Rodrigues, D; Macedo, G; Conti, M; Pinto, P;

Publication
2024 IEEE 22ND MEDITERRANEAN ELECTROTECHNICAL CONFERENCE, MELECON 2024

Abstract
Side-channel attacks exploit involuntary information leakages from devices, such as power consumption, electromagnetic radiation, visible light, or acoustic emanations. The objective of these attacks is to gain unauthorized access to data, such as passwords or other sensitive information. In particular, the keyboard acoustic side-channel attacks take advantage of the sound emanating from keystrokes to decipher which keys have been pressed by the user by comparing the produced sounds with a recorded dataset. This paper proposes a prototype that generates false and random keystroke sounds that are mixed with real keystroke sounds, to mitigate the impact of a keyboard acoustic side-channel attack. It includes three security modes low, medium, and high, each offering different levels of protection and user customization. This is accomplished by generating random key sounds and also randomizing the number of key sounds to play and the time between the generated key sounds, during the real keystroke sound. To test the proposed prototype, a dataset was generated and used to assess the security modes execution. The results show that the sound of the real keystrokes is scrambled with the fake keystrokes sounds, making it difficult to decipher which keys have been pressed by the user.

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