Recovering AES-128 encryption keys from a Raspberry Pi
- Authors: Frieslaar, Ibraheem , Irwin, Barry V W
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/428383 , vital:72507 , https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ibraheem-Frieslaar/publication/320102039_Recovering_AES-128_Encryption_Keys_from_a_Raspberry_Pi/links/59ce34f1aca272b0ec1a4d96/Recovering-AES-128-Encryption-Keys-from-a-Raspberry-Pi.pdf
- Description: This research is the first of its kind to perform a successful side channel analysis attack on a symmetric encryption algorithm executing on a Raspberry Pi. It is demonstrated that the AES-128 encryption algorithm of the Crypto++ library is vulnerable against the Correlation Power Analysis (CPA) attack. Furthermore, digital processing techniques such as dynamic time warping and filtering are used to recovery the full en-cryption key. In Addition, it is illustrated that the area above and around the CPU of the Raspberry Pi leaks out critical and secret information.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
SHA-1, SAT-solving, and CNF
- Authors: Motara, Yusuf, M , Irwin, Barry V W
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/428408 , vital:72509 , https://researchspace.csir.co.za/dspace/bitstream/handle/10204/9692/Motara_19661_2017.pdf?sequence=1andisAllowed=y
- Description: Finding a preimage for a SHA-1 hash is, at present, a computationally intractable problem. SAT-solvers have been useful tools for handling such problems and can often, through heuristics, generate acceptable solutions. This research examines the intersection between the SHA-1 preimage problem, the encoding of that problem for SAT-solving, and SAT-solving. The results demonstrate that SAT-solving is not yet a viable approach to take to solve the preimage problem, and also indicate that some of the intuitions about “good” problem encodings in the literature are likely to be incorrect.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
Suspense, the serious and the superman:
- Authors: Western, Rat
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/147726 , vital:38664 , https://doi.org/10.1080/00043389.2012.11877164
- Description: When considering what to do with one’s Friday night, probably very few people would consider a two-hour formal lecture a top priority. But this is a Friday night in Grahamstown, where novelty in leisure and entertainment choices, outside of festival time, is a rarity. It is therefore unsurprising that, on the evening of 11 November 2011, the Rhodes Box Theatre is packed by 7 pm with a variety of students, academics, members of the local alternative scene and the general public.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
Temperature dependence of optically stimulated luminescence of α-Al2O3: C, Mg
- Authors: Kalita, Jitumani M , Chithambo, Makaiko L
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/115708 , vital:34217 , https://doi.org/10.1016/j.radmeas.2017.08.009
- Description: Thermal assistance and thermal quenching are two independently acting thermodynamic phenomena that simultaneously affect the stimulation of luminescence. We have studied thermal assistance to luminescence optically stimulated from α-Al2O3:C,Mg. Since thermal assistance causes only a minor change in the luminescence intensity, measurements were made after the sample had been pre-exposed to stimulating light to reduce its intensity significantly, that is, in the slow component of its decay curve. The luminescence intensity was monitored as a function of measurement temperature between 30 and 130 °C. The intensity goes through a peak at 60 °C due to competing effects of thermal assistance and thermal quenching. The initial increase of intensity is attributed to dominant thermal assistance whereas the subsequent decrease of intensity is ascribed to dominant thermal quenching. The activation energy for thermal assistance was calculated for the main electron trap of an un-annealed sample as 0.324 ± 0.020 eV and in a sample annealed at 900 °C as 0.416 ± 0.028 eV. Implications of such differences in the value of the activation energy for thermal assistance are considered.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2017
Thermally-assisted optically stimulated luminescence from deep electron traps in α-Al2O3: C, Mg
- Authors: Kalita, Jitumani M , Chithambo, Makaiko L , Polymeris, G S
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/116133 , vital:34322 , https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nimb.2017.04.075
- Description: We report thermally-assisted optically stimulated luminescence (TA-OSL) in α-Al2O3:C,Mg. The OSL was measured at elevated temperatures between 50 and 240 °C from a sample preheated to 500 °C after irradiation to 100 Gy. That OSL could be measured even after the preheating is direct evidence of the existence of deep electron traps in α-Al2O3:C,Mg. The TA-OSL intensity goes through a peak with measurement temperature. The initial increase is ascribed to thermal assistance to optical stimulation whereas the subsequent decrease in intensity is deduced to reflect increasing incidences of non-radiative recombination, that is, thermal quenching. The activation energy for thermal assistance corresponding to a deep electron trap was estimated as 0.667 ± 0.006 eV whereas the activation energy for thermal quenching was calculated as 0.90 ± 0.04 eV. The intensity of the TA-OSL was also found to increase with irradiation dose. The dose response is sublinear from 25 to 150 Gy but saturates with further increase of dose. The TA-OSL dose response has been discussed by considering the competition for charges at the deep traps. This study incidentally shows that TA-OSL can be effectively used in dosimetry involving large doses.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2017
Thermoluminescence of α-Al2O3: C, Mg: kinetic analysis of the main glow peak
- Authors: Kalita, Jitumani M , Chithambo, Makaiko L
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/119844 , vital:34788 , https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jlumin.2016.10.031
- Description: The kinetic analysis of the thermoluminescence of aluminium oxide doped with carbon and co-doped with magnesium (α-Al2O3:C,Mg) is reported. Measurements were made at 1 °C/s following beta irradiation to 1 Gy. The glow curve consists of a dominant peak at a peak-maximum Tm of 161 °C and six secondary peaks of weaker intensity at 42, 72, 193, 279, 330 and 370 °C. Kinetic analysis of the main peak, the subject of this report, was carried out using initial rise, whole glow peak, peak shape, curve fitting and variable heating rate methods. The order of kinetics of the main peak was determined as first order using various methods including the Tm–Tstop technique and the dependence of Tm on irradiation dose. The activation energy of the peak is about ~1.36 eV and the frequency factor of the order of 1014 s−1. The peak area changes with heating rate in a manner that shows that the peak is affected by thermal quenching. The activation energy of thermal quenching was evaluated as 0.99±0.08 eV. A comparison of analytical results from the main peak before and after correction for thermal quenching show that the kinetic parameters of the main peak are not that affected by thermal quenching.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2017
Unexpected transformations of 3-(bromoacetyl)coumarin provides new evidence for the mechanism of thiol mediated dehalogenation of α-halocarbonyls
- Authors: Magwenzi, Faith N , Khanye, Setshaba D , Veale, Clinton G L
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/66200 , vital:28916 , https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tetlet.2017.01.082
- Description: publisher version , The mechanism for the thiol mediated dehalogenation of α-halogenated carbonyls has remained an unresolved problem, despite its ongoing application in synthetic organic chemistry. Nakamura and co-workers first proposed that net dehalogenation occurs via sequential nucleophilic substitutions, while Israel and co-workers concluded that the rate at which dehalogenation occurred suggested that dehalogenation proceeds in a single concerted step. In this study, we investigated the debromination and nucleophilic substitution of 3-(bromoacetyl)coumarin with a variety of thiophenols, whose electron donating or withdrawing natures resulted in large variations in the degree of nucleophilic substitution and dehalogenation products, respectively. Results from these experiments, in addition to an unexpected formation of thioether containing dibenzo[b,d]pyran-6-ones from a Robinson annulation, has provided new evidence for this disputed mechanism.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2017
Weems: An extensible HTTP honeypot
- Authors: Pearson, Deon , Irwin, Barry V W , Herbert, Alan
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/428396 , vital:72508 , https://researchspace.csir.co.za/dspace/bitstream/handle/10204/9691/Pearson_19652_2017.pdf?sequence=1andisAllowed=y
- Description: Malicious entities are constantly trying their luck at exploiting known vulnera-bilities in web services, in an attempt to gain access to resources unauthor-ized access to resources. For this reason security specialists deploy various network defenses with the goal preventing these threats; one such tool used are web based honeypots. Historically a honeypot will be deployed facing the Internet to masquerade as a live system with the intention of attracting at-tackers away from the valuable data. Researchers adapted these honeypots and turned them into a platform to allow for the studying and understanding of web attacks and threats on the Internet. Having the ability to develop a honeypot to replicate a specific service meant researchers can now study the behavior patterns of threats, thus giving a better understanding of how to de-fend against them. This paper discusses a high-level design and implemen-tation of Weems, a low-interaction web based modular HTTP honeypot sys-tem. It also presents results obtained from various deployments over a period of time and what can be interpreted from these results.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
A dynamically weighted multi-modal biometric security system
- Authors: Brown, Dane L , Bradshaw, Karen L
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/476629 , vital:77945 , ISBN 9780620724180
- Description: The face, fingerprint and palmprint feature vectors are automatically extracted and dynamically selected for fusion at the feature-level, toward an improved human identification accuracy. The feature-level has a higher potential accuracy than the match score-level. However, leveraging this potential requires a new approach. This work demonstrates a novel dynamic weighting algorithm for improved image-based biometric feature-fusion. A comparison is performed on uni-modal, bi-modal, tri-modal and proposed dynamic approaches. The proposed dynamic approach yields a high genuine acceptance rate of 99.25% genuine acceptance rate at a false acceptance rate of 1% on challenging datasets and big impostor datasets.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
A sharing platform for Indicators of Compromise
- Authors: Rudman, Lauren , Irwin, Barry V W
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/427831 , vital:72465 , https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Barry-Ir-win/publication/327622961_A_sharing_platform_for_Indicators_of_Compromise/links/5b9a1ad1a6fdcc59bf8dfe51/A-sharing-platform-for-Indicators-of-Compromise.pdf
- Description: In this paper, we will describe the functionality of a proof of concept sharing platform for sharing cyber threat information. Information is shared in the Structured Threat Information eXpression (STIX) language displayed in HTML. We focus on the sharing of network Indicators of Compromise generated by malware samples. Our work is motivated by the need to provide a platform for exchanging comprehensive network level Indicators. Accordingly we demonstrate the functionality of our proof of concept project. We will discuss how to use some functions of the platform, such as sharing STIX Indicators, navigating around and downloading defense mechanisims. It will be shown how threat information can be converted into different formats to allow them to be used in firewall and Intrusion Detection System (IDS) rules. This is an extension to the sharing platform and makes the creation of network level defense mechanisms efficient. Two API functions of the platform will be successfully tested and are useful because this can allow for the bulk sharing and of threat information.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
Assimilation of organic and inorganic nutrients by Erica root fungi from the fynbos ecosystem
- Authors: Bizabani, Christine , Dames, Joanna F
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/444079 , vital:74183 , https://doi.org/10.1016/j.funbio.2015.11.006
- Description: Erica dominate the fynbos ecosystem, which is characterized by acidic soils that are rich in organic matter. The ericaceae associate with ericoid mycorrhizal (ERM) fungi for survival. In this study fungal biomass accumulation in vitro was used to determine nutrient utilisation of various inorganic and organic substrates. This is an initial step towards establishment of the ecological roles of typical ERM fungi and other root fungi associated with Erica plants, with regard to host nutrition. Meliniomyces sp., Acremonium implicatum, Leohumicola sp., Cryptosporiopsis erica, Oidiodendron maius and an unidentified Helotiales fungus were selected from fungi previously isolated and identified from Erica roots. Sole nitrogen sources ammonium, nitrate, arginine and Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) were tested. Meliniomyces and Leohumicola species were able to utilise BSA effectively. Phosphorus nutrition was tested using orthophosphate, sodium inositol hexaphosphate and DNA. Most isolates preferred orthophosphate. Meliniomyces sp. and A. implicatum were able to accumulate significant biomass using DNA. Carbon utilisation was tested using glucose, cellobiose, carboxymethylcellulose, pectin and tannic acid substrates. All fungal isolates produced high biomass on glucose and cellobiose. The ability to utilize organic nutrient sources in culture, illustrates their potential role of these fungi in host nutrition in the fynbos ecosystem.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
Cytotoxic activity of marine sponge extracts from the sub-Antarctic Islands and the Southern Ocean
- Authors: Olsen, Elisabeth , De Cerf, Christopher , Dziwornu, Godwin A , Puccinelli, Eleonora , Parker-Nance, Shirley , Ansorge, Isabelle J , Samaai, Toufiek , Dingle, Laura M K , Edkins, Adrienne L , Sunassee, Suthananda N
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/66300 , vital:28931 , https://doi.org/10.17159/sajs.2016/20160202
- Description: publisher version , Over the past 50 years, marine invertebrates, especially sponges, have proven to be a valuable source of new and/or bioactive natural products that have the potential to be further developed as lead compounds for pharmaceutical applications. Although marine benthic invertebrate communities occurring off the coast of South Africa have been explored for their biomedicinal potential, the natural product investigation of marine sponges from the sub-Antarctic Islands in the Southern Ocean for the presence of bioactive secondary metabolites has been relatively unexplored thus far. We report here the results for the biological screening of both aqueous and organic extracts prepared from nine specimens of eight species of marine sponges, collected from around Marion Island and the Prince Edward Islands in the Southern Ocean, for their cytotoxic activity against three cancer cell lines. The results obtained through this multidisciplinary collaborative research effort by exclusively South African institutions has provided an exciting opportunity to discover cytotoxic compounds from sub-Antarctic sponges, whilst contributing to our understanding of the biodiversity and geographic distributions of these cold-water invertebrates. Therefore, we acknowledge here the various contributions of the diverse scientific disciplines that played a pivotal role in providing the necessary platform for the future natural products chemistry investigation of these marine sponges from the sub- Antarctic Islands and the Southern Ocean. Significance: This study will contribute to understanding the biodiversity and geographic distributions of sponges in the Southern Ocean. This multidisciplinary project has enabled the investigation of marine sponges for the presence of cytotoxic compounds. Further investigation will lead to the isolation and identification of cytotoxic compounds present in the active sponge extracts. , University of Cape Town; South African Medical Research Council; National Research Foundation (South Africa); CANSA; Rhodes University; Department of Science and Technology; Department of Environmental Affairs; SANAP
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
Design of a Configurable Embedded Network Tap Flow Generation using NetFlow v9 and IPFIX Formats
- Authors: Pennefather, Sean , Irwin, Barry V W
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/427756 , vital:72460 , https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Barry-Ir-win/publication/327622779_Design_of_a_Configurable_Embedded_Network_Tap_Flow_Generation_using_NetFlow_v9_and_IPFIX_Formats/links/5b9a19f2299bf14ad4d6a591/Design-of-a-Configurable-Embedded-Network-Tap-Flow-Generation-using-NetFlow-v9-and-IPFIX-Formats.pdf
- Description: This paper describes the design of a $200 hardware apparatus capable of passively monitoring network transmission at wire speeds of 100Mbit/s and generating NetFlow v9 or IPFIX compliant network flows for a downstream monitoring infrastructure. Testing of the apparatus hardware confirmed no network disruptions regardless of operational or power state while still being capable of correctly monitoring network traffic when configured. System testing under situations of heavy load confirmed apparatus capability at monitoring network traffic and correct generation of network flows compliant with either NetFlow v9 or IPFIX standards.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
E-Government as a Means to Support Communal, Large ICT Infrastructure in Poor Areas
- Authors: Gumbo, Sibukelo , Terzoli, Alfredo , Tsietsi, Mosiuoa
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/431287 , vital:72761 , https://www.academic-bookshop.com/ourshop/prod_5067238-ECEG-2016-Proceedings-of-the-16th-European-Conference-on-eGovernment.html
- Description: Citizen-facing e-Government appears inevitable given current technol-ogy trends, and certainly has many advantages. One overlooked bene-fit, in our opinion, is its potential to make financially viable communal “large ICT” installations, which would diffuse ICT in poor communities where ICT is currently absent.(By “large ICT” we refer to end-user equipment such as desktops or laptops, on which would be possible to produce content, including software. The presence of “large ICT” in a community is critical in our opinion for the empowerment of the commu-nity, especially its younger component.) This paper explores this poten-tial in e-Government, describing a model conceptualized in the Siyakhu-la Living Lab in South Africa and partially implemented, through an inte-gration platform named “TeleWeaver”. The model behind TeleWeaver is an adaptation of the classic Internet business model-whereby users of services do not directly pay for the services they use. This model is especially relevant currently in South Africa, because of the an-nouncement by the government to pilot connecting to the internet gov-ernment facilities, including schools, in eight poor district municipalities.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
Land acquisition for and local livelihood implications of biofuel development in Zimbabwe
- Authors: Thondhlana, Gladman
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: Biomass energy -- Government policy -- Zimbabwe Biomass energy -- Economic aspects -- Zimbabwe Biomass energy -- Environmental aspects -- Zimbabwe
- Language: English
- Type: text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/49940 , vital:25944
- Description: In recent years, proponents of 'green and clean fuel' have argued that the costs of overreliance on fossil fuels could be reduced through transition to biofuels such as bio-ethanol. Global biofuel discourses suggest that any transition to biofuel invariably results in significant benefits, including energy independence, job creation, development of agro-industrial centres at local level and high revenue generations for the state with minimum negative impacts on the environment. With many risks and costs associated with traditional 'dirty' fuels, it is likely that many countries, particularly African countries, will move towards the 'green and clean fuel' alternative. However, until recently research has arguably paid limited attention to the local livelihood impacts related to land acquisition for biofuel development or the policy frameworks required to maximise biofuel benefits. With regards to biofuel benefits, some recent studies suggest that the much bandied potential for greater tax revenue, lowered fuel costs and wealth distribution from biofuel production have all been perverted with relatively little payoff in wage labour opportunities in return (e.g. Richardson, 2010; Wilkinson and Herrera, 2010). Based on work done in Chisumbanje communal lands of Zimbabwe (Thondhlana, 2015), this policy brief highlights the local livelihood impacts of biofuel development and discusses policy implications of the findings. By highlighting the justifications of biofuel development at any cost by the state, the study sheds some light on the conflicts between state interests and local livelihood needs.
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- Date Issued: 2016
Sha-1 and the strict avalanche criterion
- Authors: Motara, Yusuf, M , Irwin, Barry V W
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/429010 , vital:72553 , https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/7802926
- Description: The Strict Avalanche Criterion (SAC) is a measure of both confusion and diffusion, which are key properties of a cryptographic hash function. This work provides a working definition of the SAC, describes an experimental methodology that can be used to statistically evaluate whether a cryptographic hash meets the SAC, and uses this to investigate the degree to which compression function of the SHA-1 hash meets the SAC. The results (P 0.01) are heartening: SHA-1 closely tracks the SAC after the first 24 rounds, and demonstrates excellent properties of confusion and diffusion throughout.
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- Date Issued: 2016
A review of current DNS TTL practices
- Authors: Van Zyl, Ignus , Rudman, Lauren , Irwin, Barry V W
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/427813 , vital:72464 , https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Barry-Ir-win/publication/327622760_A_review_of_current_DNS_TTL_practices/links/5b9a16e292851c4ba8181b7f/A-review-of-current-DNS-TTL-practices.pdf
- Description: This paper provides insight into legitimate DNS domain Time to Live (TTL) activity captured over two live caching servers from the period January to June 2014. DNS TTL practices are identified and compared between frequently queried domains, with respect to the caching servers. A breakdown of TTL practices by Resource Record type is also given, as well as an analysis on the TTL choices of the most frequent Top Level Domains. An analysis of anomalous TTL values with respect to the gathered data is also presented.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
An investigation into the signals leakage from a smartcard based on different runtime code
- Authors: Frieslaar, Ibraheem , Irwin, Barry V W
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/427845 , vital:72466 , https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ibraheem-Fries-laar/publication/307918229_An_investigation_into_the_signals_leakage_from_a_smartcard_based_on_different_runtime_code/links/57d1996008ae0c0081e04fd5/An-investigation-into-the-signals-leakage-from-a-smartcard-based-on-different-runtime-code.pdf
- Description: This paper investigates the power leakage of a smartcard. It is intended to answer two vital questions: what information is leaked out when different characters are used as output; and does the length of the output affect the amount of the information leaked. The investigation determines that as the length of the output is increased more bus lines are switched from a precharge state to a high state. This is related to the output array in the code increasing its length. Furthermore, this work shows that the output for different characters generates a different pattern. This is due to the fact that various characters needs different amount of bytes to be executed since they have different binary value. Additionally, the information leaked out can be directly linked to the smartcard’s interpreter.
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- Date Issued: 2015
Characterization and analysis of NTP amplification based DDoS attacks
- Authors: Rudman, Lauren , Irwin, Barry V W
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/429285 , vital:72573 , 10.1109/ISSA.2015.7335069
- Description: Network Time Protocol based DDoS attacks saw a lot of popularity throughout 2014. This paper shows the characterization and analysis of two large datasets containing packets from NTP based DDoS attacks captured in South Africa. Using a series of Python based tools, the dataset is analysed according to specific parts of the packet headers. These include the source IP address and Time-to-live (TTL) values. The analysis found the top source addresses and looked at the TTL values observed for each address. These TTL values can be used to calculate the probable operating system or DDoS attack tool used by an attacker. We found that each TTL value seen for an address can indicate the number of hosts attacking the address or indicate minor routing changes. The Time-to-Live values, as a whole, are then analysed to find the total number used throughout each attack. The most frequent TTL values are then found and show that the migratory of them indicate the attackers are using an initial TTL of 255. This value can indicate the use of a certain DDoS tool that creates packets with that exact initial TTL. The TTL values are then put into groups that can show the number of IP addresses a group of hosts are targeting.
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- Date Issued: 2015
Data Centre vulnerabilities physical, logical and trusted entity security
- Authors: Swart, Ignus , Grobler, Marthie , Irwin, Barry V W
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/427859 , vital:72467 , https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ignus-Swart/publication/305442546_Data_Centre_vulnerabilities_physical_logical_trusted_entity_security/links/578f38c108aecbca4cada6bf/Data-Centre-vulnerabilities-physical-logical-trusted-entity-security.pdf
- Description: Data centres are often the hub for a significant number of disparate interconnecting systems. With rapid advances in virtualization, the use of data centres have increased significantly and are set to continue growing. Systems hosted typically serve the data needs for a growing number of organizations ranging from private individuals to mammoth governmental departments. Due to this centralized method of operation, data centres have become a prime target for attackers. These attackers are not only after the data contained in the data centre but often the physical infrastructure the systems run on is the target of attack. Down time resulting from such an attack can affect a wide range of entities and can have severe financial implications for the owners of the data centre. To limit liability strict adherence to standards are prescribed. Technology however develops at a far faster pace than standards and our ability to accurately measure information security has significant hidden caveats. This allows for a situation where the defenders dilemma is exacerbated by information overload, a significant increase in attack surface and reporting tools that show only limited views. This paper investigates the logical and physical security components of a data centre and introduces the notion of third party involvement as an increase in attack surface due to the manner in which data centres typically operate.
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- Date Issued: 2015