Wireless sensor Networks (WSNs) deployed in distributed Internet of Things (IoT) applications should be integrated into the Internet. According to the distributed architecture, sensor nodes measure data, process, exchange information, and perform collaboratively with other sensor nodes and end-users, which can be internal or external to the network. In order to maintain the trustworthy connectivity and the accessibility of distributed IoT, it is important to establish secure links for end-to-end communication with a strong pervasive authentication mechanism. However, due to the resource constraints and heterogeneous characteristics of the devices, traditional authentication and key management schemes are not effective for such applications. This paper proposes a pervasive lightweight authentication and keying mechanism for WSNs in distributed IoT applications, in which the sensor nodes can establish secured links with peer sensor nodes and end-users. The established authentication scheme PAuthKey is based on implicit certificates and it provides application level end-to-end security. A comprehensive description for the scenario based behavior of the protocol is presented. With the performance evaluation and the security analysis, it is justified that the proposed scheme is viable to deploy in the resource constrained WSNs.

The L-band Digital Aeronautical Communications System (LDACS) is a key advancement for next-generation aviation networks, enhancing Communication, Navigation, and Surveillance (CNS) capabilities. It operates with VHF Datalink mode 2 (VDLm2) and features a seamless handover mechanism to maintain uninterrupted communication between aircraft and ground stations (GSs), improving safety and efficiency in air traffic management (ATM). However, LDACS’ handover process encounters significant security risks due to inadequate authentication and key agreement between aircraft and ground station controllers (GSCs) during handovers. This vulnerability threatens communications’ confidentiality, integrity, and authenticity, posing risks to flight safety and sensitive data. Therefore, developing and implementing a robust security framework to protect aviation communications is essential. In response, we have proposed a security solution specifically designed to protect LDACS handovers. Our solution uses a mutual authentication and key agreement mechanism tailored for LDACS handovers, ensuring robust security for all types of handovers, including Intra GSC -Intra Aeronautical Telecommunication Network (ATN), Inter GSC -Intra ATN, and Inter GSC -Inter ATN. Our approach utilizes post-quantum cryptography to protect aviation communication systems against potential post-quantum threats, such as unauthorized access to flight data, interception of communication, and spoofing of aircraft identity. Furthermore, our proposed solution has undergone a thorough informal security analysis to ensure its effectiveness in addressing handover challenges and offering robust protection against various threats. It seamlessly integrates with the LDACS framework, delivering low Bit Error Rate (BER) and latency levels, making it a highly reliable approach in practice.

Cyber Situational Awareness (CSA) is an important element in both cyber security and cyber defence to inform processes and activities on strategic, tactical, and operational level. Furthermore, CSA enables informed decision making. The ongoing digitization and interconnection of previously unconnected components and sectors equally affects the civilian and military sector. In defence, this means that the cyber domain is both a separate military domain as well as a cross-domain and connecting element for the other military domains comprising land, air, sea, and space. Therefore, CSA must support perception, comprehension, and projection of events in the cyber space for persons with different roles and expertise. This paper introduces NEWSROOM, a research initiative to improve technologies, methods, and processes specifically related to CSA in cyber defence. For this purpose, NEWSROOM aims to improve methods for attacker behavior classification, cyber threat intelligence (CTI) collection and interaction, secure information access and sharing, as well as human computer interfaces (HCI) and visualizations to provide persons with different roles and expertise with accurate and easy to comprehend mission- and situation-specific CSA. Eventually, NEWSROOM’s core objective is to enable informed and fast decision-making in stressful situations of military operations. The paper outlines the concept of NEWSROOM and explains how its components can be applied in relevant application scenarios.

The VHF Data Broadcast (VDB) data link is responsible for transmitting Ground Based Augmentation System (GBAS) corrections from the GBAS ground station to the aircraft. Thus, it is a major bottleneck for the evolution and security of GBAS. It provides limited bandwidth, range, only line-of-sight capabilities, and no cyber-security protections for the transmitted data. Overcoming these constraints is required for the future and calls for an alternative data link for GBAS. A promising candidate is the L-band Digital Aeronautical Communications System (LDACS). First demonstrations of secure GBAS over LDACS used the Timed Efficient Stream Loss-tolerant Authentication (TESLA) for broadcast authentication of GBAS data. In flight trials, the concept and support of TESLA secured GBAS via LDACS for GBAS services, supporting category II/III precision approach capabilities, were proven. In this paper, different ways are investigated to further optimize latency and security data overhead for an optimized transmission of TESLA secured GBAS packets via LDACS. Initial evaluations show how promising the different options are, especially in respect of a reduced latency of 55.45 ms compared to previous 632.98 ms. Further, it is shown how the developed concept for secure GBAS can also be applied to secure general broadcast applications over LDACS.

Due to the high mobility behavior in inter-vehicle communications (IVC), packet forwarding among vehicles becomes an important issue. For IVC in a traditional packet forwarding setting, it was observed that the ratio between packets received and the packets transmitted is often very low, sometimes less than 50%. This ratio is highly influenced by the environment, especially by road topologies and obstructions (e.g., buildings or overpasses). Further influences encompass the number of driving vehicles on streets offering burdens for the IVC as well as serving as relay candidates. In order to improve IVC this paper introduces a Vehicular-to-Vehicular Urban Network (V2VUNet) to overcome inevitable obstructions and frequent network changes by selecting the best relay candidate. The V2VUNet implemented was evaluated in an IVC with the focus on three-dimensional road topologies including overpasses with a different number of driving lanes. The result shows that the developed V2VUNet provides about 30% better packet transmission performance compared to traditional packet transmission in IVC.