Aine MacDermott

Dr. Aine MacDermott

orcid

Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

14Years (2013-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

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27 February 2019 in IEEE Internet of Things Journal
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
AAAnuoluwapo A. Adewuyi
Anuoluwapo A. Adewuyi
HCHui Cheng
Hui Cheng
QSQi Shi
Qi Shi
JCJiannong Cao
Jiannong Cao
Aine MacDermottAine MacDermott
Aine MacDermott
XWXingwei Wang
Xingwei Wang
Security through trust presents a viable solution for threat management in the Internet of Things (IoT). Currently, a well-defined trust management framework for collaborative applications on the IoT platform does not exist. In order to estimate reliably the trust values of nodes within a system, the trust should be measured by suitable parameters that are based on the nodes' functional properties in the application context. Existing models do not clearly outline the parametrization of trust. Also, trust decay is inadequately modeled in most current models. In addition, trust recommendations are usually inaccurately weighted with respect to previous trust, thereby increasing the effect of bad recommendations. A new model, CTRUST, is proposed to resolve these shortcomings. In CTRUST, trust is accurately parametrized while recommendations are evaluated through belief functions. The effects of trust decay and maturity on the trust evaluation process were studied. Each trust component is neatly modeled by appropriate mathematical functions. CTRUST was implemented in a collaborative download application and its performance was evaluated based on the utility derived and its trust accuracy, convergence, and resiliency. The results indicate that IoT collaborative applications based on CTRUST gain a significant improvement in performance, in terms of efficiency and security.

1 February 2018
Verified
Conference Paper
Closed access
Aine MacDermottAine MacDermott
Aine MacDermott
Thar BakerThar Baker
Thar Baker
QSQi Shi
Qi Shi
Challenges for IoT-based forensic investigations include the increasing amount of objects of forensic interest, relevance of identified and collected devices, blurry network boundaries, and edgeless networks. As we look ahead to a world of expanding ubiquitous computing, the challenge of forensic processes such as data acquisition (logical and physical) and extraction and analysis of data grows in this space. Containing an IoT breach is increasingly challenging - evidence is no longer restricted to a PC or mobile device, but can be found in vehicles, RFID cards, and smart devices. Through the combination of cloud-native forensics with client-side forensics (forensics for companion devices), we can study and develop the connection to support practical digital investigations and tackle emerging challenges in digital forensics. With the IoT bringing investigative complexity, this enhances challenges for the Internet of Anything (IoA) era. IoA brings anything and everything "online" in a connectedness that generates an explosion of connected devices, from fridges, cars and drones, to smart swarms, smart grids and intelligent buildings. Research to identify methods for performing IoT-based digital forensic analysis is essential. The long-term goal is the development of digital forensic standards that can be used as part of overall IoT and IoA security and aid IoT-based investigations.

26 February 2019 in Software: Practice and Experience
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
PDF file
Thar BakerThar Baker
Thar Baker
MAMuhammad Asim
Muhammad Asim
Aine MacDermottAine MacDermott
Aine MacDermott
FIFarkhund Iqbal
Farkhund Iqbal
FKFaouzi Kamoun
Faouzi Kamoun
Mohammad HammoudehMohammad Hammoudeh
Mohammad Hammoudeh
Summary: The rapid proliferation of Internet of things (IoT) devices, such as smart meters and water valves, into industrial critical infrastructures and control systems has put stringent performance and scalability requirements on modern Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems. While cloud computing has enabled modern SCADA systems to cope with the increasing amount of data generated by sensors, actuators, and control devices, there has been a growing interest recently to deploy edge data centers in fog architectures to secure low‐latency and enhanced security for mission‐critical data. However, fog security and privacy for SCADA‐based IoT critical infrastructures remains an under‐researched area. To address this challenge, this contribution proposes a novel security “toolbox” to reinforce the integrity, security, and privacy of SCADA‐based IoT critical infrastructure at the fog layer. The toolbox incorporates a key feature: a cryptographic‐based access approach to the cloud services using identity‐based cryptography and signature schemes at the fog layer. We present the implementation details of a prototype for our proposed secure fog‐based platform and provide performance evaluation results to demonstrate the appropriateness of the proposed platform in a real‐world scenario. These results can pave the way toward the development of a more secure and trusted SCADA‐based IoT critical infrastructure, which is essential to counter cyber threats against next‐generation critical infrastructure and industrial control systems. The results from the experiments demonstrate a superior performance of the secure fog‐based platform, which is around 2.8 seconds when adding five virtual machines (VMs), 3.2 seconds when adding 10 VMs, and 112 seconds when adding 1000 VMs, compared to the multilevel user access control platform.

14 September 2022 in Computers & Security
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
MMMichal Motylinski
Michal Motylinski
Aine MacDermottAine MacDermott
Aine MacDermott
FIFarkhund Iqbal
Farkhund Iqbal
BSBabar Shah
Babar Shah

1 January 2021 in International Journal of Digital Crime and Forensics
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
PDF file
KAKhalifa Al-Room
Khalifa Al-Room
FIFarkhund Iqbal
Farkhund Iqbal
Thar BakerThar Baker
Thar Baker
BSBabar Shah
Babar Shah
BYBenjamin Yankson
Benjamin Yankson
PHPatrick C. K. Hung
Patrick C. K. Hung
Drones (a.k.a. unmanned aerial vehicles – UAV) have become a societal norm in our daily lives. The ability of drones capture high-quality photos from an aerial view and store and transmit such data presents a multi-facet problem. These actions possess privacy challenges to innocent users who can be spied on or drone owner's data which may be intercepted by a hacker. With all technological paradigms, utilities can be misused, and this is an increasing occurrence with drones. As a result, it is imperative to develop a novel methodological approach for the digital forensic analysis of a seized drone. This paper investigates six brands of drones commonly used in criminal activities and extracts forensically relevant data such as location information, captured images and videos, drones' flight paths, and data related to the ownership of the confiscated drone. The experimental results indicate that drone forensics would facilitate law enforcement in collecting significant information necessary for criminal investigations.

1 June 2019
Verified
Conference Paper
Closed access
Aine MacDermottAine MacDermott
Aine MacDermott
SLStephen Lea
Stephen Lea
FIFarkhund Iqbal
Farkhund Iqbal
IIIbrahim Idowu
Ibrahim Idowu
BSBabar Shah
Babar Shah
Wearable technology has been on an exponential rise and shows no signs of slowing down. One category of wearable technology is Fitness bands, which have the potential to show a user's activity levels and location data. Such information stored in fitness bands is just the beginning of a long trail of evidence fitness bands can store, which represents a huge opportunity to digital forensic practitioners. On the surface of recent work and research in this area, there does not appear to be any similar work that has already taken place on fitness bands and particularly, the devices in this study, a Garmin Forerunner 110, a Fitbit Charge HR and a Generic low-cost HETP fitness tracker. In this paper, we present our analysis of these devices for any possible digital evidence in a forensically sound manner, identifying files of interest and location data on the device. Data accuracy and validity of the evidence is shown, as a test run scenario wearing all of the devices allowed for data comparison analysis.