arXiv subjects

Valerio Formicola

Publications and source records attributed to Valerio Formicola.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2022

Software-defined Dynamic 5G Network Slice Management for Industrial Internet of Things

This paper addresses the challenges of delivering fine-grained Quality of Service (QoS) and communication determinism over 5G wireless networks for real-time and autonomous needs of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) applications while effectively sharing network resources. Specifically, this work presents DANSM, a software-defined, dynamic and autonomous network slice management middleware for 5G-based IIoT use cases, such as adaptive robotic repair. Empirical studies evaluating DANSM on our testbed comprising a Free5GC-based core and UERANSIM-based simulations reveal that the software-defined DANSM solution can efficiently balance the traffic load in the data plane thereby reducing the end-to-end response time and improve the service performance by completing 34% more subtasks than a Modified Greedy Algorithm (MGA), 64% more subtasks than First Fit Descending (FFD) and 22% more subtasks than Best Fit Descending (BFD) approaches all while minimizing operational costs.

cs.NI↗

arXiv2019

ICSrange: A Simulation-based Cyber Range Platform for Industrial Control Systems

Maintenance staff of Industrial Control Systems (ICS) is generally not aware about information technologies, and even less about cyber security problems. The scary impact of cyber attacks in the industrial world calls for tools to train defensive skills and test effective security measures. Cyber range offers this opportunity, but current research is lacking cost-effective solutions verticalized for the industrial domain. This work proposes ICSrange, a simulation-based cyber range platform for Industrial Control Systems. ICSrange adopts Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) technologies to virtualize an enterprise network connected to Industrial Control Systems. ICSrange is the outcome of a preliminary study intended to investigate challenges and opportunities to build a configurable and extensible cyber range with simulated industrial processes. Literature shows that testbeds based on realistic mock-ups are effectively employed to develop complex exploits like Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs), hence motivating their usage to train and test security in ICS. We prove the effectiveness of ICSrange through the execution of a multi-staged attack that breaches an enterprise network and progressively intrudes a simulated ICS with water tanks. The attack mimics lateral movements as observed in APTs.

cs.CR↗

arXiv2019

Understanding Fault Scenarios and Impacts through Fault Injection Experiments in Cielo

We present a set of fault injection experiments performed on the ACES (LANL/SNL) Cray XE supercomputer Cielo. We use this experimental campaign to improve the understanding of failure causes and propagation that we observed in the field failure data analysis of NCSA's Blue Waters. We use the data collected from the logs and from network performance counter data 1) to characterize the fault-error-failure sequence and recovery mechanisms in the Gemini network and in the Cray compute nodes, 2) to understand the impact of failures on the system and the user applications at different scale, and 3) to identify and recreate fault scenarios that induce unrecoverable failures, in order to create new tests for system and application design. The faults were injected through special input commands to bring down network links, directional connections, nodes, and blades. We present extensions that will be needed to apply our methodologies of injection and analysis to the Cray XC (Aries) systems.

cs.DC↗

arXiv2014

Closing the loop of SIEM analysis to Secure Critical Infrastructures

Critical Infrastructure Protection is one of the main challenges of last years. Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) systems are widely used for coping with this challenge. However, they currently present several limitations that have to be overcome. In this paper we propose an enhanced SIEM system in which we have introduced novel components to i) enable multiple layer data analysis; ii) resolve conflicts among security policies, and discover unauthorized data paths in such a way to be able to reconfigure network devices. Furthermore, the system is enriched by a Resilient Event Storage that ensures integrity and unforgeability of events stored.

cs.CR↗

arXiv2014

Critical Infrastructure Protection: having SIEM technology cope with network heterogeneity

Coordinated and targeted cyber-attacks to Critical Infrastructures (CIs) are becoming more and more frequent and sophisticated. This is due to: i) the recent technology shift towards Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) products, and ii) new economical and socio-political motivations. In this paper, we discuss some of the most relevant security issues resulting from the adoption in CIs of heterogeneous network infrastructures (specifically combining wireless and IP trunks), and suggest techniques to detect, as well as to counter/mitigate attacks. We claim that techniques such as those we propose here should be integrated in future SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) solutions, and we discuss how we have done so in the EC-funded MASSIF project, with respect to a real-world CI scenario, specifically a distributed system for power grid monitoring.

cs.CR↗