Tag Archives: Jan Willemson

Cyber Security master’s theses defense in TalTech (May 2024)

The master’s theses defences of the Cybersecurity MSc programme (IVCM) taught jointly by TalTech and the University of Tartu will take place from May 27-29, on-site (TalTech room ICT-315) and over Teams.

27. May
Time: 10:00
Student: Riin Tamme
Title: CLOSED DEFENCE: Estonia’s Public Sector Awareness of Adversary Information Operations
Supervisor: Adrian N. Venables
Reviewer: Rain Ottis

Time: 11:00
Student: Britta Sillaots
Title: Convergence of Hospital and Consumer Wearables, Their Legal Aspects, and Micro Data Sovereignity
Supervisor: Matthew Sorell, Aleksi Kajander
Reviewer: Pavel Tšikul

Time: 11:40
Student: Anna Mandrenko
Title: Analyzing Drone Flight Logs for Forensic Behaviour Reconstruction
Supervisor: Matthew Sorell
Reviewer: Toomas Lepik

PAUSE 40 min

Time: 13:00
Student: Gerd Kukemilk
Title: Design and Implementation of a Configuration Management Database Compatible with ITIL and E-ITS
Supervisor: Toomas Lepik, Thomas Lepik
Reviewer: Olaf Maennel

Time: 13:40
Student: Felix Nicolas Waschke
Title: Forensic Analysis of the Slack Web Application
Supervisor: Pavel Tšikul
Reviewer: Matthew Sorell

Time: 14:20
Student: Valerii Gakh
Title: Performance Comparison of Early Prompt Injection Detection Solutions
Supervisor: Hayretdin Bahsi
Reviewer: Olaf Maennel

Time: 15:00
Student: Martin Mihalovic
Title: Genetic Malware Analysis
Supervisor: Alejandro Guerra Manzanares
Reviewer: Toomas Lepik

28. May
Time: 10:00
Student: Muhammed Erbas
Title: Application of PASTA Threat Modeling to ECDIS in Autonomous Ships for ENhanced COLREG Compliance
Supervisor: Olaf Maennel, Gabor Visky
Reviewer: Dan Heering

Time: 10:40
Student: Janno Jaal
Title: Threat Modeling for AI/ML Based Healthcare Systems
Supervisor: Hayretdin Bahsi
Reviewer: Rehman

Time: 11:20
Student: Hua Zhong
Title: A Deep Learning Solution for Detecting Image-Based Phishing/Spam Emails
Supervisor: Sven Nõmm, Adrian Venables
Reviewer: Andri Riid

PAUSE 40 min

Time: 12:40
Student: Kati Sein
Title: Cybersecurity-related Support Needs and Challenges Incurred by Informal Support: A Study Among Estonian Home USers
Supervisor: Stefan Sütterlin, Tanel Mällo
Reviewer: Kaido Kikkas

Time: 13:20
Student: Nadezda Semjonova
Title: Cybersecurity Culture in Academia: the Case of Tallinn University of Technology
Supervisor: Kaido Kikkas
Reviewer: Ricardo Lugo

Time: 14:00
Student: Joosep Parts
Title: Attack Pattern Assessment of Telepresence Robots in Healthcare Systems Context
Supervisor: Kaido Kikkas, Janika Leoste
Reviewer: Andrew Roberts

Time: 14:40
Student: Helena Jäe
Title: The Evolution of Cyber Conflict on the Example of Estonia, Georgia and Ukraine
Supervisor: Kaido Kikkas
Reviewer: Adrian Venables

29. May
Time: 10:00
Student: Laura Danilas
Title: The Impact of Quantum Technologies on NATO’s Security and Defence Posture
Supervisor: Adrian N. Venables, Joanna Sliwa
Reviewer: Kaido Kikkas

Time: 10:40
Student: Karl Tamberg
Title: Harnessing Large Language Models for Software Vulnerability Detection: A Comprehensive Benchmarking Study
Supervisor: Hayretdin Bahsi
Reviewer: Risto Vaarandi

Time: 11:20
Student: Liam Simonos Warren
Title: Analysis of CDOC 2.0 Protocols in ProVerif
Supervisor: Nikita Snetkov
Reviewer: Ahto Buldas

PAUSE 40 min

Time: 12:40
Student: Taaniel Kraavi
Title: Proving Vote Correctness in the Estonian Internet Voting System
Supervisor: Ahto Buldas, Jan Willemson
Reviewer: Jelizaveta Vakarjuk

Time: 13:20
Student: Leonard Walter
Title: Evaluating the Use of MAQUE Proxies for Achieving DNS Privacy
Supervisor: Shaymaa Khalil, Silver Saks
Reviewer: Risto Vaarandi

Time: 14:00
Student: Diego Del Rio Manzanas
Title: Securing Remote Connectivity: A Systematic Penetration Testing Analysis of a Telepresence Robot
Supervisor: Shaymaa Khalil
Reviewer: Silver Saks

Links:
https://taltech.ee/en/events/masters-thesis-defence-cybersecurity-spring-semester-20232024

Cyber Security master’s theses defense in TalTech (May 2021)

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Cyber Security curriculum MSc theses defences on May 27th 2021 (online):

Time: 10:00
Student: Tarvo Arikas
Title: Streaming event correlation and complex event processing using open-source solutions
Supervisor: Risto Vaarandi
Reviewer: Mauno Pihelgas

Time: 10:40
Student: Janno Arnek
Title: Improving cybersecurity level of Estonian small and medium sized enterprises through coordination with national level
Supervisor: Sille Laks
Reviewer: Anna-Maria Osula

Time: 11:50
Student: Tedel Baca
Title: Critical infrastructure protection in the Republic of Kosovo: A policy-analysis on the protection of electric-energy and water-supply sectors
Supervisor: Mika Kerttunen, Kristine Hovhannisyan
Reviewer: Adrian Venables

Time: 12:30
Student: Risto Kasepuu
Title: Designing an artifact to support cybersecurity policy development in small and medium enterprises
Supervisor: Mika Kerttunen, Andro Kull
Reviewer: Adrian Venables

Time: 13:20
Student: Dariana Khisteva
Title: A proposal of integrating open-source IDS into vessel’s bridge network
Supervisor: Olaf Maennel, Gabor Visky
Reviewer: Risto Vaarandi

Time: 14:00
Student: Stanislav Mekinulashvili
Title: Sniffing encrypted BLE traffic after changing connection parameters, using low-cost hardware that captures only one channel at a time
Supervisor: Olaf Maennel
Reviewer: Toomas Lepik

Time: 14:40
Student: Yazeed Basim Aeadah Alhaddad
Title: Ghost Injection Attack on Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast Equipped Drones Impact on Human Behavior
Supervisor: Erwin Orye
Reviewer: Jaan Priisalu

Cyber Security curriculum MSc theses defences on May 28th 2021 (online):

Time: 10:00
Student: Juan Manuel Delgado Garcia
Title: Forensic Analysis of Privacy-Oriented Cryptocurrency Wallets
Supervisor: Hayretdin Bahsi
Reviewer: Pavel Tsikul

Time: 10:40
Student: Faisal Sumaila
Title: Extraction and Analysis of Forensic Artifacts from Automotive Maintenance Applications
Supervisor: Hayretdin Bahsi
Reviewer: Matthew Sorell

Time: 11:50
Student: Yoshihisa Furushita
Title: Sources of artifacts in video
Supervisor: Matthew Sorell, Pavel Tšikul
Reviewer: Richard Matthews

Time: 12:30
Student: Kärte Pärend
Title: Forensic Traces of Messaging Applications on Android and iOS Mobile Phones
Supervisor: Sten Mäses, Priit Lahesoo
Reviewer: Matthew Sorell

Time: 13:20
Student: Karoliina Koppel
Title: Securing Software Supply-Chain Using OWASP Application Security Verification Standard: A SimplBooks Case Study
Supervisor: Toomas Lepik
Reviewer: Andrew Roberts

Time: 14:00
Student: Rooya Karimnia
Title: Culturally-Sensitive Instructional Design Of A Cybersecurity Awareness Program For High School Students In Iran, Hormozgan
Supervisor: Kaie Maennel, Mahtab Shahin
Reviewer: Stefan Sütterlin

Cyber Security curriculum MSc theses defences on May 31th 2021 (online):

Time: 10:00
Student: Jelizaveta Vakarjuk
Title: Converting a post-quantum signature scheme to a two-party signature scheme
Supervisor: Ahto Buldas, Jan Willemson
Reviewer: Ahto Truu

Time: 10:40
Student: Esteban Josue Ramirez Rojas
Title: Preserving Information’s Integrity and Confidentiality with Blockchain in the Service Supply Chain
Supervisor: Jaan Priisalu, Alex Norta
Reviewer: Nikita Snetkov

Time: 11:50
Student: Ali Ghasempour
Title: HTTP based Network Intrusion Detection System by Using Machine Learning-Based Classifier
Supervisor: Risto Vaarandi, Alejandro Manzanares
Reviewer: Hayretdin Bahsi

Time: 12:30
Student: Mauricio Antonio Duarte Lara
Title: Prototyping A Serious Game On Information Manipulation
Supervisor: Maria Claudia Solarte Vasquez, Adrian Venables
Reviewer: Rain Ottis

Time: 13:20
Student: Madis Männik
Title: Smart meter threat detection based on log analysis
Supervisor: Gabor Visky
Reviewer: Risto Vaarandi

Time: 14:00
Student: Alex Bindevald
Title: Cyber security at schools – challenges, oppurtunities and needs for CTF-solution
Supervisor: Birgy Lorenz
Reviewer: Tiia Sõmer

Cybersecurity related bachelor’s and master’s theses in University of Tartu 2018/2019 (August)

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The defences took place on the last week of August.

Student: Aleksandr Tsõganov (Software Engineering MSc)
Title: Integrating User Identity with Ethereum Smart Contract Wallet
Supervisor: Orlenys López Pintado, Aivo Kalu, Kristjan Kuhi
Reviewer: Fredrik Payman Milani

Student: Rahul Puniani (Innovation and Technology Management MSc)
Title: Conceptualization of a Blockchain Based Voting Ecosystem in Estonia
Supervisor: Fredrik Payman Milani, Mihkel Solvak
Reviewer: Orlenys López Pintado

Student: Indrek Purga (Conversion Master in IT)
Title: Detection of forged PDF documents
Supervisor: Kristjan Krips
Reviewer: Alo Peets

Student: Shahla Atapoor (Computer Science MSc)
Title: On Privacy Preserving Blockchains and zk-SNARKs
Supervisor: Helger Lipmaa, Janno Siim, Karim Baghery
Reviewer: Ivo Kubjas

Student: Mart Simisker (Computer Science MSc)
Title: Security of Health Information Databases
Supervisor: Jan Willemson, Dominique Unruh
Reviewer: Meelis Roos

Links:
https://comserv.cs.ut.ee/ati_thesis/index.php?year=2019
https://www.cs.ut.ee/sites/default/files/www_ut/augusti_kaitsmiste_ajakava_28-08-2019.pdf

Study on the lifecycle of cryptographic algorithms 2017

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This year we have ordered and will publish cryptographic algorithms life cycle report in parts. The first part is now available.

The first and the most important chapter gives overview of the current state of algorithms.

The second chapter writes about the cryptographic side of the last fall ID card crisis. The report describes what happened, what was done and how on the cryptographic side the new solution (elliptic curves) for ID cards works.

The third chapter gives overview of block-chain technologies and in addition provides Estonian-language terminology for block-chain related English terms.

The report has been ordered by RIA and written by Cybernetica researchers Ahto Buldas, Jan Willemson and Arne Ansper.

Links:
https://blog.ria.ee/ria-kruptouuring-id-kaart-ja-plokiahelad/
https://www.ria.ee/public/RIA/kruptograafiliste_algoritmide_elutsukli_uuring_2017.pdf
https://geenius.ee/uudis/nsa-usub-et-eesti-id-kaart-peaks-vastu-pidama-ka-kvantarvuti-runnakule/

Estonian Voting Verification Mechanism Revisited (Again)

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Two papers on the topic. The first:

Abstract: After the Estonian Parliamentary Elections held in 2011, an additional verification mechanism was integrated into the i-voting system in order to resist corrupted voting devices [..] However, the verification phase ends by displaying the cast vote in plain form on the verification device. [..] In this respect, we propose an alternative verification mechanism for the Estonian i-voting system to overcome this vulnerability.

The second:

Abstract: Recently, Muş, Kiraz, Cenk and Sertkaya proposed an improvement over the present Estonian Internet voting vote verification scheme. This paper points to the weaknesses and questionable design choices of the new scheme. We show that the scheme does not fix the vote privacy issue it claims to. It also introduces a way for a malicious voting application to manipulate the vote without being detected by the verification mechanism, hence breaking the cast-as-intended property. In addition, the proposal would seriously harm usability of the Estonian vote verification scheme.

TL;DR: Turkish researchers see a privacy risk in the verification process which lets voter’s mobile device to learn for whom the vote was given. Estonian researchers in the counter paper argue why the proposed improvements do not solve the issue, instead decreasing the security of the scheme.

Links:
https://eprint.iacr.org/2016/1125
https://eprint.iacr.org/2017/081

Case study on Estonian public transportation RFID/NFC card security

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This report talks about security of NFC/RFID cards. It first describes the most widely-used type of cards, MIFARE Classic, and then considers a real-life application, namely Estonian public transportation cards. The communication between a real card reader installed in Tartu bus and a Tallinn public transportation card is eavesdropped and analysed on high level.

The report has been published for the UT course “Research Seminar in Cryptography (MTAT.07.022)”.

Links:
https://courses.cs.ut.ee/MTAT.07.022/2016_fall/uploads/Main/yauhen-report-f16.pdf
https://courses.cs.ut.ee/MTAT.07.022/2016_fall/uploads/Main/jan_project_fall_2016.pdf
http://geenius.ee/uudis/kruptograaf-tallinna-ja-tartu-uhistranspordisusteemid-piisavalt-turvalised/
http://geenius.ee/uudis/tudengid-leidsid-et-tallinna-ja-tartu-uhistranspordikaardid-ebaturvalised/

E-Vote-ID 2016: Improving the verifiability of the Estonian Internet Voting scheme

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Estonian_internet_voting

Abstract. We describe an update of the Estonian Internet Voting scheme targeted towards adding verification capabilities to the central system. We propose measures to ensure the auditability of the correctness of vote decryption and i-ballot box integrity. The latter will be improved to a level where it would be possible to outsource the vote collection process to an untrusted party and later fully verify the correctness of its operations.

The short summary is that I-voting system used for local municipal elections in October 2017 will use ElGamal cryptosystem that can be plugged into mix-net. Currently it is not clear whether the general public will be allowed to verify mix-net inputs and outputs.

Links:
http://research.cyber.ee/~jan/publ/ivxv-evoteid.pdf

Study on the lifecycle of cryptographic algorithms 2016

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cybernetica_ria_crypto_algorithms_report

This study is a natural continuation of three previous studies conducted in 2011, 2013 and 2015. The fourth version of cryptographic algorithms life cycle study published on June 9, has more than 10 authors and has 163 reference source. The 2016 report is the first one in its sequence to be written in English, because the study is unique on a global scale, and the previous versions has been of great international interest.

The foreword of the report has been written by Anto Veldre:

The Dutch DigiNotar case in 2011 demonstrated the hard choices a country faces if a PKI supporting its government’s IT systems is compromised. [..] Therefore, it was decided in 2011 to assemble a scientific task force to analyse the problems and risks that reliance on cryptography is posing on the sustainable functioning of our society.

Among the usual topics in cryptography, there is quite revealing section “Cryptographic protocols over radio connection”. For example, there the authors find that Estonian public transportation cards are vulnerable to various kinds of Denial of Service and cloning attacks:

The transportation cards in Tallinn are built on MIFARE Classic, whereas in Tartu MIFARE Ultralight C cards are used. However, even though both of the cards support cryptographic authentication, this functionality is not used. In both cases, the protocol running between the card and the reader is essentially the same, consisting of transmitting the card’s unique ID and a signature. [..] While this measure prevents unauthorised parties from issuing new cards, it does not stop the card cloning attack. [..] Cloning a card that carries a monthly ticket causes direct financial loss to the transportation service provider and must hence be urgently addressed.

Even though the ID fields of transportation cards are not writeable, other fields may be. This is for example the case with Tartu bus cards that allow e.g. the signature field to be overwritten by a standard app working on a regular NFC-capable smartphone. As a result, the card will become invalid, giving us a potential Denial of Service attack.

The report analyzes different radio frequency card technologies used for physical access control. There are many problems – transparency issues, use of weak cryptography or no cryptography at all. The authors have also interviewed Hardmeier and G4S to study deployment issues. Some of the deployment issues revealed are quite disturbing:

Interview with a company installing NFC-based access control systems revealed that it is common practice to use same keys also in several installations, making e.g. door keys of one company work at the door of another company, too.

Links:
https://www.ria.ee/public/RIA/Cryptographic_Algorithms_Lifecycle_Report_2016.pdf
https://www.ria.ee/ee/eriik-2018-valmis-2016-aasta-kruptograafiliste-algoritmide-elutsukli-uuring.html
https://blog.ria.ee/ria-aastakonverentsi-i-sessiooni-otseblogi/

Log Analysis of Estonian Internet Voting 2013 – 2015

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Conclusions
In this work we developed a systematic data analysis method that can be used to assess the state of an ongoing i-voting and to perform post-election analysis.
The log monitoring solution developed has been a useful tool for detecting software bugs and logging deficiencies, which might not have been otherwise detected.

Although the three elections analyzed in this study were different types of elections, we can see that most of the measured values are similar. Furthermore, taking into account all the observations, we can conclude that in KOV2013, EP2014 and RK2015, no large-scale attack against i-voters was carried out.

Links:
http://eprint.iacr.org/2015/1211.pdf
http://kodu.ut.ee/~arnis/slides_logmon.pdf

E-enabled elections in Estonia: Forum on research and development in 2015

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Estonian_internet_voting

During the first half day, Estonian researchers will present the results of a 3-year scientific project that studied the Estonian flavour of verifiable Internet voting from both technical and social aspects. The second half of the first day will be devoted to the presentation of the development ideas of the Estonian solution. The second day holds additional interventions on the topic of remote online voting and offers brainstorming activity where feedback to the ideas of the first day will be gathered interactively.

Thursday (05.11.2015)
09:00 – 09:30 Registration
09:30 – 09:45 Opening keynote
09:45 – 10:30 Kristjan Vassil “Diffusion of Internet Voting in Estonia”
10:30 – 11:15 Mihkel Solvak “Impact of Verification on Trust toward Internet Voting”
11:15 – 11:45 Coffee break
11:45 – 12:15 Taavi Unt “Usage Patterns in Internet Voting Log Files”
12:15 – 13:45 Jan Willemson, Sven Heiberg and Arnis Paršovs “Log analysis of Estonian Internet
voting 2013-2015”
14:00 – 15:00 Lunch
16:00 – Coffee break
15:00 – 17:30 Tarvi Martens, Sven Heiberg and Jan Willemson “Estonian Internet voting 2017+”

Friday (06.11.2015)
10:00 – 10:30 Bingsheng Zhang “How to Achieve Unconditional Integrity in an End-to-end Verifiable E
voting System”
10:30 – 11:00 Kristjan Gjøsteen “A security usability study on the Norwegian e-voting system”
11:00 – 11:30 Carsten Schürmann “Creating Credible Elections”
11:30 – 12:00 Coffee break
12:00 – 12:30 Jurlind Budurushi “An Investigation into the Usability of Electronic Voting Systems with
Paper Audit Trails in the Context of Complex Elections”
12:30 – 13:00 Helger Lipmaa “Privacy and Accountability in Networks via Optimized Randomized Mixnets”
13:00 – 13:30 Filip Zagorski “Improving security of remote voting”
13:30 – 14:30 Lunch
15:00 – Coffee break
14:30 – 17:00 Argument game

Links:
http://cyber.ee/en/news/e-enabled-elections-in-estonia-forum-on-research-and-development-in-2015/