Fatima Al-Quayed^*

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.146, No.1, 2026, DOI:10.32604/cmes.2025.074799 - 29 January 2026

Abstract The rapid proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices in critical healthcare infrastructure has introduced significant security and privacy challenges that demand innovative, distributed architectural solutions. This paper proposes FE-ACS (Fog-Edge Adaptive Cybersecurity System), a novel hierarchical security framework that intelligently distributes AI-powered anomaly detection algorithms across edge, fog, and cloud layers to optimize security efficacy, latency, and privacy. Our comprehensive evaluation demonstrates that FE-ACS achieves superior detection performance with an AUC-ROC of 0.985 and an F1-score of 0.923, while maintaining significantly lower end-to-end latency (18.7 ms) compared to cloud-centric (152.3 ms) and fog-only (34.5… More >

Sajid Ali¹, Qazi Mazhar Ul Haq^1,2,*, Ala Saleh Alluhaidan^3,*, Muhammad Shahid Anwar⁴, Sadique Ahmad⁵, Leila Jamel³

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.146, No.1, 2026, DOI:10.32604/cmes.2026.074395 - 29 January 2026

Abstract Spam emails remain one of the most persistent threats to digital communication, necessitating effective detection solutions that safeguard both individuals and organisations. We propose a spam email classification framework that uses Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) for contextual feature extraction and a multiple-window Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) for classification. To identify semantic nuances in email content, BERT embeddings are used, and CNN filters extract discriminative n-gram patterns at various levels of detail, enabling accurate spam identification. The proposed model outperformed Word2Vec-based baselines on a sample of 5728 labelled emails, achieving an accuracy of 98.69%, More >

Kwabena Owusu-Mensah^*, Edward Danso Ansong , Kofi Sarpong Adu-Manu, Winfred Yaokumah

Journal of Cyber Security, Vol.8, pp. 33-92, 2026, DOI:10.32604/jcs.2026.074265 - 20 January 2026

Abstract The rapid growth of digital payment systems and remote financial services has led to a significant increase in Card-Not-Present (CNP) fraud, which is now the primary source of card-related losses worldwide. Traditional rule-based fraud detection methods are becoming insufficient due to several challenges, including data imbalance, concept drift, privacy concerns, and limited interpretability. In response to these issues, a systematic review of twenty-four CNP fraud detection frameworks developed between 2014 and 2025 was conducted. This review aimed to identify the technologies, strategies, and design considerations necessary for adaptive solutions that align with evolving regulatory standards.… More >

Fatemeh Ahmadi Abkenari^*, Melika Zandi, Shanmugapriya Gopalakrishnan

Journal of Cyber Security, Vol.8, pp. 93-109, 2026, DOI:10.32604/jcs.2026.074197 - 20 January 2026

Abstract Nowadays, cyberattacks are considered a significant threat not only to the reputation of organizations through the theft of customers’ data or reducing operational throughput, but also to their data ownership and the safety and security of their operations. In recent decades, machine learning techniques have been widely employed in cybersecurity research to detect various types of cyberattacks. In the domain of cybersecurity data, and especially in Trojan detection datasets, it is common for datasets to record multiple statistical measures for a single concept. We referred to them as SWMF features in this paper, which include… More >

Sushruta Mishra¹, Sunil Kumar Mohapatra², Kshira Sagar Sahoo³, Anand Nayyar⁴, Tae-Kyung Kim^5,*

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.86, No.3, 2026, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2025.072493 - 12 January 2026

Abstract With an increase in internet-connected devices and a dependency on online services, the threat of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks has become a significant concern in cybersecurity. The proposed system follows a multi-step process, beginning with the collection of datasets from different edge devices and network nodes. To verify its effectiveness, experiments were conducted using the CICDoS2017, NSL-KDD, and CICIDS benchmark datasets alongside other existing models. Recursive feature elimination (RFE) with random forest is used to select features from the CICDDoS2019 dataset, on which a BiLSTM model is trained on local nodes. Local models… More >

Yunhao Yu¹, Boda Zhang¹, Meiling Dizha¹, Ruibin Wen¹, Fuhua Luo¹, Xiang Guo¹, Zhenyong Zhang^2,*

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.86, No.2, pp. 1-19, 2026, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2025.070577 - 09 December 2025

Abstract Load frequency control (LFC) is a critical function to balance the power consumption and generation. The grid frequency is a crucial indicator for maintaining balance. However, the widely used information and communication infrastructure for LFC increases the risk of being attacked by malicious actors. The dynamic load altering attack (DLAA) is a typical attack that can destabilize the power system, causing the grid frequency to deviate from its nominal value. Therefore, in this paper, we mathematically analyze the impact of DLAA on the stability of the grid frequency and propose the network parameter regulation (NPR)… More >

Kirubavathi Ganapathiyappan^1,*, Kiruba Marimuthu Eswaramoorthy¹, Abi Thangamuthu Shanthamani¹, Aksaya Venugopal¹, Asita Pon Bhavya Iyyappan¹, Thilaga Manickam¹, Ateeq Ur Rehman^2,*, Habib Hamam^3,4,5,6

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.86, No.2, pp. 1-31, 2026, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2025.070067 - 09 December 2025

Abstract The growing use of Portable Document Format (PDF) files across various sectors such as education, government, and business has inadvertently turned them into a major target for cyberattacks. Cybercriminals take advantage of the inherent flexibility and layered structure of PDFs to inject malicious content, often employing advanced obfuscation techniques to evade detection by traditional signature-based security systems. These conventional methods are no longer adequate, especially against sophisticated threats like zero-day exploits and polymorphic malware. In response to these challenges, this study introduces a machine learning-based detection framework specifically designed to combat such threats. Central to… More >

Kirubavathi Ganapathiyappan¹, Heba G. Mohamed², Abhishek Yadav¹, Guru Akshya Chinnaswamy¹, Ateeq Ur Rehman^3,*, Habib Hamam^4,5,6,7

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.86, No.2, pp. 1-18, 2026, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2025.069951 - 09 December 2025

Abstract The escalating complexity of modern malware continues to undermine the effectiveness of traditional signature-based detection techniques, which are often unable to adapt to rapidly evolving attack patterns. To address these challenges, this study proposes X-MalNet, a lightweight Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) framework designed for static malware classification through image-based representations of binary executables. By converting malware binaries into grayscale images, the model extracts distinctive structural and texture-level features that signify malicious intent, thereby eliminating the dependence on manual feature engineering or dynamic behavioral analysis. Built upon a modified AlexNet architecture, X-MalNet employs transfer learning to… More >

Abeer Alhuzali^1,*, Qamar Al-Qahtani¹, Asmaa Niyazi¹, Lama Alshehri¹, Fatemah Alharbi²

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.86, No.1, pp. 1-19, 2026, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2025.069491 - 10 November 2025

Abstract The surge in smishing attacks underscores the urgent need for robust, real-time detection systems powered by advanced deep learning models. This paper introduces PhishNet, a novel ensemble learning framework that integrates transformer-based models (RoBERTa) and large language models (LLMs) (GPT-OSS 120B, LLaMA3.3 70B, and Qwen3 32B) to enhance smishing detection performance significantly. To mitigate class imbalance, we apply synthetic data augmentation using T5 and leverage various text preprocessing techniques. Our system employs a dual-layer voting mechanism: weighted majority voting among LLMs and a final ensemble vote to classify messages as ham, spam, or smishing. Experimental More >

Md Shohel Rana^1,2,3,4,*, Tonmoy Ghosh³, Mohammad Nur Nobi⁵, Anichur Rahman^1,6,*, Andrew H. Sung⁴

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.86, No.1, pp. 1-38, 2026, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2025.069212 - 10 November 2025

Abstract Zero-click attacks represent an advanced cybersecurity threat, capable of compromising devices without user interaction. High-profile examples such as Pegasus, Simjacker, Bluebugging, and Bluesnarfing exploit hidden vulnerabilities in software and communication protocols to silently gain access, exfiltrate data, and enable long-term surveillance. Their stealth and ability to evade traditional defenses make detection and mitigation highly challenging. This paper addresses these threats by systematically mapping the tactics and techniques of zero-click attacks using the MITRE ATT&CK framework, a widely adopted standard for modeling adversarial behavior. Through this mapping, we categorize real-world attack vectors and better understand how… More >