Fatima Al-Quayed^*

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.86, No.1, pp. 1-16, 2026, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2025.069102 - 10 November 2025

Abstract Due to the growth of smart cities, many real-time systems have been developed to support smart cities using Internet of Things (IoT) and emerging technologies. They are formulated to collect the data for environment monitoring and automate the communication process. In recent decades, researchers have made many efforts to propose autonomous systems for manipulating network data and providing on-time responses in critical operations. However, the widespread use of IoT devices in resource-constrained applications and mobile sensor networks introduces significant research challenges for cybersecurity. These systems are vulnerable to a variety of cyberattacks, including unauthorized access,… More >

Jizhao Liu, Yuanyuan Shao^*, Shuqin Zhang, Fangfang Shan, Jun Li

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.86, No.1, pp. 1-20, 2026, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2025.068998 - 10 November 2025

Abstract Lateral movement represents the most covert and critical phase of Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs), and its detection still faces two primary challenges: sample scarcity and “cold start” of new entities. To address these challenges, we propose an Uncertainty-Driven Graph Embedding-Enhanced Lateral Movement Detection framework (UGEA-LMD). First, the framework employs event-level incremental encoding on a continuous-time graph to capture fine-grained behavioral evolution, enabling newly appearing nodes to retain temporal contextual awareness even in the absence of historical interactions and thereby fundamentally mitigating the cold-start problem. Second, in the embedding space, we model the dependency structure among… More >

Tae-hyeon Yun¹, Moohong Min^2,*

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.145, No.2, pp. 2707-2731, 2025, DOI:10.32604/cmes.2025.072357 - 26 November 2025

Abstract The dynamic, heterogeneous nature of Edge computing in the Internet of Things (Edge-IoT) and Industrial IoT (IIoT) networks brings unique and evolving cybersecurity challenges. This study maps cyber threats in Edge-IoT/IIoT environments to the Adversarial Tactics, Techniques, and Common Knowledge (ATT&CK) framework by MITRE and introduces a lightweight, data-driven scoring model that enables rapid identification and prioritization of attacks. Inspired by the Factor Analysis of Information Risk model, our proposed scoring model integrates four key metrics: Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS)-based severity scoring, Cyber Kill Chain–based difficulty estimation, Deep Neural Networks-driven detection scoring, and frequency… More >

Boniface Wambui^1,*, Margaret Mwinji¹, Hellen Nyambura²

Journal of Cyber Security, Vol.7, pp. 463-482, 2025, DOI:10.32604/jcs.2025.069444 - 23 October 2025

Abstract As universities rapidly embrace digital transformation, their growing dependence on interconnected systems for academic, research, and administrative operations has significantly heightened their exposure to sophisticated cyber threats. Traditional defenses such as firewalls and signature-based intrusion detection systems have proven inadequate against evolving attacks like malware, phishing, ransomware, and advanced persistent threats (APTs). This growing complexity necessitates intelligent, adaptive, and anticipatory cybersecurity strategies. Artificial Intelligence (AI) offers a transformative approach by enabling automated threat detection, anomaly identification, and real-time incident response. This study sought to design and evaluate an AI-driven cybersecurity framework specifically for university networks… More >

Inam Ullah Khan¹, Fida Muhammad Khan^1,*, Zeeshan Ali Haider¹, Fahad Alturise^2,*

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.85, No.3, pp. 4307-4344, 2025, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2025.070189 - 23 October 2025

Abstract The rapid expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT) has introduced significant security challenges due to the scale, complexity, and heterogeneity of interconnected devices. The current traditional centralized security models are deemed irrelevant in dealing with these threats, especially in decentralized applications where the IoT devices may at times operate on minimal resources. The emergence of new technologies, including Artificial Intelligence (AI), blockchain, edge computing, and Zero-Trust-Architecture (ZTA), is offering potential solutions as it helps with additional threat detection, data integrity, and system resilience in real-time. AI offers sophisticated anomaly detection and prediction analytics, and… More >

Abrar M. Alajlan^1,*, Marwah M. Almasri²

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.85, No.3, pp. 5237-5262, 2025, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2025.066736 - 23 October 2025

Abstract Cyber-Physical Systems integrated with information technologies introduce vulnerabilities that extend beyond traditional cyber threats. Attackers can non-invasively manipulate sensors and spoof controllers, which in turn increases the autonomy of the system. Even though the focus on protecting against sensor attacks increases, there is still uncertainty about the optimal timing for attack detection. Existing systems often struggle to manage the trade-off between latency and false alarm rate, leading to inefficiencies in real-time anomaly detection. This paper presents a framework designed to monitor, predict, and control dynamic systems with a particular emphasis on detecting and adapting to… More >

Victor Otieno Mony^*, Anselemo Peters Ikoha, Roselida O. Maroko

Journal of Cyber Security, Vol.7, pp. 395-415, 2025, DOI:10.32604/jcs.2025.070952 - 30 September 2025

Abstract The widespread adoption of Cloud-Based Services has significantly increased the surface area for cyber threats, particularly targeting authentication mechanisms, which remain among the most vulnerable components of cloud security. This study aimed to address these challenges by developing and evaluating an Intelligent Zero Trust Architecture model tailored to mitigate authentication-related threats in Cloud-Based Services environments. Data was sourced from public repositories, including Kaggle and the National Institute for Standards and Technology MITRE Corporation’s Adversarial Tactics, Techniques, & Common Knowledge (ATT&CK) framework. The study utilized two trust signals: Behavioral targeting system users and Contextual targeting system… More >

Alsoudi Dua¹, Tan Fong Ang¹, Chin Soon Ku^2,*, Okmi Mohammed^1,3, Yu Luo⁴, Jiahui Chen⁴, Uzair Aslam Bhatti⁵, Lip Yee Por^1,*

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.85, No.2, pp. 2579-2624, 2025, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2025.070413 - 23 September 2025

Abstract Blockchain interoperability enables seamless communication and asset transfer across isolated permissioned blockchain systems, but it introduces significant security and privacy vulnerabilities. This review aims to systematically assess the security and privacy landscape of interoperability protocols for permissioned blockchains, identifying key properties, attack vectors, and countermeasures. Using PRISMA 2020 guidelines, we analysed 56 peer-reviewed studies published between 2020 and 2025, retrieved from Scopus, ScienceDirect, Web of Science, and IEEE Xplore. The review focused on interoperability protocols for permissioned blockchains with security and privacy analyses, including only English-language journal articles and conference proceedings. Risk of bias in… More >

Asrar Mahboob¹, Muhammad Rashad¹, Ghulam Abbas¹, Zohaib Mushtaq², Tehseen Mazhar^3,*, Ateeq Ur Rehman^4,*

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.85, No.2, pp. 3805-3823, 2025, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2025.067615 - 23 September 2025

Abstract This paper presents a novel blockchain-embedded cybersecurity framework for industrial solar power systems, integrating immutable machine learning (ML) with distributed ledger technology. Our contribution focused on three factors, Quantum-resistant feature engineering using the UNSW-NB15 dataset adapted for solar infrastructure anomalies. An enhanced Light Gradient Boosting Machine (LightGBM) classifier with blockchain-validated decision thresholds, and A cryptographic proof-of-threat (PoT) consensus mechanism for cyber attack verification. The proposed Immutable LightGBM model with majority voting and cryptographic feature encoding achieves 96.9% detection accuracy with 0.97 weighted average of precision, recall and F1-score, outperforming conventional intrusion detection systems (IDSs) by… More >

Junzhe Cheng^*

Journal of Cyber Security, Vol.7, pp. 343-357, 2025, DOI:10.32604/jcs.2025.067979 - 22 September 2025

Abstract We present a novel Transformer-based network intrusion detection system (IDS) that automatically learns complex feature relationships from raw traffic. Our architecture embeds both categorical (e.g., protocol, flag) and numerical (e.g., packet count, duration) inputs into a unified latent space with positional encodings, and processes them through multi-layer multi-head self-attention blocks. The Transformer’s global attention enables the IDS to capture subtle, long-range correlations in the data (e.g., coordinated multi-step attacks) without manual feature engineering. We complement the model with extensive data augmentation (SMOTE, GANs) to mitigate class imbalance and improve robustness. In evaluation on benchmark datasets… More >