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The paper presents the evaluation of the dependability performances of a real On-Board Communication System of a Metro train centered on the application of RAMSAS, a recently but promising model-based method for the reliability analysis... more
The paper presents the evaluation of the dependability performances of a real On-Board Communication System of a Metro train centered on the application of RAMSAS, a recently but promising model-based method for the reliability analysis of systems through Simulation. In particular, after the description of the On-Board Communication System under consideration, of its dependability requirements, and related performance indicators to be evaluated, a SysML-based model of the structure and behavior of the system is presented. Beside the nominal system behavior, specific dysfunctional tasks, able to alter the intended behavior of the system, are introduced in order not only to evaluate through Simulation system dependability performances but also to compare different design choices and parameters settings against the requirements.
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For the reliability analysis of modern large-scale systems new techniques centered on model-based approaches are emerging. Benefitting from the avail ble modeling practices these techniques incorporate the use of simulation to flexibly... more
For the reliability analysis of modern large-scale systems new techniques centered on model-based approaches are emerging. Benefitting from the avail ble modeling practices these techniques incorporate the use of simulation to flexibly evaluate the system relia bility indices and compare different design choices. In th is context, RAMSAS, a model-based method which supports the reliability analysis of systems throug h simulation, has been recently proposed. This paper ims at further evaluating the effectiveness and suitabi l y of RAMSAS through a real case study concerning the reliability analysis of an Attitude Determination a nd Control System (ADCS) of a satellite.
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Current challenges, such as climate change or military conflicts, show the great importance of urban supply infrastructures. In this context, an open question is how different scenarios and crises can be studied in silico to assess the... more
Current challenges, such as climate change or military conflicts, show the great importance of urban supply infrastructures. In this context, an open question is how different scenarios and crises can be studied in silico to assess the interaction between the needs of social systems and technical infrastructures. Agent-based modeling is a suitable method for this purpose. This review investigates (i) how agent-based models of residential water demand should be validated, (ii) how such models are commonly built and (iii) validated, and (iv) how these validation practices compare to the recommendations drawn from question (i). Therefore, a systematic literature review using the PRISMA framework is conducted. Out of 207 screened papers, 35 models are identified with an emphasis on highly realistic models (i.e., highly detailed and representing specific real-world systems) for planning, management, and policy of urban water resources. While some models are thoroughly validated, quantifi...
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Abdelaziz Kriouile Abdelaziz Mamouni Abdelaziz Mamouni Abdelaziz Marzak Abdelfattah Haidine Abdelghafour Harraz Abdelhak Aqqal Abdelkabir Lahrech Abdelkader Rhouati Abdellah Ezzati Abdellah Ezzati Abdellah Touhafi Abdellah Touhafi... more
Abdelaziz Kriouile Abdelaziz Mamouni Abdelaziz Mamouni Abdelaziz Marzak Abdelfattah Haidine Abdelghafour Harraz Abdelhak Aqqal Abdelkabir Lahrech Abdelkader Rhouati Abdellah Ezzati Abdellah Ezzati Abdellah Touhafi Abdellah Touhafi Abdellatif EI Afia Abdellatif EI Afia Abdellatif EI Afia Abdellatif Elghazi Abdelouahed Abounada Abderrahim Beni-Hssane Abderrahim Tahiri Abdessamad Malaoui Abdesselam Bougdira Authors' index
Compliance analysis is an important step for the security management process of systems. It aims at both increasing service quality and reducing service vulnerabilities by exploiting security mechanisms able to improve the fulfillment of... more
Compliance analysis is an important step for the security management process of systems. It aims at both increasing service quality and reducing service vulnerabilities by exploiting security mechanisms able to improve the fulfillment of requirements whose failure may cause direct and indirect costs, related to the existence of missed normative provisions, risk of loss of certifications, and increased probability and impact of security incidents. Due to the increasing in system complexity there are hundreds of requirements that must be observed simultaneously and satisfied. As a consequence, the need for innovative approaches centered on effective solutions able to support the evaluation and the validation of requirements and constraints over the time is today greater than ever. In this context, the paper proposes a method for supporting the compliance assessment of services, in respect of norms and regulations, exploitable both in design phase or during the operation of existing services supported by (semi-)automatic tools. The effectiveness of the method is then tested through a case study taken from the experience of the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) of Poste Italiane, concerning the compliance assessment of an Electronic Payment Service by credit card.
Research Interests: Computer Science and Acm
Research Interests: Computer Science and IEEE
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In the Risk Analysis domain an increasing interest has been gaining by the System Risk Analysis that aims at investigating the risk deriving by the interdependence of the system under consideration by other systems and, in general, by the... more
In the Risk Analysis domain an increasing interest has been gaining by the System Risk Analysis that aims at investigating the risk deriving by the interdependence of the system under consideration by other systems and, in general, by the interactions among them. Indeed, an adverse event occurring in a certain system can cause negative effects on the other interconnected systems and compromise their operation. An effective analysis of the Systemic Risk requires suitable methods and techniques able to handle the high level of complexity typical of Systems and Systems characterized by several interconnected, distributed, autonomous and changing components. In this context, the paper proposes a method for Systemic Risk Analysis that combines a Goal-Oriented Methodology for Requirement Modeling (GOReM) with a Model-Based method for System Dependability Analysis (RAMSoS). Such combination enables the modeling and the evaluation of Systemic Risk scenarios by using agent-based simulations and the complementary quantitative evaluation of performance indices through Bayesian Networks. A concrete exploitation of the proposed approach to Systemic Risk Analysis in the cyber-security domain is also presented1.
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Smart Grids (SGs) are Critical Infrastructures (CI), which are responsible for controlling and maintaining the distribution of electricity. To manage this task, modern SGs integrate an Information and Communication Infrastructure (ICT)... more
Smart Grids (SGs) are Critical Infrastructures (CI), which are responsible for controlling and maintaining the distribution of electricity. To manage this task, modern SGs integrate an Information and Communication Infrastructure (ICT) beside the electrical power grid. Aside from the benefits derived from the increasing control and management capabilities offered by the ICT, unfortunately the introduction of this cyber layer provides an attractive attack surface for hackers. As a consequence, security becomes a fundamental prerequisite to be fulfilled. In this context, the adoption of Systems Engineering (SE) tools combined with Modeling and Simulation (M&S) techniques represent a promising solution to support the evaluation process of a SG during early design stages. In particular, the paper investigates on the identification, modeling and assessment of attacks in SG environments, by proposing a model for representing attack scenarios as a combination of attack types, attack schema and their temporal occurrence. Simulation techniques are exploited to enable the execution of such attack combinations in the SG domain. Specifically, a simulator, which allows to assess the SG behaviour to identify possible flaws and provide preventive actions before its realization, is developed on the basis of the proposed model and exemplified through a case study.
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This paper presents the practical exploitation of a goal-oriented methodology for requirements specification, called GOReM, for an application scenario involving the development of a cloud service offering a functionality of compliance... more
This paper presents the practical exploitation of a goal-oriented methodology for requirements specification, called GOReM, for an application scenario involving the development of a cloud service offering a functionality of compliance analysis in the business model of Security as a Service (SecaaS). The requirements specification for this scenario emerged as a real need inside a large industrial project on the field of Cyber Security. GOReM has allowed to achieve in a lean, yet accurate, way the analysis of such a complex scenario, where non-functional requirements, coming from rules and regulations in force in different countries, complicate the handling of a cloud service which might be usable worldwide.
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System safety is an important aspect of System Dependability which should be taken in consideration during the whole system lifecycle. However, often systems are built by considering mainly their functional aspects and safety requirements... more
System safety is an important aspect of System Dependability which should be taken in consideration during the whole system lifecycle. However, often systems are built by considering mainly their functional aspects and safety requirements are verified and validated in the latest stages of the development process. For this reason and due to the deep integration of modern systems in the daily life of people, regulatory standards have been defined and have to be applied during the development of critical systems to guarantee a minimum and acceptable level of safety. In this context, the paper proposes a model-driven process, inspired by ISO-26262, which provides a methodological support for the verification and validation of safety requirements. In particular, the proposed framework combines model-driven engineering tools and techniques with OpenModelica, an equation based simulation environment based on the Modelica language. The proposal is experimented through a case study concernin...
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Internet-based communication systems have become an increasing tool for spreading misinformation and propaganda. Though mechanisms adept in tracking unwarranted information and messages exist, users have devised different methods to avoid... more
Internet-based communication systems have become an increasing tool for spreading misinformation and propaganda. Though mechanisms adept in tracking unwarranted information and messages exist, users have devised different methods to avoid scrutiny and detection. One of such method is the use of mixed-code language. Mixed code is text written in an unconventional form combining different languages, symbols, scripts and shapes, with the aim to make it difficult to detect due to its custom approach and its ever changing aspects. Utilizing special characters to substitute for alphabets, which makes it readable to humans but nonsensical to machine. The intuition is that a substituted alphabet should resemble the shape of the intended alphabet. In this context, the paper explores the possibility of identifying such mixed code texts with special characters by proposing an approach to normalize them and determine if it contains propaganda elements. As a consequence, a tailored algorithm in ...
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The dependability analysis is crucial for a wide range of systems. It becomes even more difficult to assess when dealing with cyber-physical systems (CPSs), being resulting as an integration of physical and cyber parts, strongly... more
The dependability analysis is crucial for a wide range of systems. It becomes even more difficult to assess when dealing with cyber-physical systems (CPSs), being resulting as an integration of physical and cyber parts, strongly interacting to provide a service or a function. In this context, the dependability analysis of a Deicing System (DS), which aims at preventing or decreasing the ice accretion on safety critical components of the aircraft, is experimented by exploiting the RAMSAS method, i.e. a novel model-based method to support the dependability analysis of systems. It allows the evaluation of dysfunctional behaviors of systems, through some available modeling practices combined with simulation techniques. Specifically, this paper aims at virtually assessing the design process of the DS by flexibly evaluating its performances, in terms dependability indices, through the exploitation of RAMSAS. Furthermore, it supports the engineers to compare different design choices as wel...
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The modeling of system requirements deals with formally expressing constraints and requirements that have an impact on the behavior of the system to enable their verification through real or simulated experiments. The need for models... more
The modeling of system requirements deals with formally expressing constraints and requirements that have an impact on the behavior of the system to enable their verification through real or simulated experiments. The need for models representing system requirements as well as for methods and techniques centered on model-based approaches able to support the modeling, evaluation, and validation of requirements and constraints along with their traceability is today greater than ever. In this context, this paper proposes a meta-model for modeling the requirements of physical systems. Furthermore, different approaches for integrating the modeling of system requirements in the Modelica language and their verification during the simulation are proposed and, then, evaluated and compared through a case study.
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Social media represent one of the most popular online tools to spread and exchange formal and informal information based on specific human interests, habits and purposes. As they are free, easy to use and widely adopted, criminals... more
Social media represent one of the most popular online tools to spread and exchange formal and informal information based on specific human interests, habits and purposes. As they are free, easy to use and widely adopted, criminals commonly exploit them to quickly disseminate information and propaganda, to recruit people and so on. Due to the vast usage and breadth of topics discussed on them, it is not trivial to identify criminals abusing of social media for their purposes. Machine learning techniques have already shown benefits in classification problems in different application domains. As a consequence, a trained classifier for the identification of potential malicious users on these platforms would represent a desirable solution. In this perspective, this work explores the possibility of using data which are extracted from public personal features in order to identify potential terrorists on social media, by showing current limits. To this aim, a public dataset on known terrorist's details is combined with a manually collected dataset of public Facebook profiles. The adopted approach is presented and then the data-related issues, which emerged from this experience, are discussed1.
The paper presents PROCE (PROcess Composition and execution Environment), an agent-based CAME and CASE tool which supports the composition of software development processes, based on the Method Engineering paradigm, and their execution.... more
The paper presents PROCE (PROcess Composition and execution Environment), an agent-based CAME and CASE tool which supports the composition of software development processes, based on the Method Engineering paradigm, and their execution. In particular, the current release of PROCE provides an integrated and flexible environment for the design of SOA applications. Keywords-Multi Agent System; Method Engineering; Method Fragment; Service Oriented Architecture; Services Composition.
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The process of designing and evaluating distributed Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) is not a trivial task. There are many challenges to tackle such as managing distributed resources, enabling communication between components, and choosing... more
The process of designing and evaluating distributed Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) is not a trivial task. There are many challenges to tackle such as managing distributed resources, enabling communication between components, and choosing performance metrics to evaluate the “goodness” of the system. Smart Grids (SGs) are prominent representatives of CPSs, a particular type of Critical Infrastructure (CI), whose organizational model is becoming more distributed and dynamic. Due to this paradigm shift, new control and management mechanisms need to be identified and tested to guarantee uninterrupted operation. However, novel approaches cannot always be tested against real networks as the economic cost and risk can be high. In contrast, modeling and simulation techniques are viable evaluation mechanisms that support the continuous evolution of CIs. In this paper, we present an Open Source time-discrete simulation software, called HOLEG, that models and evaluates SGs. The software is based...
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The analysis of energy data of electrical devices in Smart Homes (SHs) represents an important factor for the decision-making process of energy management both from the consumer perspective by saving money and also in terms of energy... more
The analysis of energy data of electrical devices in Smart Homes (SHs) represents an important factor for the decision-making process of energy management both from the consumer perspective by saving money and also in terms of energy redistribution and CO\(_{2}\) emissions reduction, by knowing how the energy demand of a building is composed in the Smart Grid (SG). A proactive monitoring and control mechanism motivates the need to face with the identification of appliances. In this context, the paper proposes a model for the automatic identification of electrical devices driven by 19 features that are formalized through a mathematical notation. On the basis of such proposed features, three different classifiers are trained and experimented, by evaluating their accuracy, for the identification of 33 types of appliances.
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Energy grids and critical infrastructures in general undergo drastic changes. Specifically, energy grids evolve from centrally managed hierarchical networks with central production to locally supplied Smart Grids with distributed... more
Energy grids and critical infrastructures in general undergo drastic changes. Specifically, energy grids evolve from centrally managed hierarchical networks with central production to locally supplied Smart Grids with distributed management. Therefore, information and communication technology (ICT) is added to these critical infrastructures. Thus, they become vulnerable to new attack vectors introduced by ICT. New methods and processes cannot be tested in real networks as such test are expensive and risk the proper function of the critical infrastructures. Existing simulation software either does not take ICT attacks into account or is designed too general with a lot of abstraction loss. In this paper, we present a time-discrete simulation environment that enables the simulation of smart grid ICT components. Moreover, attacks can be modeled and can be injected into the simulation. With the help of our simulation environment, system designers can evaluate the behaviour in the presenc...
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Terrorist Networks (TNs) and Organized Crime (OC) are nowadays an increasing threat in the modern society. Due to the strong adoption of the IT technology, an emergent phenomenon is represented by the exploitation of social media, such as... more
Terrorist Networks (TNs) and Organized Crime (OC) are nowadays an increasing threat in the modern society. Due to the strong adoption of the IT technology, an emergent phenomenon is represented by the exploitation of social media, such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube to disseminate and promote illegal activities, recruit terrorists and establish collaborations. The traditional approaches and countermeasures against cyber-crimes result inadequate in the cyber-space. In this context, the paper proposes an engineering method, centered on three main phases, to support the analysis of suspicious users on social media related to OC and TNs. It is based on the exploitation and extension of social network analysis approaches combined with well-known clustering techniques and association rules. It aims to identify similarities as well as groups of users associated to specific illegal activities such as drugs, weapons and human trafficking. Moreover, it supports the identification process of le...
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Performing Fault Tree Analysis of a Modelica-Based System Design Through a Probability Model
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Smart Grids (SGs) are electrical power grid infrastructures that aim at managing both cyber and physical resources and provide efficient energy routing. The cyber part of the system encompasses computing and networking resources, whereas... more
Smart Grids (SGs) are electrical power grid infrastructures that aim at managing both cyber and physical resources and provide efficient energy routing. The cyber part of the system encompasses computing and networking resources, whereas the physical part faces with mechanical and electrical processes. Due to the strong integration and interaction among cyber modules and physical components, the complexity of SGs is increasing. As a consequence, the fulfillment of cyber and physical requirements becomes even more complicated. For example, resilience is an important non-functional requirement that has to be guaranteed. It represents the ability of a system to provide an acceptable level of service under degraded conditions. To achieve that, the adoption of innovative systems engineering tools represent a feasible solution. In this paper, a recent approach based on Properties Modeling (PM) is exploited. Through PM is possible to evaluate cross-information from the Smart Grid to increase the network resilience so as to prevent system damage and, as a consequence, reduce the loss of money. Beyond validating the correctness of the system under specific conditions, properties can also be used to identify anomalies resulting from component interactions or external factors. In this context, some important properties exploitable for monitoring SGs are identified and presented. Furthermore, a Smart Grid Simulator, which allows to execute these properties, has been developed and used to show the effectiveness of properties through a simple case study.
Modeling and Simulation methods, tools and techniques aim at supporting the different phases of the lifecycle of modern systems, going from requirements analysis to system design and operation. However, their effective application... more
Modeling and Simulation methods, tools and techniques aim at supporting the different phases of the lifecycle of modern systems, going from requirements analysis to system design and operation. However, their effective application requires investigating several aspects such as the formal modeling of system requirements and the binding and automated composition between heterogeneous models (e.g. requirements models, architectural models, behavioral models). In this context, the paper presents a new formal requirement modeling language based on temporal logic, called FORM-L, and a software library, based on the Modelica language, that implements the constructs provided by FORM-L so as to enable the visual modeling of system properties as well as their verification through simulation. The effectiveness of the proposal is shown on a real case study concerning an Intermediate Cooling System.
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Organized Crime (OC) and Terrorist Networks (TN) have risen to major and persistent threats for the European Union and its population. The IT growth of the past decade caused a migration of OC/TN to the cyber domain as well as the... more
Organized Crime (OC) and Terrorist Networks (TN) have risen to major and persistent threats for the European Union and its population. The IT growth of the past decade caused a migration of OC/TN to the cyber domain as well as the introduction of cybercrime. As a consequence, the technological dimensions of criminal activities are becoming more relevant and challenges ranging from the identification of criminal activities up to the understanding of engagement processes, are even more complicated. In this context, this paper aims to provide a discussion on OC and TN by pointing out organizational models, similarities, distinguishing features and differences in terms of their objectives. Furthermore, the main issues and available categories of solutions, in terms of models, methods and software tools are described. Finally, the importance of innovative digital and non-digital solutions is discussed as well as the current research directions are highlighted.
The Service-Oriented paradigm, which conceives software resources as discoverable services available on a network, is proving an effective approach for providing business solutions in distributed and heterogeneous computing environments.... more
The Service-Oriented paradigm, which conceives software resources as discoverable services available on a network, is proving an effective approach for providing business solutions in distributed and heterogeneous computing environments. However, due to the different and numerous issues to face, it is witnessing a growing interest in the use of methodologies suitable for supporting the development of service-oriented applications. The paper proposes an approach, centered on the Method Engineering paradigm, which enables the definition of new methodologies tailored to address specific issues arising in developing of service-oriented applications through the exploitation of fragments of methodologies existing and experimented. In particular, it is shown how to obtain, through composition of method fragments, a complete process which covers from requirements specification to testing of service-oriented applications. The complete definition of a method fragment (MF-Web Services Builder)...
Requirements elicitation and analysis is the basis for the successful development of a Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS). The misunderstanding of one or more requirements, due to different skills and knowledge between stakeholders and... more
Requirements elicitation and analysis is the basis for the successful development of a Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS). The misunderstanding of one or more requirements, due to different skills and knowledge between stakeholders and engineers, could com-promise the success of an entire project with harmful consequences. Usually, agreements on the system to be delivered and related expected results are based on textual requirements with a big lack of not being computationally verifiable and difficult to trace. To this purpose, the employment of innovative engineering tools for supporting the modeling and the verification of system requirements represent a viable solution. In this context, the pa-per proposes the exploitation of a Properties Modeling (PM) approach combined with Simulation techniques as Design-by-Contract method for CPS. In particular, PM is adopted for sup-porting the definition and the representation of system requirements and constrains as computable entities, whereas ...
Recently, due to the increasing complexity and wider adoption of heterogeneous systems, the management of security properties, vulnerabilities and risks of systems by integrating and structuring existing components, is becoming more and... more
Recently, due to the increasing complexity and wider adoption of heterogeneous systems, the management of security properties, vulnerabilities and risks of systems by integrating and structuring existing components, is becoming more and more crucial. A particular aspect to be considered is the Risk Analysis and, specifically, the analysis of the Systemic Risk. This risk derives from the interdependence of the system under consideration, from services provided by other systems and, in general, from the interactions among them. In fact, it may happen that an adverse event, which occurs at a certain system that is not properly controlled, can cause dangerous effects that, through its propagation to other interconnected systems, would/could compromise their operation. Thus, suitable engineering approaches need to be exploited to prevent and manage the risks arising from the integration of system components so as to increase the security of systems, data and even human life. In this cont...
Resilience is an important system property that relies on the ability of a system to automatically recover from a degraded state so as to continue providing its services. Resilient systems have the means of detecting faults and failures... more
Resilience is an important system property that relies on the ability of a system to automatically recover from a degraded state so as to continue providing its services. Resilient systems have the means of detecting faults and failures with the added capability of automatically restoring their normal operations. Mastering resilience in the domain of Cyber-Physical Systems is challenging due to the interdependence of hybrid hardware and software components, along with physical limitations, laws, regulations and standards, among others. In order to overcome these challenges, this paper presents a modeling approach, based on the concept of Dynamic Cells, tailored to the management of Smart Grids. Additionally, a heuristic algorithm that works on top of the proposed modeling approach, to find resilient configurations, has been defined and implemented. More specifically, the model supports a flexible representation of Smart Grids and the algorithm is able to manage, at different abstra...
The electrical grid is transitioning towards a so-called Smart Grid (SG), which facilitates advanced management and control mechanisms through the integration of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) but also introduces novel... more
The electrical grid is transitioning towards a so-called Smart Grid (SG), which facilitates advanced management and control mechanisms through the integration of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) but also introduces novel challenges resulting from cyber-physical interdependencies. Therefore, this transition requires a transformation of the system's structure and control mechanisms to meet the requirements for future SGs. However, examining and thoroughly testing those novel approaches is mandatory to enable a safe and smooth system change. These tests need to be conducted in a safe environment to avoid system failures, which may result in monetary losses and ultimately threaten human lives. Modeling and simulation is an established technique for testing and evaluating critical systems in a safe environment. Therefore, the paper aims at providing an overview of current modeling and simulation tools related to future SGs, by presenting them alongside challenges for si...
The paper presents RAMSAS4Modelica, a method for supporting the Dependability Analysis of systems centered on the Modelica language and related tools. RAMSAS4Modelica is the result of a redefinition of the four main phases of the RAMSAS... more
The paper presents RAMSAS4Modelica, a method for supporting the Dependability Analysis of systems centered on the Modelica language and related tools. RAMSAS4Modelica is the result of a redefinition of the four main phases of the RAMSAS method as well as of their activities and related work-products. Moreover, new activities have been introduced so to benefit of some proposed extensions to the Modelica language. These enhancements allow not only the modeling of dependability requirements but also their traceability and verification by combing Simulation with classical analysis techniques. Indeed, starting from a Modelica-based system design, such extensions also enable the generation of Fault Tree Diagrams for performing Fault Tree Analysis. The paper exemplifies these distinctive features of RAMSAS4Modelica through a case study concerning a Tank System.
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The life of an individual is characterized by daily activities such as going to the office or to school, working, doing sport. Alongside them, unpleasant situations related to criminal events, such as to be robbed, can take place. In this... more
The life of an individual is characterized by daily activities such as going to the office or to school, working, doing sport. Alongside them, unpleasant situations related to criminal events, such as to be robbed, can take place. In this cases, it is difficult to ask for help or to contact the authorities about the ongoing criminal situation. In this context, on the basis of the behavior related to the human physical status, it is possible to exploit specific data, in order to extract relevant information that characterizes danger situations. Based on such idea, a model centered on three main aspects related to the human body posture, level of stress and geolocation, is proposed. The experimentation is based on a smartphone and a smartwatch, as they support both the data extraction its local computation centered on machine learning techniques. The paper presents the proposed approach along with a first evaluation.
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The exploitation of Internet technology represents for terrorists and criminals a convenient means for establishing and advertising illegal activities. Especially, social networks facilitate new collaborations as well as the spreading of... more
The exploitation of Internet technology represents for terrorists and criminals a convenient means for establishing and advertising illegal activities. Especially, social networks facilitate new collaborations as well as the spreading of information with a lower risk of being exposed and fetched. Indeed, due to the increasing number of social media and the huge amount of data continuously generated from them, the discovering process of cyber-criminals is a hard task to be performed by the Law Enforcement Agencies and Police Forces if only based on traditional approaches. It becomes even harder if the heterogeneous nature of data, due to multi-cultural aspects, such as the variety of languages, is considered during the searching process. As a consequence, the adoption of a computer-based approach represents a viable solution. In particular, this paper aims at supporting the automatic identification process of potential online suspicious users, who act on social media. A methodologica...
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Internet-based communication systems have become an increasing tool for spreading misinformation and propaganda. Even though there exist mechanisms that are able to track unwarranted information and messages, users made up different ways... more
Internet-based communication systems have become an increasing tool for spreading misinformation and propaganda. Even though there exist mechanisms that are able to track unwarranted information and messages, users made up different ways to avoid their scrutiny and detection. An example is represented by the mixed-code language, that is text written in an unconventional form by combining different languages, symbols, scripts and shapes. It aims to make more difficult the detection of specific content, due to its custom and ever changing appearance, by using special characters to substitute for alphabet letters. Indeed, such substitute combinations of symbols, which tries to resemble the shape of the intended alphabet’s letter, makes it still intuitively readable to humans, however nonsensical to machines. In this context, the paper explores the possibility of identifying propaganda in such mixed-code texts over the Internet, centred on a machine learning based approach. In particula...
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The occurrence of criminal and terrorist activities is one of the biggest problems which is afflicting the current society. Indeed, criminal events are both hard to predict and difficult to handle once they take place. The classic methods... more
The occurrence of criminal and terrorist activities is one of the biggest problems which is afflicting the current society. Indeed, criminal events are both hard to predict and difficult to handle once they take place. The classic methods applied by Police Forces (PFs) and Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) are in fact not effective, in terms of time management, communication and countermeasures, because of gaps among the occurrence of the criminal event, its identification and the intervention of the PFs for its management. In this regard, this paper proposes a solution which aims to enhance the communication and collaboration among citizens and police forces. It is based on an IoT app which exploits the edge computing approach to face with the above mentioned gaps. In particular, the proposed model as well as the algorithm, along with their main features, are described. The operation logic is then exemplified through the implementation of a simulator that shows its functioning.
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The Internet provides a borderless environment to interact and communicate with each other, not only for legitimate purposes but also to spread radicalization, propaganda, brainwashing and for online recruitment. Due to the large amount... more
The Internet provides a borderless environment to interact and communicate with each other, not only for legitimate purposes but also to spread radicalization, propaganda, brainwashing and for online recruitment. Due to the large amount of daily data generated, and especially the different levels of radicalization of the users, make it difficult to define countermeasures against such phenomenon. In this context, the paper introduces the concepts of using a pyramidal model, to support the detection of terrorist propaganda, as well as its categorization by allocating it to different level of radicalization. After the description of the model, the main advantages in terms of intervention prioritization and application of targeted countermeasures are discussed.
Cellular Energy Grids represent one of the most recent operational concepts for building smart energy grids. However, due to the complexity of those systems, their design and evaluation is not a trivial task. In this context, the paper... more
Cellular Energy Grids represent one of the most recent operational concepts for building smart energy grids. However, due to the complexity of those systems, their design and evaluation is not a trivial task. In this context, the paper aims to identify and discuss factors that are already available in the planning phase of a network and have a strong impact on its overall service quality. On the basis of such factors, a specific service quality indicator is defined to enable the comparison of different cellular grids. The experimentation of that indicator is then contextually shown through its application on various network configurations.
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The use of IT technology for the planning and implementation of illegal activities has been gaining ground in recent years. Nowadays, through the web and the social media, it is possible not only to divulge advertising for the disclosure... more
The use of IT technology for the planning and implementation of illegal activities has been gaining ground in recent years. Nowadays, through the web and the social media, it is possible not only to divulge advertising for the disclosure of illicit activities, but also to take action that in the past needed to have people in place and at the moment the activity took place. In fact, this phenomenon allows criminals to be less exposed to the risk of being discovered. Furthermore, the technology tends to encourage international collaborations, which makes the process of identifying illegal activities even more complex because of the lack of adequate tools that can operate effectively by considering multi-cultural aspects. Consequently, this evolving phenomenon towards cyber-crime requires new models and analysis techniques to address these challenges. In this context, the paper proposes an approach based on a multi-language model that aims to support the identification of suspicious users on social networks. It exploits the effectiveness of web translation services along with specific stand-alone libraries for normalizing user profiles in a common language. In addition, different text analysis techniques are combined for supporting the user profiles evaluation. The proposed approach is exemplified through a case study by analyzing Twitter users profile by showing step by step the overall process and related results.
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The increasing complexity of cyber-physical systems (CPSs) makes their design, development and operation extremely challenging. Due to the nature of CPS that involves many heterogeneous components, which are often designed and developed... more
The increasing complexity of cyber-physical systems (CPSs) makes their design, development and operation extremely challenging. Due to the nature of CPS that involves many heterogeneous components, which are often designed and developed by organizations belonging to different engineering domains, it is difficult to manage, trace and verify their properties, requirements and constraints throughout their lifecycle by using classical techniques. In this context, the paper presents an integrated solution to formally define system requirements and automate their verification through simulation. The solution is based on the FOrmal Requirements Modeling Language and the Modelica language. The solution is exemplified through two case studies concerning a Trailing-Edge High-Lift system and a Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning system.