Saudi Cultural Missions Theses & Dissertations
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Item Restricted The combined application of force under Article 2(4) and Article 51 of the United Nations Charter for cyber warfare: Examining and learning lessons from the Iranian cyber warfare threat to Saudi Arabia(Lancaster University, 2023-03) Alhamdan,Monirah; Sweeney, James; Easton, CathrienThis thesis is written by MONIRAH FAHAD ALHAMDAN on the combined application of force under Article 2(4) and Article 51 of the United Nations Charter for cyber warfare: Examining and learning lessons from the Iranian cyber warfare threat to Saudi Arabia. In the absence of formal international legal regulation on cyber warfare and cyber-attacks, countries must apply the traditional rules for determining whether an armed conflict exists (jus ad bellum) to this new type of conflict. Nonetheless, applying jus ad bellum norms to this issue is a very controversial matter. Article 2(4) of the UN Charter prohibits using force between states, whereas Article 51 makes an exception for self-defence against an armed attack. To what extent can these Articles be applied to prevent and punish the source of cyber operations? This and other questions will be discussed in this study. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) clarified the use of force in the Nicaragua case. Also, it recognised the right of self-defence in customary international law. Moreover, the present study is timely and significant because of the increased number of ‘cyber operations’ influencing other states, such as in the long-lasting regional struggle for power between Saudi Arabia and Iran. That regional struggle will provide the backdrop to this thesis, although global examples will also be examined. Also, to understand its responsibility and scope of cyber-attacks, this research will attempt to assess the lawfulness of the Security Council to authorize the use of cyber weapons as a tool to maintain peace and security in the world. This body of research will furthermore look into the jus ad bellum norms in Traditional Islamic Rules in a cyber-context. Moreover, it will help researchers do further research in applying international law norms to cyber operations. This thesis undertakes a robust doctrinal analysis of the existing exalt in this field and proposes some future developments. This thesis will not use measurements of quantity and amounts as its essential tools but instead a qualitative method.11 0Item Restricted Assessing Security, Accessibility, Usability, and Privacy Attributes Of Virtual Banking in Saudi Arabia(University of Warwick, 2023-12-06) Alsadir, Mohammed; Azad, MohammedIn this study, the integration of technological advancements in the banking sector was explored, with a specific focus on the development and implementation of virtual banking applications. These applications, designed to provide banking services through digital platforms, were examined in the context of their adoption in Saudi Arabia, which has been comparatively slower. This observation led to the conduct of this research, aiming to understand the cybersecurity landscape within the Saudi Arabian virtual banking sector. The primary objective of the study was to assess critical aspects such as security, privacy, accessibility, and usability of these virtual banking applications. To address the identified gap in existing literature, primary data was collected directly from users of virtual banking in Saudi Arabia. This data collection was conducted through a questionnaire survey, utilizing Qualtrics as the online data collection channel.31 0Item Restricted Employees awareness assessment of cyber security in Saudi universities Case Study on Taif university(Saudi Digital Library, 2023-11-14) Almaliki, Abdulrahman Abdulrazak; Safari, SolmazThis research aimed to bolster cybersecurity awareness among Taif University's employees through a designed website and evaluate its efficacy using a questionnaire. Initially, a specialised website was conceptualised, designed, and implemented to enhance awareness about cybersecurity amongst the staff. This is done while utilising the System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) for a structured approach. The website provided resources relevant to cybersecurity challenges faced by the employees which allow flexible and paced learning. An online questionnaire was administered to 93 staff members to collect feedback on the website and gather data on their cybersecurity awareness levels. The online format was selected for its cost-effectiveness, efficiency and the ability to reach a larger audience which is mainly important in a post-pandemic environment where remote methods are favoured. The questionnaire which is designed on Google Forms consisted of Twenty-one close-ended items including demographic queries and questions related to cybersecurity awareness and items were measured by using a 5-point Likert scale and multiple-choice format. The sampling involved a convenience method with participants selected for their availability and willingness to participate. Nonetheless, the results provided thoughts into the staff's cybersecurity awareness levels and the designed website's effectiveness. As such, this research is perceived as a foundation for future research and practice in the field.30 0Item Restricted Educate employees working in critical departments of public and private establishments in Saudi Arabia about cyber security(Saudi Digital Library, 2023-10-03) ALluqmani, Ammar; Setzer, AntonThis project sought to enhance cybersecurity awareness among employees working for various government and private sector organizations through an interactive web-based application. Centered on supporting immediate learning, the platform offers educational materials, quizzes, and up-to-date news, and users are required to complete a quiz upon login. If users answer incorrectly, they are redirected to pertinent resources to promote continuous learning. An emergency login bypass is provided once monthly, and stringent security measures, such as robust password policies and two-factor authentication, are instituted. The backend utilizes PHP Laravel, chosen for its swift development capabilities, structured file organization, and extensive community support benefits. Additionally, Laravel’s Jetstream and Livewire frameworks expedite built-in component integration and authentication. The frontend leverages Tailwind CSS for flexibility. After designing the website, the platform was evaluated by critical department workers in the Saudi Arabian public sector via a survey. The platform received predominantly positive feedback, which negated the need for further alterations. Through using such platform, employees will refine their knowledge about cybersecurity threats which is necessary to save various important governmental departments and private establishments from online threats30 0Item Restricted Enhancing Network Intrusion Detection using Hybrid Machine Learning and Deep Learning Approaches: A Comparative Analysis with the HIKARI-2021 Dataset(Saudi Digital Library, 2023-11-09) Alkhanani, Doaa; Batten, IanThis thesis presents an in-depth analysis of machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) methodologies for network intrusion detection, utilizing the HIKARI-2021 dataset. By leveraging models such as Random Forest, XG Boost, LSTM, and GRU, the study aimed to identify and classify malicious activities within network traffic. The models' performance was assessed primarily based on accuracy, as well as confusion matrix evaluations. Preliminary results indicate Random Forest achieved an accuracy of 93.77%, XG Boost attained 93.02%, LSTM reached 92.48%, and GRU reported 92.50%. These results were then compared to benchmark models from the literature, which achieved accuracies ranging from 98% to 99%. Through this comparative analysis, the research emphasizes the strengths, weaknesses, and the potential of each model in real-world scenarios. Notably, while the employed models showcased commendable performance, benchmark models exhibited slightly superior results, suggesting further room for model optimization and feature engineering. This research offers valuable insights into the evolving landscape of network security and sets the stage for further exploration in enhancing intrusion detection mechanisms.79 0Item Restricted The Impact of Internal Threats on Saudi Arabia Government and Companies(Saudi Digital Library, 2023-11-01) Alshammari, Saddam; Rezaeifar, ZeinabThe government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is very interested in its cyber security, spending significant amounts of money on protecting its data and attracting cyber security experts to face the challenges and violations that are increasing daily. The Kingdom has achieved great superiority in protecting its data against external attacks and has responded to them successfully, in addition to being one of the most prominent countries around the world that has achieved high ranks in innovations in programs, methods and solutions that have contributed to enhancing cyber security in the Kingdom. However, the most severe violations that affected the government and companies of Saudi Arabia were due to internal threats through employees or contractors, which is not what often comes to mind. Nevertheless, Detection of internal threats is complex because it is not only related to the use of technology but depends on people and their motives and different ways to carry out attacks, which makes technical solutions insufficient to address this dilemma. In this work, we focus on studying the psychological and behavioral factors that fuel the motives for executing internal attacks. We measure the impact of these attacks on critical systems and financial losses in Saudi Arabia. Additionally, we will discuss how Saudi Arabia addressed these threats.29 0Item Restricted Examining Adversarial Examples as Defensive Approach Against Web Fingerprinting Attacks(Saudi Digital Library, 2023) Alzamil, Layla; Elahi, TariqIn the age of online surveillance, and the growth in privacy and security concerns for individuals activities over the internet. Tor browser is a widely used anonymisation network offering security and privacy-enhanced features to protect users online. However, web fingerprinting attacks (WF) have been a challenging threat that aims to deanonymise users browsing activities over Tor. This interdisciplinary project contributes to defending against WF attacks by employing the “attack-on-attack” approach, where Adversarial Examples (AEs) attacks are launched to exploit existing vulnerabilities in the neural network architecture. The FGSM and DeepFool construction methods are implemented to introduce perturbed data to these models and lead them to misclassify, significantly decreasing the classifier prediction accuracy.15 0Item Restricted The Critical Success Factors for Security Education, Training and Awareness (SETA) Programme Effectiveness: A Lifecycle Model(0022-09-30) Alyami, Areej Nasser; Sammon, David; Neville, Karen; Mahony, CarolanneSecurity Education, Training, and Awareness (SETA) programmes are one of the most important cybersecurity strategies to protect the valuable assets of any organisation, raise awareness, change behaviour, comply with Information Systems (IS) security policy, and minimises IS security threats. The significance of SETA programmes is widely accepted by both academics and practitioners. However, more research is needed to improve SETA programme effectiveness in organisations. A review of the relevant IS/cyber security literature reveals a lack of research into the Critical Success Factors (CSFs) for SETA programme effectiveness. Therefore, this research study explores the CSFs for SETA programme effectiveness. A multi-stage research design is adopted for this research study. Stage One involves the gathering and analysis of lived experiences (using semi-structured interviews) from 20 key expert informants. Emerging from this stage are 11 CSFs for SETA programme effectiveness. These CSFs are mapped along the phases of the SETA programme lifecycle (design, development, implementation, evaluation). Furthermore, 9 relationships between these CFSs are identified (both within and across the lifecycle phases). This research output is a Lifecycle Model of CSFs for SETA programme effectiveness. Stage Two of this research involves an evaluation of the importance of the 11 CSFs for SETA programme effectiveness (emerging from stage one). This evaluation is achieved through administering a short online survey questionnaire (completed by 65 respondents - IS/cyber security professionals) and a series of follow-up probing interviews (with 9 IS/cyber security professionals – 4 key informants for stage one, and 5 survey respondents for stage two). Emerging from this stage is a ranked list of CSFs and 5 guiding principles to overcome the challenges of delivering an effective SETA programme. This research output is an evaluated Lifecycle Model of CSFs for SETA programme effectiveness. Overall, this research provides a depth of insight contributing to both theory and practice and lays the foundation for further research.55 0Item Restricted Artificial Immune Systems for Detecting Unknown Malware in the IoT(Queen Mary University of London, 2023-01-27) Alrubayyi, Hadeel; Goteng, Gokop; Jaber, MonaWith the expansion of the digital world, the number of the Internet of Things (IoT) devices is evolving dramatically. IoT devices have limited computational power and small memory. Also, they are not part of traditional computer networks. Consequently, existing and often complex security methods are unsuitable for malware detection in IoT networks. This has become a significant concern in the advent of increasingly unpredictable and innovative cyber-attacks. In this context, artificial immune systems (AIS) have emerged as effective IoT malware detection mechanisms with low computational requirements. In this research, we present a critical analysis to highlight the limitations of the AIS state-of-the-art solutions and identify promising research directions. Next, we propose Negative-Positive-Selection (NPS) method, which is an AIS-based for malware detection. The NPS is suitable for IoT's computation restrictions and security challenges. The NPS performance is benchmarked against the state-of-the-art using multiple real-time datasets. The simulation results show a 21% improvement in malware detection and a 65% reduction in the number of detectors. Then, we examine AIS solutions' potential gains and limitations under realistic implementation scenarios. We design a framework to mimic real-life IoT systems. The objective is to evaluate the method's lightweight, fault tolerance, and detection performance with regard to the system constraints. We demonstrate that AIS solutions successfully detect unknown malware in the most challenging IoT environment in terms of memory capacity and processing power. Furthermore, the systemic results with different system architectures reveal the AIS solutions' ability to transfer learning between IoT devices. Transfer learning is a critical feature in the presence of highly constrained devices in the network. More importantly, we highlight that the simulation environment cannot be taken at face value. In reality, AIS malware detection accuracy for IoT systems is likely to be close to 10% worse than simulation results, as indicated by the study results.68 0