National University of Computer & Emerging Sciences - FAST & Augere Pakistan (Pvt.) Limited

Main objective(s)your project address

1. Mitigation of security threat to end-user from a particular type of malware (i.e. Botnet).

2. Improvement in Spectral Efficiency.

Wireless Broadband network with close to 80,000 subscribers nation-wide require highly optimized spectral efficiency. It is a Wireless Broadband network using IEEE 802.16e WiMAX standard. With this large Wireless broadband access (WBA) the offering services with limited Radio Resources is challenging. One of the features provided by the WiMAX standard developers to save Radio Resources is IDLE Mode. A subscriber can go IDLE, i.e. a time when no internet activity is performed by end user. There are two major advantages associated with IDLE Time:

2. Power Amplifier of the subscriber terminal powers off which not only saves battery life of the terminal but also avoid excessive Uplink overshoots that can cause unnecessary Uplink transmission causing increased Interference Margin in the network due to Co-Channel re-use of frequency.

3. The other advantage of IDLE mode is saving per subscriber resources like dedicated traffic channel in Downlink and Uplink, when a subscriber is IDLE it can only listen to broadcast send by the Base Station and get active when traffic is destined towards or from it.

Our automated communication that was observed throughout the network was Bots Activity. Bots or Internet Robots are automated software applications or scripts that run periodically from an end system. There are multiple purpose bots can perform like indexing on a search engine, fetching and analyzing files information from web servers. Bots may also be implemented where a response speed faster than that of humans is required (e.g., video gaming bots and auction-site robots) or less commonly in situations where the emulation of human activity is required.

Project summary (This summary will be used to promote your project, please be clear and concrete)

National University of Computer & Emerging Sciences is a renowned university of computer sciences in Pakistan (www.nu.edu.pk) and Augere Pakistan (Pvt) Limited (qubee.com.pk) is operating a Wireless Broadband network with close to 80,000+ subscribers nation-wide.

We as a team observed huge gap between industry and academy and took the initiative of research collaboration. We wanted to align output of academy (i.e. graduates) with respect to the need of Technology industry. As an initiative we studied concealed cyber threats and mutually revealed its solution.

Later we implemented this solution in close coordination which yielded positive outcome both in terms of risk mitigation and end-user's experience enhancement.

This endeavor has paved a way and further universities have expressed interest for research collaborations, highly prospective and fruitful in terms of mutual growth and benefit of society, youth particularly. Engineering graduates would be able to work with industry during their academics and they will be able to solve real world problem which will improve their knowledge and confidence.

Publications, marketing materials and other dissemination efforts conducted by your project

Idea is being documented to publish a research paper in IEEE Communication Letters. However a free local internet exchange is developed in coordination with couple of Internet Service Providers (initially in Karachi) and the service will be offered free of cost to consortium members in the best interest of End Users.

A seminar is planned at City Campus Karachi, to reveal progress of the project as soon as paper is published in journal.

Technologies Used

- WiMAX 802.16e
- DNS
- Botnet
- Network Security
- Apache

Website from your organization

https://sites.google.com/site/projectbotnet/

Most relevant activities conducted during the course of the project

1. Identification of active botnet in the network using DNS services.
2. Finger Printing to see origin of hyperactive botnet.
3. Implementation of Loopback Kick to virtually quarantine malicious traffic up to infected PC level.

Background and justification for initiating the project

ISPs are prospective vantage points for controlling malicious activities, however they don't prefer to enter into such domain due to several overheads. We have gone extra mile to implement an additional layer of security which has not only protected our users but have also improved our spectral efficiency.

Most relevant outcomes achieved by your project

1. Spectral Efficiency Improved after quarantining botnet generated traffic upto infected PC level.

2. Fingerprint of malware is also produced, now we can see which user is infected with which botnet and we can give recommendations on phone call to fix his issues.

3. Botnet steal confidential inforamtion, data theft, keystrokes, etc which is prevented particularly for the botnets using DNS to locate their central command and control server.

Awards and distinctions received by your organization in the past

- Research work is recognized as Best Research Work by Head of Computer Science Department at National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences, Karachi. - Project and overall endeavor is appreciated by Chief Technology Officer of Augere Pakistan (Pvt.) Limited.

Explain why this project deserves the prize

Our findings will help Internet Society to mitigate concealed threats and will ultimately benefit wireless broadband industry and even the industry using shared access medium to connect end-users with ISP.

We have ignited academy and industry to work more closely on different platforms in the best interest of society.

Facebook profile or Facebook page from the organization or project leader

N/A

Twitter profile from the organization or project leader

N/A

Google+ profile from the organization or project leader

N/A

Provide links to other websites, newspapers, blogs, etc. referencing your project, providing evidence about the work conducted by your project or your organization

http://www.otalliance.org/news/releases/ABCsISPs.html
http://www.otalliance.org/resources/botnets/index.html

Provide supporting documentation

ISIF_Letter_Augere.pdf

Project Representative

Sheeraz Ahmed

Project Representative on Linkedin :

http://pk.linkedin.com/in/sheerazahmed

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