Cyber attacks on Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) can be hugely detrimental to society, notably via compromising Industrial Control Systems (ICS) that underpin core CNI functions. In order to explore in-depth ICS Cyber Security challenges, testbeds are an essential tool, avoiding the need to experiment exclusively on live systems. However, ICS testbed creation is a complex multidisciplinary challenge, with a plethora of conflicting requirements. This paper, based on over six years of ICS testbed research and development that spans multiple diverse applications, proposes a flexible high-level model that can be adopted to support ICS testbed development. This is complemented by a baseline set of practical implementation guidance incorporating related and emerging technologies. As a collective, the model and implementation guidance offers a go-to guide for a wide range of end-users. Furthermore, it provides a coherent foundational structure towards establishing an online "living" resource, which can be expanded over time through broader community engagement.

IoT cyber security deficiencies are an increasing concern for users, operators, and developers. With no immediate and holistic devicelevel fixes in sight, alternative wraparound defensive measures are required. Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) present one such option, and represent an active field of research within the IoT space. IoT environments offer rich contextual and situational information from their interaction with the physical processes they control, which may be of use to such IDS. This paper uses a comprehensive analysis of the current stateof-the-art in context and situationally aware IoT IDS to define the often misunderstood concepts of context and situational awareness in relation to their use within IoT IDS. Building on this, a unified approach to transforming and exploiting such a rich additional data set is proposed to enhance the efficacy of current IDS approaches.

Advanced persistent threat (APT) is widely acknowledged to be the most sophisticated and potent class of security threat. APT refers to knowledgeable human attackers that are organized, highly sophisticated and motivated to achieve their objectives against a targeted organization(s) over a prolonged period. Strategically-motivated APTs or S-APTs are distinct in that they draw their objectives from the broader strategic agenda of third parties such as criminal syndicates, nation-states, and rival corporations. In this paper we review the use of the term “advanced persistent threat,” and present a formal definition. We then draw on military science, the science of organized conflict, for a theoretical basis to develop a rigorous and holistic model of the stages of an APT operation which we subsequently use to explain how S-APTs execute their strategically motivated operations using tactics, techniques and procedures. Finally, we present a general disinformation model, derived from situation awareness theory, and explain how disinformation can be used to attack the situation awareness and decision making of not only S-APT operators, but also the entities that back them.

In collaboration with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the Global Cyber Security Capacity Centre (GCSCC, or ‘the Centre’) together with its regional partner, the Oceania Cyber Security Centre (OCSC) undertook a review of the maturity of cybersecurity capacity in the Independent State of Samoa at the invitation of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT). The objective of this review was to enable the government of Samoa to benchmark national cybersecurity capacity and set priorities for strategic investment and capacity development.Over the period 18-20 April 2018, the following stakeholders participated in roundtable consultations: academia, criminal justice, law enforcement, information technology officers and representatives from public-sector entities, critical-infrastructure owners, policy makers, information-technology officers from the government and the private sector (including financial institutions), the banking sector, as well as international partners.

Voltage-gated sodium channels are encoded by a family of ten structurally-related genes that are expressed in spatially and temporally distinct patterns, mainly in excitable tissues. They underlie electrical signalling in nerve and muscle. It has long been known that sodium channel blockers are anaesthetics as well as powerful analgesics when delivered at low concentrations. In addition, cardiac arrhythmias and epileptic activity can be treated with sodium channel blockers. As we have learned more about the sub-types of sodium channels and their distribution, new therapeutic opportunities have suggested themselves. There are indications that sodium channel blockers may also be useful in affective disorders and schizophrenia. The production of tissue-specific and eventually inducible knock out mice as well as genetic studies has proved useful in understanding the specialised role of individual types of sodium channels. The development of sub-type specific blockers has proved slower than anticipated, although the properties of naturally occurring toxin blockers suggest that subtype-specific blockers of sodium channels could be very useful clinically in the treatment of pain.

Tandem constructs are increasingly being used to restrict the composition of recombinant multimeric channels. It is therefore important to assess not only whether such approaches give functional channels, but also whether such channels completely incorporate the subunit tandems. We have addressed this question for neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, using a channel mutation as a reporter for subunit incorporation. We prepared tandem constructs of nicotinic receptors by linking α (α2–α4, α6) and β (β2, β4) subunits by a short linker of eight glutamine residues. Robust functional expression in oocytes was observed for several tandems (β4_α2, β4_α3, β4_α4, and β2_α4) when coexpressed with the corresponding β monomer subunit. All tandems expressed when injected alone, except for β4_α3, which produced functional channels only together with β4 monomer and was chosen for further characterization. These channels produced from β4_α3 tandem constructs plus β4 monomer were identical with receptors expressed from monomer α3 and β4 constructs in acetylcholine sensitivity and in the number of α and β subunits incorporated in the channel gate. However, separately mutating the β subunit in either the monomer or the tandem revealed that tandem-expressed channels are heterogeneous. Only a proportion of these channels contained as expected two copies of β subunits from the tandem and one from the β monomer construct, whereas the rest incorporated two or three β monomers. Such inaccuracies in concatameric receptor assembly would not have been apparent with a standard functional characterization of the receptor. Extensive validation is needed for tandem-expressed receptors in the nicotinic superfamily.

Acute, inflammatory, and neuropathic pain can all be attenuated or abolished by local treatment with sodium channel blockers such as lidocaine. The peripheral input that drives pain perception thus depends on the presence of functional voltage-gated sodium channels. Remarkably, two voltage-gated sodium channel genes (Nav1.8 and Nav1.9) are expressed selectively in damage-sensing peripheral neurons, while a third channel (Nav1.7) is found predominantly in sensory and sympathetic neurons. An embryonic channel (Nav1.3) is also upregulated in damaged peripheral nerves and associated with increased electrical excitability in neuropathic pain states. A combination of antisense and knock-out studies support a specialized role for these sodium channels in pain pathways, and pharmacological studies with conotoxins suggest that isotype-specific antagonists should be feasible. Taken together, these data suggest that isotype-specific sodium channel blockers could be useful analgesics.

We compared the main properties of human recombinant alpha3beta4beta3 neuronal nicotinic receptors with those of alpha3beta4 receptors, expressed in Xenopus oocytes. beta3 incorporation decreased the channel mean open time (from 5.61 to 1.14 ms, after approximate correction for missed gaps) and burst length. There was also an increase in single channel slope conductance from 28.8 picosiemens (alpha3beta4) to 46.7 picosiemens (alpha3beta4beta3; in low divalent external solution). On the other hand, the calcium permeability (determined by a reversal potential method in chloride-depleted oocytes) and the pharmacological properties of beta3-containing receptors differed little from those of alpha3beta4. The main pharmacological difference in alpha3beta4beta3 "triplet" receptors was a 3-fold decrease in the potency of lobeline relative to acetylcholine. Nevertheless, there was no change in the rank order of potency for agonists (epibatidine >> lobeline > cytisine, 1,1-dimethyl-4-phenylpiperazinium iodide, nicotine > acetylcholine > carbachol for both receptors; measured at low agonist concentrations). Sensitivity to the competitive antagonists trimetaphan (0.2-1 microM) and dihydro-beta-erythroidine (30 microM) was similar for the two combinations, with a Schild KB for trimetaphan of 76 and 66 nM on alpha3beta4 and alpha3beta4beta3, respectively. The change in single channel conductance confirms that beta3 replaces a beta4 subunit in the pentamer. The absence of pronounced differences in the pharmacological profile of the triplet receptor argues against a role for the beta3 subunit in the formation of agonist binding sites, whereas the changes in channel kinetics suggest an important effect on receptor gating. The shortening of the burst length of beta3-containing receptors implies that any synaptic currents mediated by such channels would have faster decay kinetics.

1. The alpha5 subunit participates to the formation of native neuronal nicotinic receptors, particularly in autonomic ganglia. Like the related beta3 subunit, alpha5 forms functional recombinant receptors if expressed together with a pair of typical alpha and beta subunits, but its effect on the properties of the resulting alphabetaalpha5 receptor depends on the alpha and beta subunits chosen and on the expression system. We used a reporter mutation approach to test whether alpha5, like beta3, is incorporated as a single copy in human alpha3beta4alpha5 receptors expressed in oocytes. 2. As previously reported, the main indication of the presence of alpha5 in alpha3beta4alpha5(wt) was an increase in apparent receptor desensitization (compared with alpha3beta4 receptors). If the alpha3beta4alpha5 receptor bore a 9'T mutation in the second transmembrane domain of either alpha3 or beta4, alpha5 incorporation produced a decrease in ACh sensitivity (by 4 fold for alpha3(LT)beta4alpha5 vs. alpha3(LT)beta4 and by 40 fold for alpha3beta4(LT)alpha5 vs. alpha3beta4(LT)). The much greater effect observed in alpha3beta4(LT)alpha5 receptors accords with the hypothesis that alpha5 takes the place of a beta subunit in the receptor. 3. Introducing a 9'T mutation in alpha5 had no effect on the agonist sensitivity of alpha3beta4alpha5 receptors, but reduced apparent desensitisation, as judged by the sag in the current response to high agonist concentrations. 4. Introducing the 9'T mutation in alpha3 or beta4 in the triplet receptor reduced the EC(50) for ACh by a similar extent (7 and 9 fold, respectively), suggesting that alpha3beta4alpha5 receptors contain two copies each of alpha and beta and therefore only one copy of alpha5.

IoT cyber security deficiencies are an increasing concern for users, operators, and developers. With no immediate and holistic device-level fixes in sight, alternative wraparound defensive measures are required. Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) present one such option, and represent an active field of research within the IoT space. IoT environments offer rich contextual and situational information from their interaction with the physical processes they control, which may be of use to such IDS. This paper uses a comprehensive analysis of the current state-of-the-art in context and situationally aware IoT IDS to define the often misunderstood concepts of context and situational awareness in relation to their use within IoT IDS. Building on this, a unified approach to transforming and exploiting such a rich additional data set is proposed to enhance the efficacy of current IDS approaches.