Recent advances in security and privacy in large‐scale networks

We are pleased to present to you 13 technical papers dealing with cutting-edge research and technology related to this topic. These papers were selected out of the significantly extended versions of the 149 submissions from 18 countries in the 3rd IEEE International Workshop on Large-Scale Network Security (LSNS 2014) and a large number of open submissions. The selection has been very rigorous, and only the best papers were selected. In the first paper, ‘An Error-Tolerant Keyword Search Scheme Based on Public-Key Encryption in Secure Cloud Computing’ [1], Yang et al. first present a general framework for searching on errortolerant keywords based on a public-key encryption scheme. Then a concrete scheme is proposed based on the Cramer–Shoup cryptosystem. The scheme is chosen ciphertext attack secure, and suitable for all similarity metrics including Hamming distance metric, edit distance metric, and set difference metric. Because it does not require the user to construct and store anything in advance, very different from those cryptosystems used to calculate the trapdoor of keywords and to encrypt data documents, the new scheme tremendously eases the users’ burden. In the second paper, ‘A Lightweight Privacy-Preserving Scheme with Data Integrity for Smart Grid Communications’ [2], Bao and Chen propose a lightweight data report scheme for smart grid communications, which can achieve privacy preservation and data integrity simultaneously. Specifically, an efficient pseudonym identity-based privacy-preserving report approach is proposed for the control center to obtain the fine-grained usage data of all the users while protecting user’s privacy. An online/offline hash tree-based mechanism is also designed to check and assure data integrity of communications. Furthermore, a topology-independent data report architecture is also structured, which is adaptable for dynamic residential users to spontaneously form clusters and efficiently report data in flocks. Extensive performance evaluation demonstrates that the proposed scheme can achieve less communication overhead and dramatically reduce computational cost in comparison with the existing schemes. Secure biometric authentication aims to replace an encryption key or an identity certificate with biometrics to complete authentication. In the third paper, ‘A Secure Biometric Authentication Based on PEKS’ [3], Zhang et al. present a generic transformation from searchable encryption to secure biometric authentication and construct a specific secure biometric authentication scheme based on public key encryption with keyword search. Compared with some existing authentication schemes, the proposed scheme is more efficient in the practical application. Furthermore, the transformation from searchable encryption to secure biometric authentication presents a new direction of constructing authentication scheme. Certificateless aggregate signature schemes are required to satisfy the applications in certificateless environment. In the fourth paper, ‘A New Certificateless Signature with Enhanced Security and Aggregation Version’ [4], Deng et al. present an improved certificateless signature scheme and use it to construct a new certificateless signature scheme with enhanced security and aggregation. Compared with other schemes, the proposed scheme is more suitable for realistic applications. In the fifth paper, ‘Worm Propagation Model in Mobile Network’ [5], Chen et al. focus on mobile worm propagation model that allows to control and detect potential worm threat, according to the characteristics of worm’s outbreak. Chen et al. put forward a worm propagation model based on the mobile network environment. After analyzing the model, it gives the simulation for controlling factors affecting worm propagation. This model allows us to have a certain understanding for the spread on the size and speed of the mobile worm, providing effective methods to control the spread of the mobile worm.