Topic: Security and Privacy of Edge Computing

In order to meet the requirements of future bandwidth-aggressive or delay-sensitive applications, edge computing (EC) has been envisioned as a key technology. By deploying computing modules near data sources and providing services around users, EC gets the ability to improve task processing efficiency and alleviate core network overhead. Moreover, the risks of information leakage and data tampering in EC can be reduced to a certain extent by shortening the data transmission path, and the distributed nature of EC makes it less susceptible to large-scale service breakdown or privacy breaches. However, the rise of EC also introduces new challenges in terms of security and privacy, especially the presence of DoS attacks, malware, poisoning attacks, eavesdroppers, and other threats. Although there are numerous powerful security and privacy solutions, the limited resource of edge servers constrains the use of these computation-aggressive solutions. In addition, compared to centralized cloud servers, the management of distributed edge servers also faces various challenges, including unreliable edge servers, misconfigured third-party edge-based real-time databases, and other uncertain factors that can gradually become new potential network threats.

This Special Issue addresses all aspects related to the security and privacy of EC. Specifically, it covers the following topics:
● Security architectures in EC
● Security considerations of emerging edge networks and infrastructure, such as O-RAN and IRS
●Adaptive, multi-level, and multi-tiered security and privacy protection in EC
● Network and system security in EC
● IoT security and privacy in EC
● Secure communications in EC
● Lightweight authentication and access control mechanisms for EC
● Lightweight encryption and decryption mechanisms for EC
● Randomization, anonymity, and other privacy preservation techniques in EC
● Intrusion detection and prevention in EC
● Threat modeling and risk assessment in EC
● Trust management and reputation assessment in EC
● Trusted task offloading and storage in EC
● Trade-off between EC system security/privacy protection and QoS

Edge computing (EC), emerging edge networks, security issues, privacy, security architectures

31 Mar 2024