Sustainable urban development is vital for environmental protection, particularly in rapidly urbanising areas. Gasabo District, which covers 58.8% of Kigali City’s area and houses over half of its ...population, reflects the environmental pressures affecting the entire city. Rapid urbanisation and population growth have increased strain on land, water, and infrastructure, highlighting the urgent need for proper urban planning. To address these issues, this paper aims to examine the key challenges that exacerbate environmental degradation and explore the potential for managing urban growth in a way that does not compromise ecological integrity. Seventy-two PRISMA-screened records were analysed to identify both challenges and opportunities for urban environmental development in Gasabo, drawing insights from global best practices. ArcGIS Pro was used to analyze spatial layers of population density and map environmental hotspot areas to support this study. Google Earth Engine was used to generate the Urban Heat Island Map from Landsat 8 Surface Reflectance Tier 1 data for the year 2024. Findings indicate that 79.6% of households in the district rely on biomass for energy, which contributes to deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions. Other critical issues include land degradation, waste mismanagement, pollution, water scarcity, climate change, and the urban heat island effect. The study proposes strategies to address these challenges, drawing inspiration from successful examples such as Singapore, which is considered a model for Rwanda, to propose context-adapted solutions, including mixed-use zoning, urban densification, and blue-green infrastructure. Additional recommendations include rainwater harvesting, permeable pavements, vertical farming, and clean cooking technologies to enhance resilience and sustainability within the district and the whole city.
With the escalating frequency of cybersecurity threats in public cloud computing environments, there is a pressing need for robust security measures to safeguard sensitive data and applications. This ...research addresses growing security concerns in the cloud by proposing an innovative security information and event management system (SIEM) that offers automated visibility of cloud resources. Our implementation includes a virtual network comprising virtual machines, load balancers, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, and an application gateway that functions as a web application firewall (WAF). This WAF scans incoming Internet traffic and provides centralized protection against common exploits and vulnerabilities, securing web applications within the cloud environment. We deployed the SIEM system to automate visibility and incident response for cloud resources. By harnessing the power of this employed SIEM, the developed system can continuously monitor, detect security incidents, and proactively mitigate potential security threats. Microsoft Defender for Cloud consistently assesses the configuration of cloud resources against industry standards, regulations, and benchmarks to ensure compliance requirements are met. Our findings highlight the practicality and effectiveness of deploying such solutions to safeguard cloud resources, offering valuable insights to organizations and security professionals seeking sustainable and resilient security measures in the cloud computing environment.
The rapid proliferation of IoT devices necessitates robust security measures to protect against malicious traffic. Anomaly detection, primarily through traffic classification supported by artificial ...intelligence and machine learning techniques, has emerged as a practical approach to enhancing IoT network security. Effective traffic classification requires efficient feature selection, which is critical for resource-constrained IoT devices with limited computational power, memory, and energy. This study proposes Statistical Moments Difference Thresholding, a feature selection method leveraging statistical central moments to identify significant features distinguishing between legitimate and malicious traffic. The aim is to reduce feature dimensionality while maintaining high detection accuracy. Validated on the MQTTset dataset through binary and multiclass classification using seven ML algorithms, the results highlight its ability to enhance computational efficiency without compromising performance, showcasing its potential in real-world IoT security applications.
The Internet of Things (IoT) makes it possible to collect data from, and issue commands to, devices via the Internet, eliminating the need for humans in the process while increasing productivity, ...accuracy, and economic value. Therefore, the integration of IoT plays a crucial role in achieving high efficiency and sustainability in the production of renewable energy that could be used to meet future electricity needs. While this approach has many significant benefits, it also opens smart renewable energy to cyberattacks, giving hackers a new window of opportunity to take advantage of renewable energy’s vulnerabilities. This obviously affects the financial and physical functioning of smart renewable energy. This article reviews the literature on cybersecurity threats and vulnerabilities in IoT-based smart renewable energy and cyberattacks on power systems. False data injection, replay, denial of service, and brute force credential attacks have been identified as the main threats to IoT-based smart renewable energy. These threats exploit IoT-based smart renewable energy’s vulnerabilities such as the usage of insecure communication protocols, poor encryption techniques, poor hash algorithms, lack of access control, lack of parameter sanitization, and the inappropriate use of authentication alongside encryption. The findings of this review will assist researchers in better understanding the issues surrounding the cybersecurity of IoT-based smart renewable energy and the needs for grid security in light of the exponential growth in the number of renewable energy sources connected to the grid.
In the rapidly evolving landscape of Extended Reality technologies, including Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and Mixed Reality, there is a demand for security and privacy to co-exist ...harmoniously with usability and user experience. The delicate balance of usability, user experience, security, and privacy takes on a keen importance. This research paper delves into unique conflicting factors and explores the strategies in achieving this delicate balance, shedding lights on the overlapping elements between usability, user experience, security and privacy in XR environments. The research takes a multifaceted approach, integrating theoretical analysis with practical insights derived from real-world case studies and an empirical user study. The user study, conducted to uncover user preferences toward achieving a balance between these conflicting factors, provides data-driven insights into the interaction of usability, user experience, privacy, and security. The data analysis performed using Python reveals how security, privacy, usability and user experience can be seamlessly integrated into XR ensuring that technology not only meets user expectations but also protects sensitive information. Through a multidimensional approach, this study reveals insights into how privacy and security considerations can be woven into the fabric of XR, enriching user experiences while cultivating a culture of trust and empowerment. This study is an extension of our previous work ”embracing XR systems, not compromising on privacy and security” and aims to guide the design of XR environment that are both user-friendly and safe and secure, ultimately establishing a culture of trust and empowerment.
The integration of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies into solar energy systems has transformed them into smart solar energy systems, enabling advanced real-time monitoring, control, and ...optimization. However, this connectivity also expands the attack surface, exposing critical components to cybersecurity threats that could compromise system reliability and long-term sustainability. This study presents a comprehensive cybersecurity threat modeling analysis for IoT-based smart solar energy systems using the STRIDE threat model to systematically identify, categorize, and assess potential security risks. These risks, if unmitigated, could disrupt operations and hinder large-scale adoption of solar energy. The methodology begins with a system use case outlining the architecture and key components, including sensors, PV modules, IoT nodes, gateways, cloud infrastructure, and remote-access interfaces. A Data Flow Diagram (DFD) was developed to visualize the data flow and identify the critical trust boundaries. The STRIDE model was applied to classify threats, such as spoofing, tampering, repudiation, information disclosure, denial of service, and elevation of privilege across components and their interactions. The DREAD risk assessment model was then used to prioritize threats based on the Damage Potential, Reproducibility, Exploitability, Affected Users, and Disability. The results indicate that most threats fall into the high-risk category, with scores ranging from 2.6 to 2.8, emphasizing the need for targeted mitigation. This study proposes security recommendations to address the identified threats and enhance the resilience of IoT-enabled solar energy systems. By securing these infrastructures, this research supports the transition to sustainable energy by ensuring system integrity and protection against cyber threats. The combined use of STRIDE and DREAD provides a robust framework for identifying, categorizing, and prioritizing risks, enabling effective resource allocation and targeted security measures. These findings offer critical insights into safeguarding renewable energy systems against evolving cyber threats, contributing to global energy sustainability goals in an increasingly interconnected world.
Renewable energy is an essential solution for addressing climate change, providing sustainable options that are vital for a more environmentally friendly future. Integrating information technology ...(IT) into renewable energy systems has driven remarkable progress, enhanced efficiency, and enabled remote monitoring. Nevertheless, integrating IT into these systems dramatically increases their vulnerability to cyber threats and potential attacks. This study thoroughly investigates the enhancement of security measures in an IoT-based solar energy remote monitoring system. The research integrates advanced technologies, including Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), myRIO board, and NI’s SystemLink Cloud platform, to enhance data security in smart solar energy monitoring systems. Emphasizing AES encryption ensures secure information exchange between the myRIO board and the computer. NI’s SystemLink Cloud offers a user-friendly interface for real-time monitoring of critical solar system parameters, supported by robust security measures such as HTTPS encryption and access control. This study sets higher data protection standards in smart energy systems by promoting advanced encryption and secure cloud infrastructures. The approach involves seamlessly integrating renewable energy sources with IT innovations while prioritizing proactive measures to strengthen solar energy system security.
Secure Testing and Simulation System Based on Raspberry Pi Radu, Florin; Cotfas, Petru A.; Tuyishime, Emmanuel ...
IEEE ... International Symposium for Design and Technology of Electronics Packages (SIITME),
2025-Oct.-22
Conference Proceeding
This paper presents an innovative, intelligent, adaptable, and secure way for testing interfaces in an embedded system and for simulating different situations that may arise during the development ...and testing of a device or system. At the core of the system stands a Raspberry PI 4 Single Board Computer. It is accompanied by the latest operating system dedicated to it and a modern and secure way to connect, control and retrieve data. Everything is implemented to ensure a powerful, reliable and secure system.
As educational institutions increasingly integrate remote (online) laboratories into their systems, the need for secure and efficient access to lab resources becomes paramount. While traditional ...Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) have historically served as the primary solution for remote access, they are not without limitations. In this paper, we explore how zero-trust networking access solutions (ZTNA) effectively address these limitations. We examine the advantages of ZTNA-based solutions compared to traditional VPNs, discuss the underlying principles of zero-trust, and illustrate a practical application of ZTNA in educational online labs through the utilization of Twingate, a novel ZTNA-based commercial solution.
