REactively Defending against Advanced Cybersecurity Threat · In Chapter 2 we initially present the...

EuropeanCommission-Horizon2020DS-07-2017

CybersecurityPPP:AddressingAdvancedCyberSecurityThreatsand

ThreatActors

REactivelyDefendingagainstAdvancedCybersecurityThreat

D7.1:WebsiteandCollaborationTools†Abstract:ThisdeliverablediscussesthewebsiteandcollaborationtoolsoftheReActproject.

Wefocusonitscontentsections,theintegrationofsocialnetworkingfeatures,thecontent

updatemechanismsand the tools thatwill beused to foster the collaborationamong the

consortium.We also present a short overview of the platform andmethods used for its

development.Finally,weconcludethereport.

ContractualDateofUpload June2018ActualDateofUpload June2018DeliverableSecurityClass PublicEditor AntonisKrithinakisContributors REACTpartners

QualityAssurance Name2Surname2

† This project is funded by the European Commission (Horizon 2020 - DS-07-2017) under Grant agreement no: 786669.

www.react-h2020.eu - 2 - June 30, 2018

TheREACTconsortiumconsistsof:

FORTH Coordinator GreeceSTICHTINGVU Beneficiary TheNetherlandsUNIVERSITYOFCYPRUS Beneficiary CyprusEURECOM Beneficiary FranceRUHR-UNIVERSITAETBOCHUM Beneficiary GermanySYMANTEC Beneficiary France


DocumentRevisions&QualityAssurance InternalReviewers

1. ChristosPapachristos(FORTH)Revisions

Version Date By Overview

0.0.2 29/06/2018 Review#20.0.1 28/06/2018 ChristosPapachristos Review#10.0.0 25/06/2018 AntonisKrithinakis FirstDraft.


TableofContents

TABLE OF CONTENTS ....................................................................................................................................... 51 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................................... 6

1.1 DELIVERABLE OUTLINE ......................................................................................................................... 62 WEBSITE ...................................................................................................................................................... 7

2.1 LAYOUT AND SECTIONS ......................................................................................................................... 72.1.1 Home Section .................................................................................................................................... 72.1.2 Partners Section ................................................................................................................................ 72.1.3 Publications Section .......................................................................................................................... 92.1.4 Contact Us Section ............................................................................................................................ 9

2.2 UPDATING MECHANISMS ........................................................................................................................ 92.3 DESIGN AND HOSTING .......................................................................................................................... 11

2.3.1 Grid-based Design .......................................................................................................................... 112.3.2 Web Standards ................................................................................................................................ 112.3.3 Software stack ................................................................................................................................. 122.3.4 Hardware stack ............................................................................................................................... 12

3 SOCIAL NETWORKS ............................................................................................................................... 133.1 TWITTER ............................................................................................................................................... 133.2 FACEBOOK ............................................................................................................................................ 133.3 LINKEDIN ............................................................................................................................................. 14

4 FILE HOSTING .......................................................................................................................................... 155 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................................ 17


1 Introduction

This deliverable details the ReAct website which is one of the objectives of the seventhworkpackage (WP7) of the project. The ReAct website is publicly available athttp://www.react-h2020.eu/ and it will be the main channel through which the generalpublicwillgainaccesstotheproject’soutcomes.Thewebsitewilllinktopublicdeliverables,reports,andwillhostacopyofallscientificpublications.Furthermore,itwillserveasafocalorganization tool forannouncingevents, suchasschoolsandworkshops,organizedby theproject. In order to promote communication between the scientific community and thegeneralpublicandinordertoincreaseawarenessofsecurityissues,theprojectwillorganizefurtheroutreachactivities.

Forbetterdisseminationoftheinformation,wewillalsotakeadvantageofsocialmediasuch as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, as a way to aggregate and reach out to ourconstituency. Thewebsitewill be regularly updatedwith all recent information about theprojectbutup-to-the-minute informationwill bepostedonReAct’s socialmedia accountswithlinkstotheproject’swebsite.

1.1 DeliverableOutline

InthefollowingChapters,wewilldescribetheReActwebsiteasitwasatthetimeofdeliveryof this deliverable. In Chapter 2 we initially present the content, features of the REACTwebsite,howthewebsitecanbeupdatedusingawebbrowser,thetoolsusedtocreatethewebsiteandwhywechosethem.WealsobrieflypresenttheprinciplesthatthesiteisbasedonandthewebstandardsthattheREACTwebsiteadheresto.InChapter3wepresentourpresence on socialmedia and in Chapter 4we present our file hosting service. Finally, inChapter 5 we summarize the website setup and outline possible future additions andenhancements.Thesearecontentandfeaturesthatcanbeaddedatanytimethroughthecourseoftheprojecttohelpthewebsitetobetterserveitspurpose.


2 Website

In this chapter, we will present the content sections, the updating mechanisms and thedesignandhostingoftheReActwebsite.

2.1 LayoutandSectionsInthissection,wedetailthecurrentlayoutoftheReActwebsite.Atthispointoftime,themaingoalofthewebsiteistoprovideinformationontheprojectanditsgoalsandtoenableinterestedpartiestogetintouchwiththeproject.Certainly,thewebsitewillbeawork-in-progressthroughoutthedurationoftheproject.

2.1.1 HomeSection

TheHomesectionprovidesanintroductionandanoverviewtotheprojectanditsobjectives(Figure 1).Thecurrentlayoutusestwocolumns.Thelargerleftpartprovidestheoverviewoftheprojectwhiletherightpartofthelayoutwillbeusedtoshowthelatestnewsoftheproject.Thedisplayednewswillbeobtainedreal-timefromtheReActTwitterfeed.

Figure1-Homesection

2.1.2 PartnersSection

Ashortprofileforeachoftheprojectpartners isprovidedthroughthePartnerssectionofthe website (Figure 2). A general description and the official partners’ logos have been


includedinthispage,forthevisitortohaveaclearviewoftheconsortiumandtheirrolesinthe project. The name of each partner contains a link to the webpage of the relativeorganization.

Figure2-Parnerssection


2.1.3 PublicationsSection

Thissectionwillmakeavailabletothepublicallthedocumentspublishedbytheproject.Asthelistofpublisheddocumentswillexpandbothinlength(i.e.moreconferencepapers)andindiversity (i.e. inclusionofdeliverables) it isexpected thatmore frameswillbeaddedtothis section. The title of each paperwill be added to this page as soon as its acceptancenotification is received. The full text of the paper or a link to the paper on the publisherwebsitewillbeaddedatthesametimeorshortlyafter.

2.1.4 ContactUsSection

TheContactUspagecontainsacontactformallowingvisitorstocontactprojectconsortiumandsubmitcomments,questions,orsuggestions.Theemailaddressofthevisitorisrequiredin order to send feedback.We opted for a contact form, instead of publishing a contactemailaddress,inordertoavoidhavingouremailaddressharvestedandspammedthroughthecourseoftheproject.

2.2 UpdatingMechanismsThe contents of the website can be easily updated using a web browser. This feature isprovided by the CMS we use. After successful authentication, the website editor ispresentedwith theSiteAdministrationPanelshown inFigure 3.Through thispanelallofthewebsite’smodulescanbeconfigured.

Figure3-Siteadministrationpanel.HighlightedisthesectionoftheCMSmodule,whichisusedtoeditcontent.

Thecontentsof the siteareupdated through theCMSmodulewhichappearshighlighted.FollowingthePageslink,thepagehierarchypanel(showninFigure4)isdisplayed.Thepanelallows thewebsite editor to restructure thewebsite layout by usingdrag& dropon the


items.Additionally,withasingle-clicktheeditormayhideapagefromthenavigationmenuortakeitoffline.

Figure4-Pagehierarchypanel.Thepagescanberearrangedbydraggingthemanddroppingthemontheirnewlocation

inthehierarchytree.

Whileitispossibletoeditthecontentofapagethroughtheadmininterfacewepresented,itisusuallymoreconvenienttoupdateitthroughthefront-endeditorofDjango-CMS.Thefront-end editor feature is automatically enabled when visiting the website after havinglogged intheadministrative interface.Whenit isenabled,atoolbarappearsonthetopofthepagewhichenablestheusertogointoeditmode.

Theactual contentof thepage is encapsulated inContentPlugins. ContentPluginsproduce HTML output which is placed in designated locations in the template calledplaceholders.Obviously,themostcommonlyusedpluginistheTextPluginwhichisusedtoedit and then display html formatted text. However more specialized plugins exist forinterfacingwithspecificdatasources(e.g.Twitter). The built-in editor used for editing the page text offers many of the formattingoptionsfoundinafull-blownwordprocessor.Theformattingoptionssupportedbydefaulthave been chosen to encourage semantic-basedhtml formatting. I.e. the editormarks-upthe contents according to their semantics on the page and their final appearance isdeterminedbytheCSSstylesheetused.


2.3 DesignandHosting

2.3.1 Grid-basedDesign

We wanted the ReAct website to have a visual layout which will beclean-cut while at the same time is easy to change in order toaccommodatefutureneeds.Forthis,wechosetohave itdesignedandbuiltusingTwitterBootstrap.TwitterBootstrapisaCSSframeworkthatallowstherapidprototypingofgridbasedwebsitedesignswhileworkingequallywellwhenintegratedintoaproductionsystem.

Ingridbaseddesigns,thevisualblocksthatcomprisethewebsite(e.g.,menus,textboxes, informationboxes, adsetc.) arenotplacedonarbitrarypositions. Instead theyarelaidoutonpredefinedrigidpositionsonagrid.Thismaysoundrestrictivebutinpracticetheresultingdesign ismuchmoreefficient incommunicating itscontentstothevisitor.This isbecauseplacing thevisualblocksof thewebsiteonagrid results inclearvisualpathsandvisual structure and balanceon the design. Additionally, a grid based design also ensuresconsistency between the website pages and are much easier to update in order toaccommodateadditionalcontent.

2.3.2 WebStandards

TheReActwebsitepageshavebeentestedtocomplywith theHTML5standard,usingtheW3CMarkupValidator.Thesituationismore complicatedwith regards toCSScompliance.WehavechosentouseCSS3forthewebsitebecauseitgreatlysimplifiesthe implementation of aesthetic elements such as roundedelement corners, element shadows etc. Without CSS3, theseelements have tobepre-rendered as bitmap images and thenincludedinthepage,whichdegradesthesemanticintegrityoftheproducedHTMLoutput.

Whilewehave takenevery care for our CSS code, it has beenproved impossible to haveCSS3codethatbothvalidatesontheW3CCSSValidatorandworksonallpopularbrowsers.Thismadeustakeamorepragmaticapproachandinsteadstrivetohaveourpagesrendercorrectlywiththelatestversionsofallpopularwebbrowsers.


2.3.3 Softwarestack

ForservingtheREACTwebsiteweuseaLAMPsoftwarestack:

•Linuxastheoperatingsystem

•Apacheasthewebserver

•MySQLasthedatabasebackend

•Pythonfordynamicallycompilingthewebpages

The later components of the stack have been distributed between two servers. The firstserver is dedicated to running theMySQL server, while the second runs theApachewebserverandgeneratesthedynamicpagesusingthepython-basedDjangowebframework.

DjangoitselfisagenericwebframeworkthatprovidesanObject-Relational-Mapper(ORM)thatallowsaccessingobjectsstored inarelationaldatabase(inourcaseMySQL)asPython objects. For serving and managing our pages we use Django-cms a ContentManagementSystembuiltontopofdjango.

The benefit of the Django/Django-cms combo is that they provide a clear, welldocumentedApplicationProgramming Interface.Theyaremuchmorecompactthanothersolutionswhichmaketweakingandextendingthemmucheasier.Thiscouldproveusefulincase we need to extend the functionality of the ReAct website beyond the basics. Anadditional benefit of this combo is the existing expertise of the consortium (specificallyFORTH)onbuildingandmaintainingDjango-cmssites.Finally,weshouldmentionthatallthesoftwarecomponentsareregularlyupdatedinordertobeimmunetoknown(andpatched)securityvulnerabilities.

2.3.4 Hardwarestack

ThewebsiteishostedbyFORTHontheirpremisesinHeraklion,Crete,Greece.Thehostingserver features two Intel Xeondual-coreCPUs running at 2.66GHzanda totalmemoryof4GB. It is connected to the Internet through FORTH’s Gigabit connection to the GRNETbackbone.TheserverhastwohighperformanceSASdisks(10kRPM)arrangedasRAID-1forfault-tolerance.

Theserverisprotectedbyfirewallsinordertominimizetheriskfromcyber-threats.Asanadditionalsecuritymeasure,thedatabaseserverusedbytheREACTwebsiteislocatedon a separate host with evenmore restricted access rules. Both hosts are internally andexternallymonitored.Finally,remotebackupsareperformedforbothonadailybasis.

It isalso important that thehosts reside inaprotectedphysicalenvironment.TheyarelocatedinoneofFORTH’sdata-centers.Forensuringoptimaloperatingenvironment,itisfittedwithindustrial-strengthairconditioningwithmorethan240.000BTUsefficiency.Inpoweremergencies,itissupportedbyaUPSpowersupplyandanexternalpowergeneratorwhich isengagedautomaticallyonpower failure.Additionally, thedata-center featuresanautomaticcarbondioxidefire-extinguishingsystem.


3 SocialNetworks

Currently,ReActpresencehasbeenestablishedinFacebook,TwitterandLinkedIn.

3.1 TwitterTwitter isthemostpopularnewsnetworkingservicewhereusers interactwithshortpostsknownas“tweets”.Initially,tweetswererestrictedto140charactersbutinthelastyearthislimitwasdoubled. TheTwitterprofileofReAct canbe seenon Figure5. Twitter feedhasbeenalsointegratedtothewebsiteintheformofthenewsfeedintherightpartofthefrontpage.

Figure5-TwitterprofileofReAct

3.2 FacebookFacebook, launched inFebruary2004, isa freeandverypopularnetworkingplatformthatenables users and communities tomaintain profiles, uploadmedia files and stay in touchwiththepublic.FacebookismuchmorecomplexthanTwitterasitworksasasocialplatformthatallowsmanyindependentlydevelopedapplicationstorun.ApagewascreatedfortheReActprojectonFacebookwhichcanbeseenonFigure6.

Figure6-FacebookprofileofReAct


3.3 LinkedInLinkedIn is another popular social networking platform specifically used for business. Itsmain goal is to connect registered users that they know each other professionally. TheLinkedInprofileofReActcanbeseenonFigure 7.

Figure7-LinkedInprofileofReAct


4 FileHosting

REACT partners use the ownCloud platform for file hosting and sharing of consortiumdocuments.ownCloudisafreeopensourcesoftwarefordatasynchronization,filesharing,andremotestorageofdocuments.ItiswritteninthePHPandJavaScriptscriptinglanguagesand supports several database management systems, including SQLite, MariaDB, MySQL,OracleDatabase,andPostgreSQL.

File access is provided through a web interface or from mobile devices via mobileapplications for iOS and Android and from desktop clients available for PCs runningWindows,MacOS,orLinux.

InFigure 8we can see theweb interfaceof theREACT repository. TheownClouduserinterfacecontainsthefollowingfieldsandfunctions:

• AppsSelectionMenu:Locatedintheupperleftcornerandbyclickingthearrowadropdownmenuopenstonavigatetouser’svariousavailableapps.

• AppsInformationField:Locatedintheleftsidebarandprovidesfiltersandtasksassociatedwithuser’sselectedapp.Forexample,whentheFilesappsisused,aspecialsetoffiltersforquicklyfindingfilesisshown.

• ApplicationView:ThemaincentralfieldintheownClouduserinterface.Thisfielddisplaysthecontentsoruserfeaturesoftheselectedapp.

• NavigationBar: Locatedover themain viewingwindow (theApplicationView),this bar provides a type of breadcrumbs navigation that enables migration tohigherlevelsofthefolderhierarchyuptotherootlevel(home).

• NewButton:LocatedintheNavigationBar,thisbuttonenablestheusertocreatenewfiles,newfolders,orupload.

• SearchField:Theusercanclickonthemagnifierintheupperrighthandcornertosearchforfiles.

• PersonalSettingsMenu:TheusercanclickonherownCloudusername,locatedto the rightof theSearch field, toopen thePersonalSettingsdropdownmenu.Personalpageprovidessettingsandfeaturessuchas:

§ Linkstodownloaddesktopandmobileapps§ Serverusageandspaceavailability§ Passwordmanagement§ Name,email,andprofilepicturesettings§ GroupmembershipsoInterfacelanguagesettings§ Managenotifications§ Socialmediasharingbuttons§ ownCloudVersioninformation


Figure8-ownCloudofReAct


5 Conclusion

Inthisdeliverable,wediscussedtheReActwebsiteandcollaborationtools.Weprovidedadescriptionofthewebsitesectionsandcontentandoutlinedthesocialnetworkingfeatureswehave integrated.Moreover,weshowedtheprocessofupdatingthewebsite throughauser-friendlyfront-endeditor.

Additionally,weprovidedanoverviewofthecomponentsandthemethodologyweusedtobuildthewebsite.Wealsodetaileditssoftwareandhardwarehostingenvironment.

Closing,weshouldcitethatatthetimeofwritingofthisdocumenttheReActwebsitewasalreadycapabletoprovidethefunctionalityrequirementsthathadbeenlaidoutintheproject’sdescription.However,inadditiontotheexistingcommitmenttokeepthewebsiterunninganduptodate,theconsortiumwillcontinuelookingthroughoutthecourseoftheproject for features that could be integrated with it in order to provide an enhancedexperiencetothevisitors.

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