ishaper project

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This activity is carried out in execution of the I-SHAPER Strategic Project (C114/23), the result of a collaboration agreement signed between the National Institute of Cybersecurity (INCIBE) and the Carlos III University of Madrid. This initiative is carried out within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan funds, financed by the European Union (Next Generation).

Internet-Service Hardening of Authentication, Confidentiality, Privacy, Enforcement and Reliability

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Summary

In recent times, the digital world has permeated almost every aspect of our daily lives. The internet now plays a central role not only in how we communicate, but also in our leisure, commerce, culture, health, among others. Recently, devices of various natures have become part of our digital life. Nowadays, domestic, industrial, and control devices (such as photovoltaic plants, measurement systems in connections, ventilation and air conditioning systems), and even vehicles, have acquired the attribute of being “connected”. More recently, the internet revolution has also reached money, savings, and investments through cryptocurrencies and decentralized finance.

Paradigms such as the Internet of Things, Machine to Machine devices, sensor networks, etc., whose generalizations can be grouped under the concept of the Internet of Everything (IoE), have contributed to this reality. In this rapid development of connecting the physical world with the virtual, the evolution of communication protocols and remote computing systems has played a leading role by enabling interconnection as well as the processing of millions of simultaneous data streams. These internet protocols and services, which absorb the generated information and provide added value results for connected devices, did not consider in their design the dynamic nature of accessing them, their migration, replication, and dynamic destruction based on demand, nor the growing threats of quantum computing or the analytical capabilities of artificial intelligence, which the connection of the physical world requires.

The I-SHAPER project aims to conduct research and experimentation through virtualized models and physical devices to advance the strengthening of devices, protocols, and internet services in multiple dimensions such as authentication, confidentiality, privacy, and auditing to contribute to ensuring secure access to these ecosystems of devices and digital assets. The project will allow for significant contributions to the scientific community, educate students on the subject, and carry out dissemination activities to the general public as well as digital literacy, thus contributing to a better understanding of the services, the challenges we face, and possible solutions.

Subsections of ishaper project

Activities

The activities of the I-SHAPER project are structured around two distinct axes:

  • Research: The aim is to contribute through research and experimentation to the identification of the threats involved in accessing services in this context, proposing mechanisms for the mitigation or reduction of these threats, thereby strengthening digital assets.

  • Dissemination: The aim is to contribute to raising awareness by transferring results to the scientific community, the citizenry, and industrial actors.

Publications and Events

– 28/11/2025 — Participation in UCAMI 2025 (17th International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing and Ambient Intelligence) at Fondazione PIN – Polo di Prato (University of Florence), Prato, Italy.

The I-SHAPER project participates in UCAMI 2025 through three activities focused on technology transfer and the international dissemination of the project’s final results. These sessions are aimed at technology companies, SMEs, and entities interested in advanced cybersecurity, industrial IoT, digital privacy, and post-quantum cryptography.

Technical Talks to Companies — 1 — IoT Security and Encrypted Traffic Analysis. (UCAMI 2025 Session 8)

This technical talk is intended for companies that develop or integrate IoT technologies, distributed platforms, or cybersecurity services. The session covers technologies applied to the protection of critical services and connected infrastructures, including:

- malware detection in encrypted traffic using machine learning,
- privacy analysis in DoH/DoT protocols,
- high-availability IoT architectures for biomedical telemetry,
- integrity and auditing mechanisms for DNS in distributed environments,
- scalable monitoring solutions as a service (NIDSaaS).

This talk constitutes a direct transfer of applicable results from the I-SHAPER project to the IoT business ecosystem.

Technical Talks to Companies — 2 — Digital Privacy, Secure VR, and Post-Quantum Attestation. (UCAMI 2025 Session 10)

This talk is aimed at software companies, VR/AR developers, digital security providers, and mobile platform stakeholders. It includes:

- evaluation of privacy leaks in mobile applications through static analysis,
- quantum-resistant remote attestation mechanisms for IoT,
- privacy and security in virtual reality environments,
- use of VR for cognitive analysis, workplace well-being, and attention studies,
- gamification and generative AI as tools for secure design of digital experiences.

The results presented reflect the final maturity of the I-SHAPER project in digital privacy and secure immersive technologies.

Technology Transfer Seminar — Post-Quantum Cryptography and Industrial IIoT. (UCAMI 2025 Session 9)

This specialized seminar is aimed at technology SMEs, industrial manufacturers, cybersecurity companies, and organizations preparing the transition to post-quantum systems. It covers:

- QKD proposals for communications in critical infrastructures,
- PUF-based authentication for IIoT environments,
- post-quantum entropy services for embedded devices,
- interpretability in ML models for intrusion detection,
- verifiable credentials for traceability, sustainability, and data certification.

This seminar constitutes an explicit technology transfer activity of the I-SHAPER project results to the European industrial ecosystem.

– 19/11/2025 - Publication on @IEEEAccess: “DNS Query Forgery: A Client-Side Defense Against Mobile App Traffic Profiling”. https://x.com/IShaperProject/status/1991192275360121262?s=20

– 07/11/2025 - Publication on @sciencedirect: “Zero-trust token authorization with trapdoor hashes for scalable distributed firewalls”. https://x.com/IShaperProject/status/1986741957410836760?s=20

– 31/10/2025 - Participation in the PhD forum at MSWIM 2025 with “Enhancing Privacy in DNS Communications with Energy-Aware Methodologies” by Andrea Jimenez-Berenguel, supervised by Marta Moure-Garrido and Celeste Campo. @INCIBE #ProyectosCiber #NextGenerationEU

– 30/10/2025 - Participation in PE-WASUM 2025 and presentation of the research “Implementing and Evaluating Post-Quantum DNSSEC in CoreDNS”, presented by Javier Blanco-Romero. @INCIBE #ProyectosCiber #NextGenerationEU #PlanDeRecuperación

– 01/10/2025 - Publication on @IEEEorg: “AI Versus IoT Security: Fingerprinting and Defenses Against TLS Handshake-Based IoT Device Classification”. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11168239 https://x.com/IShaperProject/status/1973332211563896897?s=20

– 19/09/2025 - Celebration of the I-Shaper Collaborative Day: Progress and Challenges in Cybersecurity.

– 17/09/2025 - Participation in the event “Quantum Technologies for Defence and Security II”, in which Javier Blanco-Romero delivered the presentation “Qursa: Architecture for Quantum-safe 5G”. https://x.com/IShaperProject/status/1968325741600465279?s=20

– 04/09/2025 - Publication on IEEE Xplore: “Beyond PKI: A DNSSEC Delegation Approach for Scalable Dynamic Credential Management in IoT”. https://x.com/IShaperProject/status/1963527434399047884?s=20 https://x.com/IShaperProject/status/1963527434399047884?s=20

– 29/07/2025 - Javier Blanco-Romero and Andrea Jiménez-Berenguel participed in the #IETF123 Hackathon with their project titled “PQC DNSSEC Algorithms and Non-Existence Responses”. https://x.com/IShaperProject/status/1950096884267208765?s=20

– 16/07/2025 - Publication on IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society @IEEEorg: “Hybrid Quantum Security for IPsec” en https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.09288 https://x.com/IShaperProject/status/1945487454871380135?s=20

– 16/07/2025 - Publication of the paper titled “Implementing and Evaluating Post-Quantum DNSSEC in CoreDNS”, accepted for presentation at PE-WASUN 2025. https://x.com/IShaperProject/status/1945437984448283110?s=20

– 04/07/2025 - Participation in QSNS2025 https://qubip.eu/qsns2025/ with the workshops “Onion Routing Key Distribution for QKDN” and “QKD-KEM: Hybrid QKD Integration into TLS with OpenSSL Providers” #ProyectosCiber #NextGenerationEU @INCIBE @PQREACT https://qursa.webs.uvigo.es

– 05/06/2025 - Participation in #JNIC2025 and presentation of the research “Studying MQTT Malicious Traffic: Methods and Challenges” developed by Mohammed Rashed, Carlos García Rubio and Celeste Campo.

– 09/04/2025 - Publication of the conference “QKD-KEM: Hybrid QKD Integration into TLS with OpenSSL Providers” at https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.07196 #ProyectosCiber #NextGenerationEU @INCIBE https://x.com/IShaperProject/status/1909958501230670311

– 28/02/2025 - The publication [“Machine Learning Predictors for Min-Entropy Estimation”] (https://t.co/Otjuchq1lT) was chosen as the journal Title Story by Entropy being displayed on the journal homepage for 1-2 months.

– 20/02/2025 to 22/02/2025 - Participation in https://www.morteruelo.net/ with the workshops:

* "Traffic analysis and automated testing for IoT devices using virtualization / auditing in dynamic DNS" and "Dynamic authentication with collisions, pre-quantum state and post-quantum challenges", talk given by Daniel Díaz Sánchez. 

- "DoH tunnels: attacks and detection", talk given by Carlos García Rubio.

- "Quantum-resistant cryptography: What is it, how to integrate it and how much does it cost?", talk given by Florina Almenares Mendoza, Javier Blanco Romero and Daniel Sobral Blanco.

- "Application and compliance with Tor policies while preserving user privacy", talk given by Marcelo Bagnulo Braun.

– 03/02/2025 - Publication of the article “Machine Learning Predictors for Min-Entropy Estimation” at https://mdpi.com/1099-4300/27/2/156 #ProyectosCiber #NextGenerationEU @INCIBE

– 15/01/2025 - Online Scientific-informative talk on “Historia de la seguridad en las comunicaciones”,given by Dr. Carlos García Rubio, at IES Villa de Valdemoro. #ProyectosCiber #NextGenerationEU @INCIBE

– 29/11/2024 - Publication of the article “Authorization models for IoT environments: A survey.” at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iot.2024.101430 #ProyectosCiber #NextGenerationEU @INCIBE – 13/11/2024 - Workshop “Hidden Messages: The Science and Art of Coded Messages”, for primary school children, at Julio Caro Baroja Library (Leganés). #ProyectosCiber #NextGenerationEU @INCIBE – 05/11/2024 - Publication of the presentation “Integrating Post-Quantum Cryptography into CoAP and MQTT-SN Protocols” https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/10733716 associated to workshop Quantum-Secure Networks and Systems del https://qubip.eu/qsns2024/. #ProyectosCiber #NextGenerationEU @INCIBE

– 04/11/2024 - Workshop “Hidden Messages: The Science and Art of Coded Messages”, for primary school children, at the Leganés Central Library. #ProyectosCiber #NextGenerationEU @INCIBE

– 04/11/2024 - Publication of the article “Evaluating integration methods of a quantum random number generator in OpenSSL for TLS” in https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comnet.2024.110877 #ProyectosCiber #NextGenerationEU @INCIBE – 31/10/2024 - Publication of the presentation “Integrating Post-Quantum Cryptography into CoAP and MQTT-SN Protocols” https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/10733716 associated with the workshop Quantum-Secure Networks and Systems del 29th ISCC (París) QSNS 2024. #ProyectosCiber #NextGenerationEU @INCIBE

– 23/10/2025 - 25/10/2025 - Attendance and participation in XVIII Spanish Meeting on Cryptology and Information Security (RECSI) with the presentación “Comparing Pseudo, Classical True and Quantum Random Number Generators Using Standard Quality Assessments”. #ProyectosCiber #NextGenerationEU @INCIBE

– 18/09/2024 - Publication of the article “Animation URL in NFT marketplaces considered harmful for privacy" at https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10207-024-00908-x?utm_source=rct_congratemailt&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=oa_20240917&utm_content=10.1007%2Fs10207-024-00908-x #ProyectosCiber #NextGenerationEU #PlanDeRecuperacion@INCIBE @CyberCampEs @IncibeEmprende

– 24/07/2024 - Publication of the article “Inferring mobile applications usage from DNS traffic” at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/ S1570870524002129#d1e710 https://x.com/IShaperProject/status/1814246194215801100 #ProyectosCiber #NextGenerationEU @INCIBE

– 26/06/2024 - Attendance and Participation in QSNS 2024 with Poster “Integrating Post-Quantum Cryptography into CoAP and MQTT-SN Protocols”. #ProyectosCiber #NextGenerationEU @INCIBE

– 27/05/2024 - Attendance and Participation in JNIC 2024 with Poster “Characterization of mobile applications through DNS traffic analysis” and, in Session X: Research – Quantum and post-quantum cryptography, PQSec-DDS Presentation: “Integrating Post-Quantum Cryptography into DDS Security for Robotic Applications”. https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=9633460 #ProyectosCiber #NextGenerationEU @INCIBE

– 24/04/2024 - Publication of the article “Reducing DNS Traffic to Enhance Home IoT Device Privacy” at https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/24/9/2690. #ProyectosCiber #NextGenerationEU @INCIBE – 08/03/2024 - Workshop “Learning to encrypt using language, mathematics and imagination” in the Equality Classroom of Education Week 2024. #ProyectosCiber #NextGenerationEU @INCIBE

– 05/03/2024 - “Wireless Penetration Testing.” Informative talk on given, at the UC3M Master’s Degree in Cibersecurity, by Mr. Miguel Haro (Airbus) and Mr. David Gómez (Telefónica). #ProyectosCiber #NextGenerationEU @INCIBE

– 02/28/2024 - Scientific-informative talk on History of Communications Security, given by Dr. Carlos García Rubio, at Mataespesa School in Alpedrete (Madrid). #ProyectosCiber #NextGenerationEU @INCIBE