Computer Standards & Interfaces最新文献

{"title":"A secure reversible image hiding approach combining block based intelligence with dual stego matrix encoding","authors":"Minakshi Sarkar ,&nbsp;Kankana Datta ,&nbsp;Bidesh Chakraborty ,&nbsp;Indrajit Banerjee","doi":"10.1016/j.csi.2026.104131","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.csi.2026.104131","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>With the rapid growth of communication technologies, securing private data during transmission over public networks has become a significant challenge. Traditional data hiding methods, such as modifying the least significant bits (LSBs) of image pixels, often lead to visible distortion, especially when embedding large amounts of data. To address this issue, we propose a novel image steganography method that combines AES encryption, a Fine Tuning Transformer (FTT) classifier, and LSB embedding integrated with a Binary Lower Triangular Matrix (BLTM) for secure data hiding. In the proposed approach, the secret image is first encrypted using AES to ensure data confidentiality. The FTT classifier then predicts three block labels that determine the amount of data to be embedded in each block. Using the BLTM concept along with LSB substitution, the encrypted data is embedded into both cover images. Finally, to further enhance security, the two stego images are encrypted using a master key. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme provides high imperceptibility. Even at the maximum embedding rate of 0.93 bpp, the PSNR values remain above 56 dB, while the Mean Square Error (MSE) is low and the Structural Similarity Index (SSIM) stays above 0.97. The proposed dual-image steganographic framework advances secure multimedia communication by supporting image authentication, tamper detection, and forgery prevention benefiting domains such as healthcare, defense, and digital rights protection. It also offers adaptive payload allocation and strong robustness against noise, salt-and-pepper, opaque masking, and grid occlusion attacks, making the system both reliable and attack resilient.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50635,"journal":{"name":"Computer Standards & Interfaces","volume":"97 ","pages":"Article 104131"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146037168","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Graph-based interpretable dialogue sentiment analysis: A HybridBERT-LSTM framework with semantic interaction explainer","authors":"Ercan Atagün ,&nbsp;Günay Temür ,&nbsp;Serdar Bi̇roğul","doi":"10.1016/j.csi.2025.104086","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.csi.2025.104086","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Conversational sentiment analysis in natural language processing faces substantial challenges due to intricate contextual semantics and temporal dependencies within multi-turn dialogues. We present a novel HybridBERT-LSTM architecture that integrates BERT’s contextualized embeddings with LSTM’s sequential processing capabilities to enhance sentiment classification performance in dialogue scenarios. Our framework employs a dual-pooling mechanism to capture local semantic features and global discourse dependencies, addressing limitations of conventional approaches. Comprehensive evaluation on IMDb benchmark and real-world dialogue datasets demonstrates that HybridBERT-LSTM consistently improves over standalone models (LSTM, BERT, CNN, SVM) across accuracy, precision, recall, and F1-score metrics. The architecture effectively exploits pre-trained contextual representations through bidirectional LSTM layers for temporal discourse modeling. We introduce WordContextGraphExplainer, a graph-theoretic interpretability framework addressing conventional explanation method limitations. Unlike LIME’s linear additivity assumptions treating features independently, our approach utilizes perturbation-based analysis to model non-linear semantic interactions. The framework generates semantic interaction graphs with nodes representing word contributions and edges encoding inter-word dependencies, visualizing contextual sentiment propagation patterns. Empirical analysis reveals LIME’s inadequacies in capturing temporal discourse dependencies and collaborative semantic interactions crucial for dialogue sentiment understanding. WordContextGraphExplainer explicitly models semantic interdependencies, negation scope, and temporal flow across conversational turns, enabling comprehensive understanding of both word-level contributions and contextual interaction influences on decision-making processes. This integrated framework establishes a new paradigm for interpretable dialogue sentiment analysis, advancing trustworthy AI through high-performance classification coupled with comprehensive explainability.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50635,"journal":{"name":"Computer Standards & Interfaces","volume":"97 ","pages":"Article 104086"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145625273","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"V-Bridge: A dynamic cross-shard blockchain protocol based on off-chain payment channel","authors":"Xueting Huang ,&nbsp;Xiangwei Meng ,&nbsp;Kai Zhang ,&nbsp;Ce Yang ,&nbsp;Wei Liang ,&nbsp;Kuan-Ching Li","doi":"10.1016/j.csi.2025.104123","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.csi.2025.104123","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Sharding technology effectively improves system throughput by distributing the blockchain transaction load to multiple shards for parallel processing, and it is the core solution to the scalability problem of blockchain. However, as the number of shards increases, the frequency of cross-shard transactions increases significantly, leading to increased communication and computational overhead, transaction delays, uneven resource allocation, and load imbalance, which becomes a key bottleneck for performance expansion. To this end, this article proposes the cross-shard transaction protocol V-Bridge, which draws on the concept of off-chain payment channels to establish distributed virtual fund channels between Trustors in different shards, convert cross-shard transactions into off-chain transactions and realize the logical flow of funds. To further enhance cross-shard transaction performance, our V-Bridge integrates an intelligent sharding adjustment mechanism, and a cross-shard optimized critical path protection algorithm (CSOCPPA) to dynamically balance shard loads, alleviate resource allocation issues, and minimize performance bottlenecks. Experimental results show that compared with existing state-of-the-art protocols, our proposed V-Bridge’s average throughput is increased by 26% to 46%, and transaction delays are reduced by 15% to 24%.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50635,"journal":{"name":"Computer Standards & Interfaces","volume":"97 ","pages":"Article 104123"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145925039","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A multi-criteria process for IT project success evaluation–Addressing a critical gap in standard practices","authors":"João Carlos Lourenço ,&nbsp;João Varajão","doi":"10.1016/j.csi.2025.104122","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.csi.2025.104122","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The evaluation of project success is widely recognised as valuable for improving IT (Information Technology) project performance and impact. However, many processes fail to adequately address the requirements for a sound evaluation due to their inherent complexity or by not complying with fundamental practical and theoretical concepts. This paper presents a process that combines a problem structuring method with a multi-criteria decision analysis approach to evaluate the success of IT projects. Put into practice in the context of a software development project developed for a leading global supplier of technology and services, it offers a new way of creating a model for evaluating project success and tackling uncertainty, bringing clarity and consistency to the overall assessment process. A strong advantage of this process is that it is theoretically sound and can be easily applied to other evaluation problems involving other criteria. It also serves as a call to action for the development of formal standards in evaluation processes. Practical pathways to achieve such standardization include collaboration through industry consortia, development and adoption of ISO frameworks, and embedding evaluation processes within established maturity models. These pathways can foster consistency, comparability, and continuous improvement across organizations, paving the way for more robust and transparent evaluation practices.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50635,"journal":{"name":"Computer Standards & Interfaces","volume":"97 ","pages":"Article 104122"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145883440","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"How AI agents transform reflective practices: A three-semester comparative study in socially shared regulation of learning","authors":"Yumin Zheng ,&nbsp;Fengjiao Tu ,&nbsp;Fengfang Shu ,&nbsp;Chaowang Shang ,&nbsp;Lulu Chen ,&nbsp;Jiang Meng","doi":"10.1016/j.csi.2025.104094","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.csi.2025.104094","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>High-quality reflection has been a challenging barrier in the socially shared regulation of learning (SSRL). Especially with the emergence of generative artificial intelligence (GAI), traditional methods such as reflection reports may increase the students' risk of superficial reflection. This study uses an artificial intelligence agent (AI agent) to design a reflection assistant, which aims to enhance students' reflection ability through continuous questioning and real-time, content-specific feedback based on their written reflections. Through a comparative experiment conducted over three semesters, this study demonstrates the different impacts of three reflection methods, reflection reports, reflection short-answer questions, and AI agents, on the quality of university students' reflections. The results indicate that there is a significant difference in the quality of reflection among the three reflection methods. Students using AI agents show the highest levels of reflection, characterized primarily by connective reflection and critical reflection. Epistemic network analysis further reveals that the AI agent reflection method is more effective in improving the reflection quality of low-performance teams than that of high-performance teams. This expands AI agents' use in SSRL reflection, introduces new methods for the GAI era, and provides practical experience and reflection intervention strategies for teachers and instructional designers in SSRL.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50635,"journal":{"name":"Computer Standards & Interfaces","volume":"97 ","pages":"Article 104094"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145580387","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Assessing the quantum readiness of cryptographic standards: Recommendations toward quantum-era compliance","authors":"Vikas Chouhan ,&nbsp;Mohammed Aldarwbi ,&nbsp;Somayeh Sadeghi ,&nbsp;Ali Ghorbani ,&nbsp;Aaron Chow ,&nbsp;Robby Burko","doi":"10.1016/j.csi.2025.104114","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.csi.2025.104114","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Cryptography is fundamental to securing digital data and communications, yet established algorithms face increasing risk from emerging quantum capabilities. With the progression of quantum computing, the urgency for cryptographic standards that remain secure in both classical and quantum settings has intensified, governed not only by cryptanalytic risk but also by compliance, interoperability, and country-specific regulatory frameworks. This paper presents a structured evaluation framework that depicts the hierarchy of cryptographic standards, encompassing block ciphers, stream ciphers, hash and MAC functions, key establishment mechanisms, digital signatures, lightweight cryptography, entity authentication, public key infrastructure, and authentication and communication protocols. We define a standards-to-protocol recommendation flow that propagates compliant guidance across layers, from foundational primitives to PKI/authentication and hybridization, and extends to country-specific recommendations and protocols. Our contributions include explicit decision criteria for assessing cryptographic primitives under classical and quantum threat models, yielding both immediate and alternative deployment recommendations aligned with NIST-compliant guidelines. We further analyze hybrid schemes to ensure backward compatibility and secure integration, quantifying storage and network overheads for signatures, encryption, and key exchange to identify practical engineering trade-offs. Consolidated results are presented in reference tables detailing standardization year, purpose, notes, and migration recommendations for both classical and post-quantum contexts. Additionally, we examine the security strength of cryptographic primitives that are currently classically secure or quantum-resistant. This framework offers a reproducible, extensible path toward quantum-ready cryptographic systems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50635,"journal":{"name":"Computer Standards & Interfaces","volume":"97 ","pages":"Article 104114"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145839789","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Fully decentralized period k-times anonymous authentication with access criteria","authors":"Hongyan Di ,&nbsp;Yinghui Zhang ,&nbsp;Ziqi Zhang ,&nbsp;Yibo Pang ,&nbsp;Rui Guo ,&nbsp;Yangguang Tian","doi":"10.1016/j.csi.2025.104097","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.csi.2025.104097","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The explosive growth of Internet user devices highlights the strong and urgent need for digital identity infrastructure. However, the existing decentralized identity schemes are still not fully decentralized, and there is still a contradiction between publicly auditable credentials and maintaining anonymity. Therefore, using advanced cryptographic techniques such as signature proof of knowledge, Pedersen commitment, and Merkle tree, this paper propose a fully decentralized period <em>k</em>-times anonymous authentication with access criteria. The scheme allows user credentials to be publicly audited, users can manage their identity independently, and the verifier can not only verify the user’s identity, but also implement access control. The issuer does not need to hold a key or maintain a list, and it can still authenticate even after the trusted center is attacked, and only three zero-knowledge proofs are needed for registration and verification. The security analysis indicates that this scheme satisfies unforgeability, anonymity, unlinkability and attribute privacy. Performance evaluation shows significant improvements in both computational and communication efficiency over existing schemes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50635,"journal":{"name":"Computer Standards & Interfaces","volume":"97 ","pages":"Article 104097"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145625188","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Integrating IoT security practices into a risk-based framework for small and medium enterprises (SMEs)","authors":"Samer Aoudi,&nbsp;Hussain Al-Aqrabi","doi":"10.1016/j.csi.2025.104099","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.csi.2025.104099","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The growing integration of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies within Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) has introduced new operational efficiencies while simultaneously expanding the cybersecurity threat landscape. However, most SMEs lack the resources, technical expertise, and institutional maturity required to adopt existing security frameworks, which are often designed with large enterprises in mind. This paper proposes a risk-based framework specifically developed to help SMEs identify, assess, and mitigate IoT-related security risks in a structured and scalable manner. The framework integrates key components such as asset classification, STRIDE-based threat modeling, CVSS-driven vulnerability assessment, and dynamic risk prioritization through Bayesian inference. Emphasis is placed on cost-effective mitigation strategies that are feasible within SME resource constraints and aligned with regulatory requirements. The framework was validated through a real-world case study involving a digitally enabled retail SME. Results demonstrate tangible improvements in vulnerability management, security control implementation, and organizational readiness. Additionally, qualitative feedback from stakeholders highlights the framework’s usability, adaptability, and minimal disruption to operations. This research bridges a critical gap in the current literature by contextualizing established cybersecurity methodologies for the SME sector and providing a practical toolset for managing IoT risks. The proposed framework offers SMEs a viable path toward improving cybersecurity resilience in increasingly connected business environments.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50635,"journal":{"name":"Computer Standards & Interfaces","volume":"97 ","pages":"Article 104099"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145694121","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Breaking cross-domain model protection via surrogate-guided unsupervised distribution transformation","authors":"Huali Ren ,&nbsp;Pengyu Chen ,&nbsp;Ziyu Ding ,&nbsp;Weitong Chen ,&nbsp;Jiachao Li ,&nbsp;Chong-zhi Gao","doi":"10.1016/j.csi.2026.104141","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.csi.2026.104141","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Cross-domain restricted learning has emerged as a promising paradigm for safeguarding deep learning model intellectual property by establishing transferability constraints between authorized and unauthorized domains. Existing restriction-breaking approaches typically require annotated data for model fine-tuning, which not only compromises authorized domain performance but also proves impractical under API-only access scenarios. To address these limitations, we propose SDUT (Surrogate-guided Distribution Transformation), a novel unsupervised method that breaks domain restrictions by transforming unauthorized domain samples into the authorized domain distribution. Specifically, SDUT first acquires input–output data pairs through systematic querying of the restricted API and trains a functionally equivalent local surrogate model using dual-domain optimization. We then construct a distribution transformation network based on Vision Transformer with the surrogate model, combining data-level transformation objectives with individual certainty and global diversity objectives derived from model prediction characteristics. Finally, leveraging neural network transferability, the trained transformation network is applied to restricted model to achieve effective domain restriction breaking. Extensive experiments on standard benchmarks (Digits, CIFAR10, STL10) demonstrate that SDUT achieves 43% performance improvement on unauthorized domains while fully preserving authorized domain performance. Our results expose fundamental weaknesses in existing restriction mechanisms and provide important guidance for enhancing model security frameworks.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50635,"journal":{"name":"Computer Standards & Interfaces","volume":"97 ","pages":"Article 104141"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146187409","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"An autonomous deep reinforcement learning-based approach for memory configuration in serverless computing","authors":"Zahra Shojaee Rad,&nbsp;Mostafa Ghobaei-Arani,&nbsp;Reza Ahsan","doi":"10.1016/j.csi.2025.104098","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.csi.2025.104098","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Serverless computing has become very popular in recent years due to its cost savings and flexibility. Serverless computing is a cloud computing model that allows developers to create and deploy code without having to manage the infrastructure. It has been embraced due to its scalability, cost savings, and ease of use. However, memory configuration is one of the important challenges in serverless computing due to the transient nature of serverless functions, which are stateless and ephemeral. In this paper, we propose an autonomous approach using deep reinforcement learning and a reward mechanism for memory configuration called Auto Opt Mem. In the Auto Opt Mem mechanism, the system learns to allocate memory resources to serverless functions in a way that balances overall performance and minimizes wastage of resources. Finally, we validate the effectiveness of our solution, the findings revealed that Auto Opt Mem mechanism enhances resource utilization, reduces operation cost and latency, and improves quality of service (QoS). Our experiments demonstrate that Auto Opt Mem mechanism achieves 16.8 % lower latency compared to static allocation, 11.8 % cost reduction, and 6.8 % improve in QoS, resource utilization, and efficient memory allocation compared with base-line methods.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50635,"journal":{"name":"Computer Standards & Interfaces","volume":"97 ","pages":"Article 104098"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145580388","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}