About the Authors

Masoom Alam

masoom.alam@comsats.edu.pk

Affiliation Dept. of Computer Science, COMSATS Institute of Information technology, Islamabad, Pakistan

Asif Ihsan

Affiliation Trillium Information Security Systems, Rawalpindi, Pakistan

Muazzam A. Khan

Affiliation NUST College of EME, National University of Sciences and Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan

Qaisar Javaid

Affiliation Deptt of Computer Science, International Islamic University, Islamabad, Pakistan

Abid Khan

Affiliation Dept. of Computer Science, COMSATS Institute of Information technology, Islamabad, Pakistan

Jawad Manzoor

Affiliation Dept. of Computer Science, COMSATS Institute of Information technology, Islamabad, Pakistan

Adnan Akhundzada

Affiliation Dept. of Computer Science, COMSATS Institute of Information technology, Islamabad, Pakistan

M Khurram Khan

Affiliation King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Sajid Farooq

Affiliation Dept. of Computer Science, COMSATS Institute of Information technology, Islamabad, Pakistan

Competing Interests

Co-author AI was employed by Trillium Information Security Systems, Rawalpindi, Pakistan, a commercial company, during this study. There are no patents, products in development or marketed products to declare. This does not alter our adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization: MA AI AK MAK QJ JM AA MKK SF. Data curation: MA AI AK MAK QJ JM AA MKK SF. Formal analysis: MA AI AK MAK QJ JM AA MKK SF. Funding acquisition: MA AI AK MAK QJ JM AA MKK SF. Investigation: MA AI AK MAK QJ JM AA MKK SF. Methodology: MA AI AK MAK QJ JM AA MKK SF. Project administration: MA AI AK MAK QJ JM AA MKK SF. Resources: MA AI AK MAK QJ JM AA MKK SF. Software: MA AI AK MAK QJ JM AA MKK SF. Supervision: MA AI AK MAK QJ JM AA MKK SF. Validation: MA AI AK MAK QJ JM AA MKK SF. Visualization: MA AI AK MAK QJ JM AA MKK SF. Writing – original draft: MA AI AK MAK QJ JM AA MKK SF. Writing – review & editing: MA AI AK MAK QJ JM AA MKK SF.