Cyber Security research theme

The Cyber Security research theme covers a wide range of topics within the scope of cyber security, ranging from software, sensors and infrastructure systems security; data security, AI-based security and the security of AI; as well as cyber crime, digital forensics, human aspects of security, and geo-politics of cyber security.

Much of our research is applied in nature, through our extensive partnerships with government and industry, including the National Cyber Security Centre and GCHQ, the Ministry of Defence, and the National Crime Agency, as well as industry collaborators within the telecommunications sector, national security, and defence.

Professor Phil Legg

• Dr Abdullahi Arabo
• Dr Aida Abzhaparova
• Dr Sarfraz Brohi
• Dr Djamel Djenouri
• Mr Ian Johnson
• Professor Phil Legg
• Dr Mazhar Malik
• Dr Andrew McCarthy
• Dr Faiza Medjeck
• Mr Alan Mills
• Dr Myoung-Jin Nam
• Dr Zeinab Rezaeifar
• Mr Jonathan White

• Sadegh Bamohabbat Chafjiri
  PhD: Fuzzing by adapting cryptanalytic techniques and game theory.
  
  
• James Barrett
  PhD: Interactive machine learning for identifying threats to security and service in large-scale mobile networks.
  
  
• Aimen Djemaa
  PhD: Hybrid outlier clustering method using a novel dataset in intrusion detection systems.

• Yunus Karrem
  PhD: Securing IoT systems using emerging blockchain variants, decentralised identity and proof of location.
  
  
• Dalila Khettaf
  PhD: Graph-based group anomaly detection in IoT with deep learning.
  
  
• Carol Lo
  PhD: Design of a secure digital twin to detect and mitigate advanced persistent threats on cyber-physical systems in Smart Manufacturing.
  
  
• Alan Mills
  DPhil: Low resource virtualisation security.
  
  
• Khoa Phung 
  PhD: Integrating communicating X-machines, probabilistic and machine learning models to create a rigorous runtime error detection system for Java programs.
  
  
• Michael Yamsi Tchuindjang
  PhD: A defence model for large language models (LLMs) against multi-turn jailbreak attacks.
  
  
• Yen Wang
  PhD: Advancing rust-based malware analysis: Comparative insights, automated workflows for enhancing reverse engineering techniques and developing advanced detection frameworks
  
  
• Jonathan White
  DPhil: Federated learning: An analysis into the balance of machine learning and security.

Cyber sandpit: Linking cyber effects to mission objectives

A DSTL-funded project in collaboration with Trimetis and Frazer Nash Consultancy that explores training capabilities for military cyber protect teams and how human and machine-based decision support systems can assist for analysing and acting to protect hostile cyber environments (January 2023 -October 2023).

Human-as-a-sensor: Crowdsourced cyber security

A DSTL-funded project in collaboration with Trimetis and Frazer Nash Consultancy that explores human reporting mechanisms for suspicious behaviour, and how human reporting can be processed and coupled with machine observable attributes, to provide proactive security for organisations (January 2023 - October 2023).

Transforming Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs): UK's First Technology Line of Defence

A UKRI Innovate UK-funded project, in collaboration with Synalogik Innovations Ltd, as well as Cardiff University and the University of Reading, to explore improving both the production and analysis of the SARs process, resulting in more efficient capability to investigate and respond to cyber crime and financial crime activity (September 2022 - March 2024).

Measuring the suitability of AI technologies for autonomous resilience in cyber defence

A DSTL-funded project in collaboration with Trimetis, PA Consulting and QunetiQ. Within this project, we conducted a deep dive investigation into current and future considerations of how AI should be utilised in military, security, and defensive operations, including incident response and training activities. This project served as part of the ongoing "Autonomous Resilience in Cyber Defence" programme that DSTL operate. (2022).

CAVForth

CAVForth, funded by both UKRI Innovate UK and the Government Centre for Connected Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV), in collaboration with the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, Fusion Processing, and Stagecoach, developed a fully autonomous bus service in Scotland. The CSRC Cyber Security team contributed towards the cyber security assessment of this project, to ensure that safe and secure mechanisms are in place for vehicle operations (2020-2022).