The research interests of members of the Group are well aligned with the research themes and cross-cutting topics of the Institute of Cyber Security for Society (iCSS).  If you need advice on PhD topics please contact the Head of Group, Professor Shujun Li.

Research Themes

Our Cyber Security capabilities are organised into four main research themes:

Socio-technical Security and Privacy

Socio-technical aspects of malware especially ransomware, usability, user behaviour, user profiling and modelling, cybercrime, privacy by design and privacy management, security and trust in online social networks, human-related risks, insider threats, trust management.

 

Authentication and Authorisation

Biometrics and other new authentication technologies, passwords, federated identity management, CAPTCHA, device authentication, authentication, authorisation and access control protocols, autonomic authorisation.

 

Communication and Network Security

IoT security, RFID security, cloud security, network security protocols, secure quantum communications, network intrusion detection, data loss prevention.

 

 

Security Testing and Verification

Software security analysis, malware code analysis, security metrics and automated testing, self-adaptive security in software systems, self-testing of quantum computing for next-generation quantum based security systems.

Cross-cutting Topics

The Group also has capabilities in some other important Cyber Security areas beyond the above themes, especially the following cross-cutting topics. Our work on these cross-cutting areas allows interactions with Associate Members of iCSS from different disciplines.

AI and Security: A majority of Core Members have research expertise in applications of AI related technologies in cyber security (machine learning, data mining, data analytics, discrete optimisation and information visualisation), which allows interactions with other research groups. A number of Core and Associate Members are also actively working on security of AI systems and models, a new emerging topic in both AI and cyber security.

Digital Forensics and Online Harms: Typical sub-topics include network forensics, computer forensics, mobile forensics, multimedia forensics, cybercrime, online child protection, and false information (e.g. fraud) detection and prevention.

 

 

Information Hiding: Typical sub-topics include steganography, steganalysis, and digital watermarking.

 

 

 

(Post-)Quantum Cyber Security: Development and evaluation of quantum-resistant cyber security systems based on quantum mechanics and cryprography.