Centre for Secure Information Technologies - Tranche 2 Proposal

Lead Research Organisation: Queen's University Belfast
Department Name: Sch of Electronics, Elec Eng & Comp Sci

Abstract

The Internet (Cyber space) is a source of infinite knowledge, an evolving artefact unconstrained by national borders, law, regulations or languages and a community with commercial, political and criminal interests. The Internet has 2 billion Internet users, there are 234 million web sites and there are 250 billion emails sent every day.

It is hard to say exactly what the internet will become, but we can see a world where the Internet will be used in assisted living; allowing computers to drive our cars and monitoring and managing our health. The Internet will almost certainly also become a personal assistant; scheduling our day, advising us when we should eat, when we should sleep and what we should do. One thing we can be sure of is that the complexity and capability of the Internet continues to explode exponentially and as it does securing; information, infrastructure and citizen will need equally advanced and intelligent capability.

Even though the Internet is core to a functioning society, Cyber space is not protected and cyber threats have evolved into global criminal enterprises. In February 2011 the UK Cabinet Office announced that cybercrime cost the UK £27Billion per annum.
The risks associated with the Internet extend from individuals to nations. An unprotected PC can be infected by malicious software (malware) within minutes of being connected to the Internet, and last year the Stuxnet virus attack on an Iranian power plant showed that the Internet is being used by nation states for Cyber war. Internet Security is currently however either a privilege for those who are willing to pay for security tools and services, or for those with the engineering skills to understand the technology and threat.

What should be done?

The research at CSIT has a vision that Internet Security should be available for all. As information is travelling through the network, it should be cleansed and filtered of malware, and criminal activity policed. An analogy would lie with the provision of water as a utility. We trust that when we turn on a tap, the water we drink is safe and pure, we do not have filters at the tap. As we turn on the Internet in our homes we should also be confident that the mechanism to deliver the Internet in itself cleanses the content. At the heart of CSIT is the perennial challenge of making all of the IT solutions, of today and tomorrow, secure. CSIT is becoming a world-class Research and Innovation centre, coupling major research breakthroughs in Secure Information Technology with exciting developments in innovation and commercialisation.

When electronic sensor devices and CCTV cameras are networked and combined with computer processing, IT then becomes a power enabling tool in the field of physical infrastructure protection, which includes fire monitoring, asset tracking and intrusion detection. Thus while IT security itself is often a matter of defending against automated attack by viral programs, IT for asset protection is a tool to assist the human operator. The IT systems used for infrastructure systems must themselves be secure not least because personal biometric data is increasingly being rolled out as a part of the solution.

The driving goal for CSIT is to strategically position U.K. industry at the forefront of the field of secure IT because this field is a critical, emerging and rapidly growing sector with its wider benefits for the safety and security of society. Embedded within Queen's University, with its very successful record of industrial collaboration and spin-out company formation, CSIT therefore lends itself well to a strong business and academic partnership, creating a continuous flow of knowledge transfer opportunities, with realizable shorter term milestones for transfer of the research, coupled with exciting opportunities for major breakthroughs and ensuring commercial opportunities for UK industry.

Planned Impact

Who will benefit from this research?

Industrial partners will be one of the main beneficiaries of the research through various knowledge transfer processes. These companies come from a variety of sectors and include for example, systems manufacturers, telecoms companies, internet security companies, banks and financial service companies. In addition to industrial partners, a number of stakeholders within government will also benefit from the research. These include government organisations responsible for information and physical security, in addition to law enforcement agencies responsible for detection of e-crime. The wider academic community will also benefit from the new body of knowledge developed by the researchers in CSIT.

How will they benefit from this research?

Society in general will also benefit indirectly from CSIT, partly through improved security of information and data as well as improved physical security. Examples of this include increased security of data on line, lower risk of virus infection or improved security at airports or public transport with reduced crime rates. Also there will be a benefit as a result of the contribution to the wider economy through jobs (up to 80), services etc. The link with the Virtual Task Force in Grand Challenge 3 (financial services) will provide a clear mechanism for commercialisation and provide a strong opportunity for societal benefit e.g. making the banking system more secure and making the UK a safer place to do business.

What will be done to ensure that they have the opportunity to benefit from this research?

The structure and staffing of CSIT will ensure that commercialisation and impact will be a critical element of CSIT operations e.g. extensive range of companies and other government agencies on the industrial advisory board, employment of engineers and business development and commercialisation staff. Since the industrial advisory board has been closely involved in the formulation of the research agenda, this will ensure that commercialisation and knowledge transfer is built into the R&D process. New members have been added to the board and a number of other potential full and associate member are in the pipeline. This engagement will be critical in ensuring knowledge transfer/impact both in the short to medium term but also in the longer term. A wide variety of mechanisms will be employed to maximise impact. These include QUB's high success rate in Knowledge Transfer Partnerships, licensing deals, spin out companies, training courses and the usual dissemination methods to ensure academic impact (e.g. high quality journals and international conferences).

Another example of how CSIT will ensure impact is through high profile events, in Belfast, London and internationally. The recent World Cyber Security Technology Research Summit, held at CSIT in March 2011 was a major success and helped establish CSIT as a leading international research centre, with high profile PR from the event and new collaboration and impact opportunities established.
 
Description Major achievements include:

• Creating a team of 80 people - comprising Academics, RAs, PhDs, engineering and business development staff.
• Largest UK University Centre for Cyber Security Technology Research with a growing international reputation.
• Published 245 research publications in leading journals and conferences (e.g. IEEE, ACM).
• 10 core and commercially relevant new technologies have been developed in the fields of data security, network security, people security and critical infrastructure security.
• A multidisciplinary team of academics, business professionals, researchers and industry experienced engineers that bring together a diversity of experience and skills needed
to achieve the challenging objectives of an IKC.
• Currently host 33 PhD students, with 18 graduated students.
• Over £16m in new research/business won, of which 36% research funding -EU/EPSRC/ESRC/GCHQ, 64% from industry/innovation funding (in addition to £4.4M Invest NI
funding and initial EPSRC/InnovateUK funding).
• EPSRC/GCHQ approved Academic Centre of Excellence (ACE) in Cyber Security.
• International links include Carnegie Mellon University, SRI International, University of Texas at Austin and Georgia Tech in the US, ETRI, NSRI and Hanyang University in Korea and Infosys in India.
• Received numerous medals and awards in the period, including the Royal Irish Academy's Cunningham Medal (its highest honour), the IET's Mountbatten medal, a Royal
Academy of Engineering Silver medal and a Blavatnik Awards finalist medal.
• Prof John McCanny co-chaired the Royal Society Cyber Security Research policy committee. This was published in July 2016. https://royalsociety.org/topics-policy/projects/cybersecurity-
research/
• The majority of CSIT academics and their research were assessed via sub-panel 13 in REF 2014. This resulted in an overall REF profile of 27%@4*, 66%@3*, 6%@2* and 1%
@1* i.e. 93% of the research undertaken by the overall UoA has been assessed as being world leading or internationally excellent. The UoA's corresponding Impact sub-profile
was assessed as being 50% 4* and 50% 3* i.e. all of the research impact submitted has been assessed has having either outstanding or very considerable impact in terms of
research and significance.
Exploitation Route Through our extensive links with industry and government organisations as documented on our web site www.csit.qub.ac.uk. Through the creation of a new business cluster in Northern Ireland that now comprises 50 companies with over 1700 new jobs in cybersecurity since created. Through the creation of spin-off companies and through support for InvestNI and UKTI in the attraction of Foreign Direct Investment. Through the normal mechanisms of publication in high quality research journals and conferences including citations since received.
Sectors Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)

Electronics

Energy

Security and Diplomacy

Transport

URL https://www.qub.ac.uk/csit/
 
Description From the outset, CSIT's vision was to establish a Global Innovation Hub for Cyber Security in order to promote growth in this strategically important sector of the UK economy. As documented below, there have been major achievements in the past five years. The Centre is increasingly recognised as a leader in cyber security technology research within academia. CSIT has created a unique 'Open Innovation' model that is successfully 'bridging the gap' to economic impact. Cyber security is still an emerging discipline but one that is growing rapidly. This is presenting exciting opportunities for research, new business and economic impact. CSIT is in a strong position to make further and significant contributions in all of these aspects and help position the UK in terms of international research reputation as well as scaling economic growth. More specific examples include • 6 Full Member Companies and 13 Associate Member Companies that pay an annual fee to engage - £30k pa. for full members). • Supported Invest NI and UKTI in securing 1700 jobs in the sector through Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), (Represents circa £70M to UK economy in salaries p.a.). This has led to the creation of a new Cybersecuirty business cluster in Belfast. • 5 spin-out companies have been created: Titan IC Systems, MicroSense, Active Wireless, Liopa and Sirona. (Titan IC has just been acquired by Mellanox, a specialist in high-performance interconnect solutions for data centre servers and storage systems) • Strong engagement with SMEs (consultancy, contract research, co-tendering, 7 KTPs etc.). RepKnight, AirPos, Seven Technologies, and Titan IC Systems etc. have won significant new business because of CSIT. • Membership of the UK Cyber Growth Partnership steering board that brings together industry academia and government that is seeking to boost the UK's global market in Cyber Security products and services. • Host the 'Cyber 100' at the annual World Cyber Security Technology Research Summit; bringing together senior industry, academia and government authorities to discuss major challenges and strategic directions.
First Year Of Impact 2010
Sector Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Electronics,Security and Diplomacy
Impact Types Societal

Economic

 
Description Membership of UK government delegation to ITU Study Group 17 (Security)
Geographic Reach Multiple continents/international 
Policy Influence Type Membership of a guideline committee
 
Description Accelerated Real-Time Information Extraction System (ARIES)
Amount £252,523 (GBP)
Funding ID EP/J020540/1 
Organisation Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 09/2012 
End 09/2013
 
Description Allstate NI Ltd: Anomaly Detection System for Insurance Claim & Point of Sale Fraud Detection
Amount £677,096 (GBP)
Organisation Allstate 
Department Allstate Northern Ireland
Sector Private
Country United Kingdom
Start 03/2016 
End 03/2019
 
Description Automated Detection of Android Malware
Amount £30,000 (GBP)
Organisation Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 09/2013 
End 03/2014
 
Description Contract Research for Titan IC Systems
Amount £150,000 (GBP)
Organisation Titan IC Systems 
Sector Private
Country United Kingdom
Start 05/2012 
End 06/2013
 
Description DCMS Funding
Amount £35,000 (GBP)
Organisation Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start  
 
Description DSTL Security for the Internet of Things - Challenge 1 - Software PUFs as a Trust Anchor
Amount £49,767 (GBP)
Funding ID CDE41446 
Organisation Defence Science & Technology Laboratory (DSTL) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 01/2016 
End 03/2016
 
Description EPSRC First Grant: Analysing and Detecting Advanced Multi-stage Attacks against ICS (ADAMA)
Amount £99,552 (GBP)
Funding ID EP/N022866/1 
Organisation Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 03/2016 
End 03/2018
 
Description EU Framework Programme 7 (PRECYSE)
Amount € 441,620 (EUR)
Funding ID FP7- SEC-2013- 1-20121119 
Organisation European Commission 
Sector Public
Country European Union (EU)
Start 03/2014 
End 03/2017
 
Description EU Framework Programme 7 (SPARKS)
Amount € 3,429,551 (EUR)
Funding ID FP7-SEC-2012- 1-28518/1 
Organisation European Commission 
Sector Public
Country European Union (EU)
Start 03/2014 
End 06/2017
 
Description GCHQ PhD Studentship (Application Layer DDoS Attack Mitigation)
Amount £100,000 (GBP)
Organisation Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start  
 
Description GCHQ PhD Studentship (Lattice based Post-Quantum Cryptography)
Amount £109,539 (GBP)
Organisation Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start  
 
Description GCHQ PhD Studentship (Side Channel Attacks using Machine Learning Techniques)
Amount £100,000 (GBP)
Organisation Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start  
 
Description GCHQ Project: SDN Security Application
Amount £37,819 (GBP)
Organisation Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 01/2016 
End 03/2016
 
Description GCHQ Small Grants - 2016
Amount £34,900 (GBP)
Organisation Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 01/2016 
End 03/2016
 
Description HEFCE Strategic Development Fund (Catalyst Fund) project; SETsquared: Cognition Video iCURE
Amount £28,377 (GBP)
Funding ID 514603903 
Organisation Higher Education Funding Council for England 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 12/2015 
End 03/2016
 
Description Horizon 2020 Cybersecurity, Trustworthy ICT (SAFEcrypto)
Amount € 1,036,405 (EUR)
Funding ID Grant agreement no: 644729 
Organisation European Commission 
Sector Public
Country European Union (EU)
Start 01/2015 
End 12/2018
 
Description Huawei Project: OpenFlow Multi-Table Analysis for SDN Security Solutions
Amount £126,378 (GBP)
Organisation Huawei Technologies 
Sector Private
Country China
Start 03/2016 
End 03/2017
 
Description Invest NI Phase 1
Amount £4,371,307 (GBP)
Funding ID RD0709279 
Organisation Invest Northern Ireland 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 09/2010 
End 01/2017
 
Description Invest NI Proof of Concept (Accelerated Video Forensics)
Amount £106,000 (GBP)
Funding ID PoC 458 
Organisation Invest Northern Ireland 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 12/2014 
End 06/2016
 
Description Invest NI Proof of Concept (Columbus)
Amount £106,000 (GBP)
Funding ID PoC 457 
Organisation Invest Northern Ireland 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 12/2014 
End 06/2016
 
Description Invest NI Proof of Concept (PUF-PKI: Authentication Platform for Machine-to-Machine Communications Systems)
Amount £106,000 (GBP)
Funding ID PoC 341 
Organisation Invest Northern Ireland 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start  
 
Description Invest NI Proof of Concept (SDN Security)
Amount £105,000 (GBP)
Funding ID PoC 405 
Organisation Invest Northern Ireland 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 03/2014 
End 02/2016
 
Description LEVERHULME DOCTORAL SCHOLARSHIPS: Leverhulme Interdisciplinary Network on Cybersecurity and Society (LINCS)
Amount £1,050,000 (GBP)
Organisation The Leverhulme Trust 
Sector Charity/Non Profit
Country United Kingdom
Start 09/2016 
End 09/2019
 
Description Making remote working secure, resilient and reliable (IMES)
Amount £144,190 (GBP)
Funding ID 44178-323139 
Organisation Innovate UK 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 03/2015 
End 01/2017
 
Description Network in Internet and Mobile Malicious Software (NIMBUS)
Amount £100,348 (GBP)
Funding ID EP/K003445/1 
Organisation Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 11/2012 
End 10/2015
 
Description Providing Autonomous Capabilities for Evolving SCADA (PACES)
Amount £623,033 (GBP)
Funding ID EP/J012149/1 
Organisation Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 09/2012 
End 09/2015
 
Description Research Institute in Trustworthy Industrial Control Systems Phase 2 (CAPRICA)
Amount £394,306 (GBP)
Funding ID EP/M002837/1 
Organisation Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 09/2014 
End 12/2016
 
Description CSIT Industial Advisory Board 
Organisation McAfee
Country United States 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution Involvement in CSIT Industrial Advisory Board and membership scheme, providing market input into research problems and ensuring impact and commercialisation
Start Year 2010
 
Description CSIT Industrial Advisory Board (Allstate) 
Organisation Allstate
Department Allstate Northern Ireland
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution Attendance and interaction through CSIT Advisory Board meetings
Collaborator Contribution Attendance at CSIT Advisory Board meetings, provision of market insight, real-world challenges etc.
Impact None
Start Year 2014
 
Description CSIT Industrial Advisory Board (Roke) 
Organisation Roke Manor Research Ltd.
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution Attendance and interaction through CSIT Advisory Board meetings
Collaborator Contribution Attendance at CSIT Advisory Board meetings, provision of market insight, real-world challenges etc.
Impact None
Start Year 2013
 
Description CSIT Industrial Advisory Board and membership scheme 
Organisation CISCO Systems
Country United States 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution Involvement in CSIT Industrial Advisory Board and membership scheme, informing the research agenda and ensuring market focus and commercial potential and impact.
Start Year 2011
 
Description CSIT Membership Model 
Organisation BAE Systems
Department Advanced Technology Centre
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution An independent Industrial Advisory Board made up of industry members who have joined CSIT to help guide and provide market input into the research direction. BAE give important market input to inform the research within CSIT and identify opportunitities for exploitation.
Start Year 2009
 
Description CSIT Membership of Industrial Advisory Board 
Organisation Thales Group
Department Thales Research & Technology (Uk) Ltd
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution Contribution in both cash and in kind to CSIT Industrual Advisory Board and membership scheme. Market input to help inform the research agenda to ensure impact and commercialisation.
Start Year 2009
 
Description KTP with Relay Software 
Organisation Relay Software
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution TSB funded Knowledge Transfer Partnership on secure software for Insurance Industry
Start Year 2012
 
Description KTP with Replify 
Organisation Replify
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution TSB funded Knowledge Transfer Partnership on Secure WAN Optimisation
Start Year 2012
 
Description KTP with Seven Technologies 
Organisation Seven Technologies
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution A TSB funded Knowledge Transfer Partnership on secure WiFi
Start Year 2011
 
Description Knowledge Transfer Partnership with AllState NI (Insurance Fraud Detection) 
Organisation Allstate
Department Allstate Northern Ireland
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution Application of advanced data analytics techniques to detection of Insurance Fraud.
Collaborator Contribution Deep engagement with CSIT staff and preparation of a large Grant for R&D which has been submitted to Invest NI.
Impact Too early
Start Year 2014
 
Description Knowledge Transfer Partnership with Autoline Insurance (Vehicle Telematics) 
Organisation Autoline Insurance
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution Investigation of realtime streaming telematics from motor cars and application of advanced data analytics to determine driving style and risk factors.
Collaborator Contribution Access to datasets.
Impact Autoline now offer telematics based motor insurance policies and are gaining market share.
Start Year 2014
 
Company Name Cognition Video 
Description Cognition Video develops video-processing algorithms that can be customised for detection, classification, and tracking of particular people and objects. The core technologies focus on facial recognition, gender and age classification, vehicle and person detection, subject reacquisition, and event reasoning. 
Year Established 2016 
Impact Cognition Video won the Enterprise Software category at INVENT in 2015 and graduated from Springboard at Catalyst Inc. later that year. The platform is currently being trialled for two different use cases around security and safety in the cyber-physical market.
Website http://cognitionvideo.co.uk/
 
Company Name Liopa 
Description Liopa develops biometric authorisation technology that requires no additional hardware, which learns a person's lip movements using a smartphone or laptop camera and can confirm their identity by asking them to read unique phrases out loud. 
Year Established 2015 
Impact Liopa has been named the winner of the Software and Digital Media category, sponsored by Intel, at the 25k Awards. The team was one of two spin out ventures competing in this category being incubated by the Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT) based at Queen's University Belfast's ECIT Institute. The prestigious annual 25k awards, which are sponsored by Bank of Ireland, are made under the NISP CONNECT entrepreneurship programme, based at the Northern Ireland Science Park in Belfast's Titanic Quarter. The awards are designed to showcase the most innovative research and intellectual property from the publicly funded institutions in Northern Ireland. Liopa were recently selected as a Finalist in the prestigious IPASCO ICT Security awards. Liopa's unique Lip-based Biometric Authentication solution impressed the judges in this highly competitive category. IPACSO is supported by the European Commission, and aims to improve the competitiveness of the European Cyber Security & Privacy market. Each year in October, Europe's most innovative and forward-thinking researchers and entrepreneurs gather in Brussels, recognising those who are bolstering Europe's cyber security landscape. With the awards, the IPACSO consortium, supported by the European Commission under FP7, support Privacy and Cyber Security Innovations 'Made in Europe'.
Website http://www.liopa.co.uk
 
Company Name Sensurity 
Description Sensurity (formerly Microsense Solutions) develops intruder detection systems. 
Year Established 2012 
Impact Sensurity was established to commercialise research undertaken by Professor Vincent Fusco and his team at QUB that resulted in a novel microwave fence for intrusion detection.
Website http://www.microwavefence.com
 
Description Royal Irish Academy/American Chamber of Commerce Innovation Awards 2015, 2016, 2017, Professor McCanny member of he awards committee 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact The US-Ireland Research Innovation Awards are a joint initiative of the Royal Irish Academy and the American Chamber of Commerce Ireland. They recognise and acknowledge exemplary ideas, originating in Irish organisations, making a social and economic impact through research innovation in meeting market needs involving collaboration with US companies.

The Awards operate on an all-Ireland basis and are awarded in three categories:
•Multinational Corporation Award
•SME Award
•Higher Education Award
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015,2016,2017
URL https://www.ria.ie/grants-and-awards/us-ireland-research-innovation-awards