Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Research - University of Southampton

Cyber security is ultimately about devices and people, which together give rise to a 'cyberspace' of networks and systems. Vulnerabilities arise from hardware, software and human factors, but typically from any combination of them. Our interdisciplinary approach affords us expertise over a significant number of such combinations. We deliver a wide spectrum of interwoven research ranging from electronic (nano) devices to (physical and cyber) biometrics, passing through world-leading research on cyber-enabling infrastructures using behavioural and cognitive psychology, and deploying both formal and experimental methods.

We work on secure hardware devices such as data-secure sanitisable memories, embedded security and trusted hardware, their secure formal design and verification, and fabrication in our state-of-the-art cleanrooms. This links to (mission-critical, multi-clearance) software systems, whose design and validation builds on our expertise in language-based security. Mathematical models and static analysis techniques are also used for privacy systems, whose ultimate goal is to drive the design of data-confinement and privacy-enhancing web applications, online protocols and analysis tools. Of a similar goal-driven nature is our research on trust-and-reputation models, aimed at exploiting mutual trust mechanisms in agent communities to meet collaborative goals in the absence of reliable information.

Agents systems link to secure services and information risk management over advanced networks and provide the basis for cutting-edge research on situational awareness. The latter extends to ad-hoc networks of practical operational relevance, such as the integration of human-agent teams. This establishes a synergy with our behavioural and cognitive scientists, who focus on the analysis of patterns of cyber-behaviour and group decision-making and risk behaviour.

Our work on the security of critical infrastructures concerns cyber-physical and industrial control systems, financial trading, and the web. It includes IoT, the power grid, building automation, clouds, distributed ledgers, the analysis of cyber controls and of human factors affecting response time to cyber-attacks in financial trading markets. We also focus on access control, attack visualisation, linked-data (de-)anonymisation and provenance. A theme of growing importance concerns users' (web) identities. This builds on foundational work on cryptoprotocols, and provides a strong connection between our computer and social sciences researchers, in particular through the issues of (un-linkable) identities, super-identities, and the work on privacy and cyber-crime legislation. Finally, we mention our seminal work on biometrics for access control based on physical and cyber individual characteristics.

The present proposal aims at securing a support grant for the centre. Specifically, we seek funds to: support the Director in the organisation and daily running of the centre; run a series of seminars in Cyber Security; foster multidisciplinary activities; participate in networking events with other ACE-CSRs and host a national ACE-CSR workshop; run outreach, public engagement and industrial liaison events; revamp our web portal; print and distribute brochures and publicity material.

During the past five years we have produced huge change and progress in the ACE-CSR through interdisciplinary research and significant results backed by external funding and investment. We have established a vibrant cyber security community across campus, forging stable working links between colleagues from four distinct faculties; engaged in externally-funded, high-quality research and outreach activities with GCHQ, FCO, NCA, Bank of England, the Metropolitan and Hampshire Police forces, and the South East Regional Cyber Crime Unit (SEROCU); and built a Cyber Security Academy (CSA). The CSA is a partnership between the University and industry leaders -currently DSTL, Northrop-Grumman, Roke Manor- and arguably the first instance of HMR's CyberInvest scheme in the country. Its objectives span from research and consultancy to outreach, training and knowledge transfer. Fig. 1 shows the ACE- CSR acting as the founding stone for the partnership, which then unfolds through six, outward-looking components.

There can be no doubt that the ACE-CSR is changing the University. It is helping reshape the University by inspiring the creation of a new research group in cyber security, a new institute in international security, and three degrees of studies. It afforded us the opportunity to forge thriving links with industry and to embed industrial influence through the awarding of visiting professorships to the CSA partners' leaders. The ACE-CSR's impact on the UK cyber security landscape is unfolding through our research on the security of Cyber Essentials, effective anonymisation, smart meters, CPS, blockchains as a computational infrastructure, hardware security and the IoT. Project CASTLE involving penetration testing of campus facilities by students exemplifies a thriving environment where research is quickly fed into postgraduate training and teaching. Renewing the recognition of our status in the national cyber security academic network will go a long way towards helping us consolidate and complete this transformation.