Discovery of and Access to Resources between Entities within IoT Systems

The rapid increase in the use of connected devices (e.g., wearables, smart locks) and cloud applications (e.g., collaboration platforms, big data tools) established trends for a fully programmed and distance manageable lifestyle and shifted the character of the society to be open and network-oriented. The proliferation on connectivity combined with the increase in cyber-crime and the terrorism expansion in cyber space have created an urgent need to rapidly advance our security countermeasures and re-think of traditional approaches.

Recognising this need, this DPhil thesis is going to explore and propose the deployment of security infrastructures in connected environments, many times referred to as the Internet of Things. In particular, the objective is to develop secure and resilient to attacks protocols that enable effective discovery and access to resources between entities within IoT systems. Entities include devices (such as sensors, actuators, embedded systems), but also include software-only virtual entities (such as virtual service instances in a cloud or fog computing context).

This research comes under the EPSRC theme of Cyber Security

It is part of the nature of Cyber Security - and a key reason for the urgency in developing new research approaches - that it now is a concern of every section of society, and so the successful CDT will have a very broad impact indeed. We will ensure impact for:

* The IT industry; vendors of hardware and software, and within this the IT Security industry;

* High value/high assurance sectors such as banking, bio-medical domains, and critical infrastructure, and more generally the CISO community across many industries;

* The mobile systems community, mobile service providers, handset and platform manufacturers, those developing the technologies of the internet of things, and smart cities;

* Defence sector, MoD/DSTL in particular, defence contractors, and the intelligence community;

* The public sector more generally, in its own activities and in increasingly important electronic engagement with the citizen;

* The not-for-profit sector, education, charities, and NGOs - many of whom work in highly contended contexts, but do not always have access to high-grade cyber defensive skills.

Impact in each of these will be achieved in fresh elaborations of threat and risk models; by developing new fundamental design approaches; through new methods of evaluation, incorporating usability criteria, privacy, and other societal concerns; and by developing prototype and proof-of-concept solutions exhibiting these characteristics. These impacts will retain focus through the way that the educational and research programme is structured - so that the academic and theoretical components are directed towards practical and anticipated problems motivated by the sectors listed here.