Security

Cybersecurity threats are the source of many broad challenges for academic research. The layered, composite nature of today’s cyber systems means that cyber research challenges tend to be rapidly evolving and that they add to or modify, rather than replace existing issues. They require new approaches, insights and techniques (for example those leveraging the power of data science) which can build on and work alongside continuing activity in more established areas such as cryptography, malware analysis and intrusion detection. Areas that may not traditionally have been considered to be enablers of better cybersecurity, such as behavioural science and economics, continue to assume an increasingly important role in the field.

The Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Research at Imperial was one of the first recognised academic centres of excellence and for the past 5 years has played a significant role in major parts of the national cybersecurity programme. Imperial is leading the Research Institute on Program Analysis and Verification and the Research Institute in Trustworthy Industrial Control Systems, has played a major role in the creation and running of the PETRAS IoT Research Hub – Cybersecurity of the Internet of Things, the Cybersecurity Body of Knowledge consortium and is involved in other large scale collaborations such as the US UK DAIS International Technology Alliance.

Play video

Should you believe anything you see and interact with online

The twenty first century has already been defined by cyberspace, powering a technology and information revolution that will have a profound impact on societies, industries, and the public sector. Smartphones, augmented reality glasses and 'thinking' robots are examples of how we will feel the influence of cyberspace on what we do and who we are.

Should you believe anything you see and interact with online

The twenty first century has been defined by cyberspace

Defining the legal and ethical boundaries at the cyber front

The 3rd Vincent Briscoe Annual Security Lecture

The 3rd Vincent Briscoe Annual Security Lecture - "Defining the legal and ethical boundaries at the cyber frontier" - Guest Speaker: The Honorable Michael Chertoff.

Accurate, robust metrics for usable security

A critical part of building secure systems is verifying that they're usable and secure

A critical part of building secure systems is verifying that they're usable and secure in practice, and not just theoretically. This requires accurate and robust metrics for quantifying this "usability" and "practical security". For several years, we've been studying how to help users create passwords that are hard for attackers to crack, but are still easy for users to remember and use.

The dark net: inside the digital underworld

Explore the world of dark internet subcultures, crypto-currencies and the hidden web

Explore the world of dark internet subcultures, crypto-currencies and the hidden web. Jamie Bartlett delivers the Vincent Briscoe annual security lecture at Imperial College London.

Groups

Centres

Academics

Dr Dalal Alrajeh

Personal details
Dr Dalal Alrajeh Senior Lecturer
Send email+44 (0)20 7594 2421

Location

557, Huxley Building

Research interests

Formal methods, software engineering, artificial intelligence for correct software, and software for digital forensics.
Prof. Pantelis J Beaghton

Personal details
Prof. Pantelis J Beaghton Professor of Practice
Send email

Location

Room E257, 2nd Floor, ACE Extension

Research interests

Associate Director Institute for Security Science and Technology
Dr Cristian Cadar

Personal details
Dr Cristian Cadar Professor in Software Reliability
Send email+44 (0)20 7594 8244

Location

435, Huxley Building

Research interests

Software engineering, computer systems, software security, practical techniques for improving software reliability and security.
Dr Mahdi Cheraghchi

Personal details
Dr Mahdi Cheraghchi Visiting Reader
Send email+44 (0)20 7594 9043

Location

353, ACE Extension

Research interests

Communication and computing, randomness and computing, information and coding theory, algorithms and complexity theory, Boolean functional analysis, foundations of cryptography.
Dr Yves-Alexandre de Montjoye

Personal details
Dr Yves-Alexandre de Montjoye Reader
Send email+44 (0)20 7594 0991

Location

Data Science Institute, William Penney Laboratory

Research interests

Data privacy, machine learning, biometric and behavioural identification, safe and anonymous use of data, data science for good.
Dr Soteris Demetriou

Personal details
Dr Soteris Demetriou Lecturer
Send email

Location

Room 353, ACE Extension

Research Interest

Mobile computing, security and privacy, systems security, smartphone security, Internet-of-Things (IoT) security.
Dr Naranker Dulay

Personal details
Dr Naranker Dulay Reader in Computing Science
Send email+44 (0)20 7594 8288

Location

562, Huxley Building

Research interests

Security, pervasive/mobile/distributed systems, networking, software engineering, systems, and network management, applied machine learning.
Prof. Philippa Gardner

Personal details
Prof. Philippa Gardner Professor of Theoretical Computer Science
Send email+44 (0)20 7594 8292

Location

453, Huxley Building

Research interests

Programming languages, program analysis and verification, concurrency and resource reasoning.
Dr Hamed Haddadi

Personal details
Dr Hamed Haddadi Reader at I-X
Send email+44 20 7594 2584

Location

I-X, Translation and Innovation Hub (I-HUB), White City Campus

Research interests

User-centred systems, networking, applied machine learning, privacy, security.
Prof. Chris Hankin

Personal details
Prof. Chris Hankin Security Science Fellow, Institute for Security Science and Technology
Send email+44 (0)20 7594 7619

Location

Sherfield Building

Research interests

Security, Program Analysis and Programming Language Theory.
Prof. Michael Huth

Personal details
Prof. Michael Huth Professor of Computer Science and Head of Department
Send email+44 (0)20 7594 8355

Location

364, ACE Extension

Research interests

Trusted computing, access control, formal methods, insider threats, model-driven security, risk analysis.
Dr Ben Livshits

Personal details
Dr Ben Livshits Reader
Send email

Location

569, Huxley Building

Research interests

Security, privacy, program analysis, compilers, software engineering and crowd-sourcing.
Prof. Alessio Lomuscio

Personal details
Prof. Alessio Lomuscio Professor of Safe Artificial Intelligence
Send email+ 44 (0)20 7594 8414

Location

I-X, Translation and Innovation Hub (I-HUB), White City Campus

Research interests

Logic-based specification, verification of autonomous systems.
Prof. Emil Lupu

Personal details
Prof. Emil Lupu Professor of Computer Systems
Send email+44 (0)20 7594 8249

Location

564, Huxley Building

Research interests

Adaptive systems, security, personal networks for healthcare, autonomous vehicles, wireless sensor networks, security for sensor-based environments, security management and authorisation policies.
Dr Sergio Maffeis

Personal details
Dr Sergio Maffeis Senior Lecturer
Send email+44 (0)20 7594 8390

Location

441, Huxley Building

Research interests

Software security; network and web security; applications of machine learning to security; security of machine learning; formal methods.
Prof. Peter Pietzuch

Personal details
Prof. Peter Pietzuch Professor of Distributed Systems and Director of Research
Send email+44 (0)20 7594 8314

Location

442, Huxley Building

Research interests

Distributed systems, operating systems, data management, stream processing, data-intensive applications, networking, systems for machine learning, security, confidential computing, trusted hardware, and decentralised ledgers.
Prof. Alessandra Russo

Personal details
Prof. Alessandra Russo Professor in Applied Computational Logic
Send email+44 (0)20 7594 8312

Location

I-X, Translation and Innovation Hub (I-HUB), White City Campus

Research interests

Computational logic, logic-based machine learning, probabilistic and distributed Inference, cognitive systems, autonomous systems.
Dr. Lluis Vilanova

Personal details
Dr. Lluis Vilanova Lecturer
Send email

Location

Huxley Building

Research interests

Computer architecture; operating systems and runtimes; resource and device virtualization; hardware/software interfaces and co-design; resource management in heterogeneous and parallel systems; security and privacy.
Dr Herbert Wiklicky

Personal details
Dr Herbert Wiklicky Reader in Computer Science
Send email+44 (0)20 7594 8206

Location

424, Huxley Building

Research interests

Program analysis, programming languages, semantics, probabilistic models, program synthesis, semantics in computer security, quantum computation.