PETRAS announces seven new research projects

The 7 new research projects will be awarded over £1.7m through PETRAS’s 1^st Strategic Research Fund call, as part of the Security of Digital Technology at the Periphery (SDTaP) programme being delivered by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). The national call was launched in June 2019 and was open to UK Higher Education Institutions.  

With cyberattacks on the rise, and as society increasingly relies on technologies to enhance our lifestyles, these new projects investigate the social and technical issues relating to the cybersecurity of IoT devices, systems and networks.

For example, improved supply chains and logistics operations can help businesses deliver more goods and increase cost savings. In collaboration with Tate, project Logistics 4.0 Securing High Value Goods using Self-Protecting Edge Compute aims to create, design and develop tiny sensor-tracking systems that attach directly to objects to better protect high-value goods.

The transport sector is expanding its capabilities to allow autonomy, cooperation and reliability, creating challenges for current engineering practices around safety and security of future vehicular systems. Project Multi-Perspective Design of IoT Cybersecurity in Ground and Aerial Vehicles (MAGIC), led by new PETRAS partner the University of Glasgow, investigates the limitations of current approaches to cybersecurity in the transport sector, with the aim of achieving security and resilience for future systems.

In collaboration with Cisco, project Impact of Cyber Risk at the Edge: Cyber Risk Analytics and Artificial Intelligence (CRatE) will examine the role of artificial intelligence and machine learning in designing a self-adapting system for predictive cyber risk analytics. Decisions in cyber security, cyber risk and cyber insurance require quantitative risk impact estimation based on real-time data. This project will hold red teaming events to understand how users and autonomous systems interact to ensure system resilience and how to stress-test such systems for complex attacks.

Digital Minister Matt Warman said “Research into the challenges associated with privacy, security and trust in the Internet of Things is vital to advance the UK’s global leadership in the sector. We look forward to working closely with PETRAS to make sure our policies continue to be informed by the most cutting-edge studies.”

PETRAS is part of the £30.6 million Security of Digital Technology at the Periphery (SDTaP) programme being delivered by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) through the Strategic Priorities Fund. PETRAS works in collaboration with academia, industry and government partners to ensure our research can be directly applied to benefit society, business and the economy.

Reflecting on the potential impact of these new research projects, Professor Tim Watson (PETRAS Co Investigator and Director of the Cyber Security Centre at WMG) said “In a variety of ways, all seven new projects promise to make our digitally-controlled world safer and better. We look forward to reporting on their progress, and on the real impact they will be providing.”

The seven projects are:

• Impact of Cyber Risk at the Edge: Cyber Risk Analytics and Artificial Intelligence (CRatE), led by Professor Dave De Roure (University of Oxford)
• Early Anmaly Detection for Securing IoT in Industrial Automation (ELLIOTT), led by Professor Stephen Hailes (UCL)
• Lgistics 4.0: Securing High Value Goods using Self-Protecting Edge Compute, led by Professor Julie McCann (Imperial College London)
• Multi-Perspective Design of IoT Cybersecurity in Ground and Aerial Vehicles (MAGIC), led by Dr Michele Sevegnani (University of Glasgow)
• Privacy-Preserving Indoor Environment Monitoring (PPIEM), led by Dr Charles Morisset (Newcastle University)
• The Reappearing Computer: Foregrounding Privacy in IoT (REAPPEAR), led by Dr Nick Taylor (Northumbria University
• Evaluating Trustworthiness of Edge-Based Multi-Tenanted IoT Devices (TEAM), led Dr Habibullah Arshad Jhumka (University of Warwick)

Source: PETRAS