Cybersecurity and Blockchain
Exploring the capability of modern technologies to analyse cyberthreats and create a safer digital future
Cybersecurity is one of the biggest issues faced by organisations and governments in today’s digital world. Industries which manage large quantities of personal data are particularly at risk from repeated attacks to their systems. The implications of security breaches are far ranging both financially, socially and legally.
Our team lead by Professor Naveen Chilamkurti is focused on advancing research in cybersecurity skills, training, ethics, law and policy, blockchain and intrusion detection, and artificial intelligence (AI) techniques for improving data security.
Many of our projects have allowed us to partner with industry leaders to help improve and enhance existing cybersecurity systems, whilst introducing them to new tools to tighten information security. We collaborated with Australian cybersecurity company, Ditno, to develop a self-sustaining firewall security system for cloud storage services.
La Trobe’s partnership with leading telecommunications company, Optus, allows us to research digital security at a national level and become a leader in driving new and improved approaches to cybersecurity.
Our team brings a deep understanding of cybersecurity and AI research to enable us to partner with organisations and tackle the big issues impacting global cybersecurity today.
Projects
Lead researcher - Associate Professor Abdun Mahmood
About - Our team is collaborating with leading industry partners in cyber security including Cybermerc, Carbon Black and Fortinet. We are also working with Deakin University to analyse modern cyber-attack tactics by luring attackers using the Honeypot technique. This method allows our team to attract threats to a fake target and observe their tactics, techniques and systems when making a cyber-attack.
Examining the Honeypot data allows our team to witness how hackers are evolving in their attack methods in real time. We can then share this information across various academic fields including law, mathematics and psychology.
Our goal for this project is to take the Honeypot data and develop a methodology that can be applied to various areas of research. This same approach can be used by partner universities and industries to detect and prevent harmful activities on live networks.
Partners - Cybermerc, Carbon Black, Fortinet and Deakin University
Lead researcher – Professor Naveen Chilamkurti
About – Our ongoing collaboration with Ditno, an Australian based cyber security company, allows us to investigate and identify network security controls across several major web services including Amazon Web, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.
Through this partnership we are developing a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) which is a prototype system within the Ditno platform. This will allow our team to retrieve resources and security groups within the Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) of the web system we are analysing.
Our team aims to examine and identify the connectivity and various types of network flows from these web systems to help organisations improve the management of their web-based services.
Partner – Ditno
Lead researcher – Dr Abdun Mahmood
About – Our team are working with Optus to enhance the security of the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA). This isa powerful system that allows organisations to maintain all areas of their company’s technical framework in one place. SCADA is connected to the network of IT and telecommunications smart grid which will serve as the foundation for our testbed. This will help our team analyse all security risks and develop new security measures for major smart grids today.
This project will help implement state-of-the-art data integrity, availability of advanced security measures and prevent private attacks through the analytical data being collected from our testbed. This allows our team to examine the different types of cyber-attacks targeted on the operation of smart grids today.
Our team also explores how smart grid systems can stay up to date with the various types of cyber-attacks and ensure the grid is equipped with state-of-the-art defence systems.
Partners – Optus Business and La Trobe University Innovation Hub
Lead researcher – Professor Louis de Koker
About – Our team worked with a leading development agency Deustche Gesellshaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) to support the Central Bank of Jordan in assessing and preventing financial forms of terrorism such as money laundering. Our project focuses on mitigating various forms of financial threats that may arise through the development of new digital financial services products and business practices in Jordan.
We aim for our project to help financial services and business practices in Jordan by developing innovative solutions against digital financial security threats using the latest technologies and prevent future attacks.
Partners – Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and Central Bank of Jordan
Our researchers
Professor Naveen Chilamkurti – Associate Dean in International Partnerships at the School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences
Associate Professor Jinli Cao – Associate Professor in Computer Science and Information Technology
Dr Tommy Huynh – Senior Lecturer in Electronics Engineering
Dr Kayes Kayes – Senior Lecturer in Computer Science and Information Technology
Mr Syed Mahbub – Associate Lecturer in Computer Science and Information Technology
Associate Professor Abdun Mahmood – Associate Professor in Computer Science and Information Technology
Dr Jabed Morshed Chowdhury – Lecturer in Computer Science and Information Technology
Dr Tran Kao Phan – ARC DECRA Senior Research Fellow at the Computer Science and Information Technology
Associate Professor Ben Soh – Associate Professor in Computer Science and Information Technology
Dr Prakash Veeraraghaven –Professor and Acting Head of the Department of Computer Science and Information Technology
Associate Professor Dennis Deng – Associate Professor in Electronics Engineering
Professor Marcel Jackson – Associate Dean of Research and Industry Engagement in the School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences
Associate Professor Joel Miller – Associate Professor in Mathematics & Statistics
Professor Wenny Rahayu – Dean of School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences
Dr Alex Tomy – Lecturer in Computer Science and Information Technology
Dr Song Wang – Senior Lecturer in Electronics Engineering
Professor Wei Xiang – CISCO Chair of AI and Internet of Things
Contact us
Our team strives to advance knowledge in cybersecurity research through high quality teaching, training and practice informed by our partnerships with industry leaders in the field.
If you are interested in working with us, contact Professor Naveen Chilamkurti via email or call +61 3 9479 1269 for more information.