Selected Recent Research, Projects and Tools

1. DataProVe - A prototype for verifying data protection policies and architectures is now available online on its official website and GitHub.   (It can be used for privacy policy design, system design, or educational purposes.)

2. ChildDataVerif - A tool that extracts features and functionalities from Android APK files and automatically creates an explainable online safety risk tree based on this. The goal is to verify safety weaknesses in online services and apps. The research behind it can be found here.  

3. INspIRE - An Incident Response Training, Simulation and Optimisation tool (based on a collaborative research project with Lancaster University (Management Science) and SMEs, GitHub page).

4. TTPCRI - A platform based on machine learning and mathematical modelling to assess real-time resilience of a computer network against recent attack campaigns. The cyber resilience monitor is similar to a "stock market index" monitor. This is a collaborative work with researchers at Volvo Group and Gartner (Demo video). 

5. ProveSecAI Cyber Threat Graph Explorer - A repository of over 2000 cyber attack TTP procedures based on MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Matrix. Website to browse the AI-generated and human-validated attack procedures. (with thanks to Matteo Pertica, cybersecurity student). The TTP procedure graphs can be visualised for educational purposes and serve as inputs for an automatic cyber resilience assessment tool, such as TTPCRI (and potentially other threat intelligence/risk assessment tools). 

News: 

• A paper and a new dataset for calculating trust scores in the Internet of Vehicles context have been accepted at Applied Artificial Intelligence, Taylor & Francis, 2025. (Link to paper)

• A paper, "NIOM-DGA: Nature-inspired optimised ML-based model for DGA detection",  has been accepted at Computers & Security, Elsevier, 2025.

• A paper has been published on "Image-Based Android Malware Detection Using Deep Learning" at the 16th VIRTUAL International Conference on Global, Security, Safety and Sustainability (ICGS3-24, paper), May 2025. 

• Congratulations to Danish, who passed his PhD progression viva on "A Novel ML-based Trust Evaluation Framework for Vehicular Communication Networks", May 2025.

• Congratulations to Sheetal, who passed her PhD registration viva on "Multi-Modal Methods for Fake News Identification", Feb 2025.

• Our Edge Hill Capture the Flag (CTF) student teams finished in 3rd, 4th, and 5th places at the Lancashire Cyber Festival, which involves universities, SMEs, colleges, and schools across Lancashire. (Feb 2025)

• A paper on "Credit Card Fraud Detection Using Deep Neural Network" has been accepted for the Frontiers of Information Technology (FIT, 2024, paper) in December. 

• Our paper entitled  "Secure Semi-Automated GDPR Compliance Service with Restrictive Fine-grained Access Control" using blockchain and attribute-based encryption to verify and enforce GDPR compliance of businesses and organisations has been accepted for publication in the Security & Privacy Journal. (paper), July 2024.

• I attended the PETS 2024 symposium (a flagship research conference in the field), at the University of Bristol, and the Lancashire Cyber Needs Accelerator pt. 3 at Lancaster University to discuss collaborations and support for SMEs in Lancashire.  (15-18 July, 2024)

• I work with security researchers at Volvo Group on a framework and method to effectively calculate the quantitative TTP-based cyber resilience index (TTP CRI) of computer systems and networks against cyber attacks. The research aims to help organisations and businesses prepare against recent cyber attack campaigns (The preprint of the first results is available here)

• Upcoming event: I'm a track chair (of the Recent Advances in Cyber Security track) at the 13th International Symposium On Information and Communication Technology (SOICT 2024), 13-15 December 2024, in Danang, Vietnam. (Consider attending and submitting a paper here) 

• Obtained our NCSC degree certification application for our MSc Cyber Security programme.

• Our initial work on a safety risk assessment framework for children's online safety can be read here (January 2024).

• Welcome Danish to the Cyber Security Group as our new GTA/PhD student, Oct 2023. 

• Congratulations to Lampis Alevizos for his successful PhD viva, June 2023. 

• Our paper on a novel Blockchain-based privacy auditor framework has been submitted to IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security (June 2023, joint work with LJMU).

• Are you a student at EHU? Join our Cyber Security Club at Edge Hill University.

• Our work on analysing the compliance of Android apps against EU and UK regulations and safeguarding guidelines is available here.

• Our paper on an automated approach for near-optimal decision-making for cyber security investment designed for businesses has been submitted to  IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing (March 2023, in collaboration with Lancaster University). A related toolkit called CYBEROp will be published soon. 

• I have been appointed as the external examiner for MSc Computer Science (Computer Networks and Security), Staffordshire University. 

• Congratulations to John Dempsey for his successful PhD viva, Jan 2023. 

• Three funding bid applications were submitted (Nov 2022- Feb 2023).

• Our new paper on a blockchain-enabled intrusion detection approach has been published (IEEE Access, August 2022)

• An open research position is available on my funded ChildDataVerif project: Apply Here (deadline 6th July 2022). 

• Our paper on "children-centred privacy" has been accepted in the International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction (Link)

• Our paper on zero-trust architectures has been accepted in Security and Privacy Volume 2022 (available online). 

• Our work on DataProVe has been accepted for publication at PETS 2022 symposium (the presentation was on July 13, 2022,  Session 5A). 

• Congratulations to Hammajam (one of my PhD students), who successfully defended his PhD thesis on data protection problems in the context of Cloud computing and SaaS applications. 

• I joined the Department of Computer Science at Edge Hill Universita y as cyber security programme lead (June 2021). 

• Our paper titled "Keep Calm and Carry on with Cybersecurity @Home: A Framework for Securing Homeworking IT Environment" has been accepted for publication in International Journal on Cyber Situational Awareness (Jan 2021)

• Charalampos Alevizos joined us as a PhD student, who will work on zero-trust blockchain-based solutions.

• Our article, "England's new contact tracing app fixes privacy problems – whether it will work is another matter”  is available online.   Australian Times, Yahoo  (August 2020)

• Our new paper on the security of smart traffic control systems has been accepted for publication at VehCom  (August 2020)

• Our book chapter, "Adapting Future Vehicle Technologies for Smart Traffic Control Systems" is available online. (2020)