I have a broad and interdisciplinary research focus on cyber security, data analytics and digital forensics, where I seek to understand how data can be acquired from contemporary computing devices for both malicious (e.g., criminal / malicious exploitation – cyber offensive) and legitimate (i.e., digital forensics / digital investigation) purposes. The understanding of how data can be acquired (or exfiltrated), particularly in terms of criminal / malicious exploitation, will then inform the design of cyber defensive and privacy-preserving solutions (e.g. using technical approaches such as blockchain and artificial intelligence, and non-technical approaches). I also understand the importance of ensuring my research is relevant to policy and practice, and is aligned with major and ongoing government policy directions and strategies. For example, the cryptographic primitive in one of the three regular U.S. patent applications I filed in 2019 is currently been deployed by a UK cryptocurrency start-up, where I also serve on its advisory board. My patent applications entitled "Lightweight Distributed Signature Protocol For Mobile Computing And IoT Devices" and "Efficient and Secure Distributed Signing Protocol for Mobile Devices in Wireless Networks" were approved on April 19 and November 29, 2022, respectively. 

I have had the opportunity to apply my research knowledge and provide expert opinion on policy developments, such as the Australian Government Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet’s Cyber White Paper as a member of the Australian Computer Society Cyber Task Force of experts (2011), and the Australian Bureau of Statistics Draft Conceptual Framework for Cybercrime (2012 and 2013). I have also been engaged as an external paid expert to provide expert advice to two companies on their U.S. Department of Energy SBIR/STTR Phase I proposals in 2020 and 2021, and to provide expert insights in writings to inform North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Allied Command Transformation (ACT) Innovation Hub’s Warfighting 2040 report in 2020. I am also one of two experts involved in the review of the finalized “NISTIR 8006: NIST Cloud Computing Forensic Science Challenges” report.

I also developed the “All About IoT Security” program in collaboration with a number of subject matter experts, as part of IEEE Educational Activities with support from IEEE Internet of Things Technical Community. 

I am serving on the technical advisory board of two U.S.-based start-ups (since Jan 2022), and have been a keynote / plenary speaker at a number of conferences (see Keynotes and invitations presentations), as well as an invited lecturer at the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (2012), Australian Graduate School of Policing and Security (2014), Singapore Polytechnic (2014), Malaviya National Institute of Technology Jaipur (2017), delivered a one week course funded by the Indian Government’s Global Initiative of Academic Networks), and the International School on Internet of Things & Edge AI: Computing, Communications and Systems (2022) at  the University of Calabria in Italy. In 2015, I was an Invited Expert at UNAFEI Criminal Justice (Focus on Investigation, Prosecution, Adjudication, and International Cooperation) Training, at INTERPOL Cyber Research Agenda Workshop, and I was also a Distinguished Speaker at the 1st International Summer School on Computational Forensics (SuCoFo 2016) at Norwegian University of Science and Technology. 

I am the founding co-Editor-in-Chief of ACM Distributed Ledger Technologies: Research and Practice, and the founding Chair of IEEE Technology and Engineering Management Society (TEMS)’s Technical Committee on Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies. I also serve as the Senior Editor of Forensic Science International: Digital Investigation, the Department Editor of IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, and the Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing, and IEEE Transactions on Big Data, etc. More recently, I was involved as a member of the IEEE Transactions on Big Data - 2020 Best Paper Award Selection Committee and IET Fellow Assessor (see also Other professional activities).

My (limited) media presence is available on Media presentations.

Grants 

I am the recipient of the following grants: 

• National Health and Medical Research Council Ideas Grant “Co-designing a consumer-focused digital health system to improve adverse drug event (ADE) detection, management and reporting”; Co-Chief Investigator; AUD 1.7 million (2023-2026)

• Subaward from Boston University – Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice “Innovative ICAC investigation training on IoT, OSINT, dark web, and crypto”, Principal Investigator (Subaward): USD 437,500 (Oct 2022 – Sep 2024)

• Sole Principal Investigator (PI). United States Department of Homeland Security (routed via George Mason University’s Criminal Investigations and Network Analysis) “A machine learning-based approach to analyzing and triaging encrypted data containers in law enforcement applications”; USD 500,000 (Fall 2022 – Summer 2024)

• Co-PI. Khalifa University’s Center for Cyber-Physical Systems “Cyberthreat Mitigations for OT and IT Environments in the National Critical Infrastructure Sectors” (Mar 2022 – Jul 2023) 

• Sole PI.  Subaward from The University of Texas at Dallas – National Security Agency “Human-in-the-Loop XAI-enabled Vulnerability Detection, Investigation, and Mitigation”; USD 499,985 (my share: USD 166,662; Aug 2021 – Jul 2023) 

• Co-PI. National Security Agency “Automated Techniques for Cyber Risk Detection and Mitigation in the Presence of Malicious AI Attacks” ; USD 499,968 (Aug 2021 – Jul 2023) 

• Co-PI. National Security Agency “Machine Learning-centric Cyber Threat Intelligence and Hunting for IoT Systems”; USD 487,028 (Aug 2021 – Jul 2023) 

• Co-PI.  U.S. Department of Defense “A Flexible Testbed for Cyber Deception, Cyber Hardening, and Disinformation Research”; USD 472,921 (Jul 2021 – Jun 2022) 

• Co-PI.  MITRE “Advanced persistent threat (APT) Mitigation Assessments” (Aug – Sep 2020) 

• Co-PI.  National Security Agency “Cyber Defense of Smart Facilities Using Machine Learning and IoT Honeynets” (Award H98230-20-1-0392); USD 150,000 (Sep 2019 – Aug 2021) 

• Sole PI. National Science Foundation (NSF) “NSF: CCRI: Planning: Collaborative Research: Towards a Software-defined Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) Research Infrastructure for Advanced Manufacturing” (Award 1925723) (Sep 2019 – Aug 2020) 

• Co-PI.  CPS Energy “Secure, Resilient and Smart Grid Cyber-Physical Situational Understanding using Data Driven Decision-Making and AI”; USD 469,000 (Sep 2019 – Aug 2021) 

• Co-PI. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) “STTR: NASA: ROBOT: Rules Oriented Blockchain Operations Transactor” (Sep 2019 – Aug 2020)

• PI. CPS Energy grant, USA "Smart grid security and attack-resilience: A forensics-driven approach"; USD 399,218 (09/2017–08/2019)

• Co-PI. Texas National Security Network Excellence Fund “Internet of Things Security & Forensics Lab” (2018)

• Senior Personnel. National Science Foundation (NSF) CREST Center for Security and Privacy Enhanced Cloud Computing (2017-2022)

• Co-CI. Cooperative Research Centre for Data to Decision grant "Integrated Policing: Federated Data Platform"; AUD 1,236,883 (2016-2019)

• Co-CI. University of South Australia Research Themes Investment Scheme grant "Defence against the dark arts: guarding the public discourse from propaganda and fake news, and promoting truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth in the media and social media" (2017-2019)

• Co-CI. auDa Foundation grant "Defence against the Dark Arts: resisting online social manipulation and propaganda" (2016-2019)

• Co-CI. Government of South Australia, SA Health grant "The feasibility and validity of obtaining pre-illness activity data in critically ill patients using 'smart-phone' technology: a validation study" (2016)

• CI. University of South Australia Research Themes Investment Scheme grant "A Public Health Approach to Dealing with Sexting" (2015-2016)

• CI. National Drug Law Enforcement Research Fund (NRLERF) grant "Evidence-based digital forensic framework for drug (and other serious and organised) crime law enforcement investigations in the cloud computing environment"; AUD 269,319 (2013-2015) 

• Co-CI. BAE Systems stratsec grant "Information Security Research Winter School 2012" 

• Co-CI. National Drug Law Enforcement Research Fund (NRLERF) grant "Exploitation of Electronic Evidence from Mobile Phone Mediated Drug Crime"; AUD 271,040 (2011–2013)

• Co-CI. Australian Research Council Discovery Projects grant (DP1096833) "The evolution of cybercrime: the monitoring of serious crime in cyberspace"; AUD 350,000 (2010-2012)

• Co-CI. Australasian Institute of Judicial Administration Incorporated (AIJA) grant "ICT and the judiciary: multimedia glossary" (2011)

Awards 

• IEEE Systems Council's Hyper-Intelligence Technical Committee (HITC) Award for Excellence in Hyper-Intelligence (Technical Achievement) in 2022

  • Citation: For contributions to secure and reliable hyper-intelligent solution and system designs

• IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (SMC) Technical Committee on Homeland Security (TCHS) Research and Innovation Award in 2022

• IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society’s Technical Committee on Secure and Dependable Measurement (TCSDM) Mid-Career Award 

  • Citation: For significant contributions to the design of secure and dependable computing systems 

• IEEE Technical Committee on Scalable Computing (TCSC) Award for Excellence in Scalable Computing (Middle Career Researcher) 2019 

  • Citation: For significant contributions to cyber forensics, particularly in cloud computing and IoT

• Best Paper Awards: 

  • EAI International Conference on Future Access Enablers of Ubiquitous and Intelligent Infrastructures (EAI FABULOUS 2023 )

  • IEEE Computer Society Bio-inspired Computing Special Technical Community (STC) Outstanding Paper Award for 2021

  • 2021 IEEE Systems Journal Best Paper Award 

  • 2021 IEEE Conference on Dependable and Secure Computing (DSC 2021)

  • IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine for 2020, IEEE Consumer Technology Society 

  • Journal of Network and Computer Applications’ 2020 Best Research Paper 

  • 2019 EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking (JWCN), Springer 

  • 17th IEEE International Conference On Trust, Security And Privacy In Computing And Communications (IEEE TrustCom 18) 

  • 20th European Symposium on Research in Computer Security (ESORICS 2015; Acceptance Rate: 59/298 = 19.8%)

• British Computer Society's Wilkes Award 

  • 2019 Runner-up for our paper published in the 2018 volume of The Computer Journal, Oxford University Press 

  • Wilkes Award for the best (sole-authored) paper published in the 2007 volume of The Computer Journal, Oxford University Press 

• IEEE Outstanding Paper Award, IEEE Blockchain 2019

• Best Student Paper Awards

  • 15th International Conference on Information Security and Cryptology (Inscrypt 2019)

  • Australasian Conference on Information Security and Privacy (ACISP 2005)

• Outstanding (Associate) Editor Awards

  • Digital Communications and Networks Outstanding Associate Editor for 2022

  • Future Generation Computer Systems' Outstanding Editor Award for 2021

  • Outstanding Associate Editor of 2018 for IEEE Access

• Cybersecurity Educator of the Year – APAC (2016 Cybersecurity Excellence Awards (CEAs) are produced in cooperation with the Information Security Community on LinkedIn)

• Winning Team, Germany's University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU) Digital Forensics Research Challenge 2015

• 2010 Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Pearcey Award for “Taking a risk and making a difference in the development of the Australian ICT industry” 

• Named one of 10 Emerging Leaders in the Innovation category of The Weekend Australian Magazine / Microsoft's Next 100 series in 2009 

• 2009 Fulbright Professional Scholarship in Australian-United States Alliance Studies – sponsored by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

• 2008 Australia Day Achievement Medallion in recognition of my dedication and contribution to the Australian Institute of Criminology, and through it to the public service of the nation

Citations

Citations of my research include governmental reports: 

• (Court case) UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff - Appellee, v. Augustin Dante Ezequiel ARCE, Defendant – Appellant (United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit, No. 20-4557, Decided: September 08, 2022)

• (Australian) 2010 Australian Government House of Representatives Standing Committee on Communications Report on the Inquiry into Cyber Crime, 2011 Australian Government House of Representatives Joint Select Committee’s Report on Cyber-Safety, 2013 Australian Crime Commission Fact Sheet on “Cyber and Technology Enabled Crime”, 2013 Australian Government House of Representatives Joint Select Committee on Cyber-Safety's Report on the Inquiry into Cybersafety for Senior Australians, Teachers Registration Board Tasmania “Professional Boundaries: Guidelines for Tasmanian Teachers”, 2018, etc.

• (International) 

  • National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) “NISTIR 8006: NIST Cloud Computing Forensic Science Challenges, 2020

  • European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs “2009 cybercrime study”

  • International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children’s “Child Pornography: Model Legislation & Global Review (Sixth Edition)” (2010)

  • North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)’s “Counter-Terrorism Reference Curriculum” (2020)

  • New Zealand Government’s Ministry of Justice “2006 cybercrime survey” 

  • Toronto Police Service “2008 Environmental Scan” report

  • United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) “2010 Transnational organized crime threat assessment” report

  • United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) “Conferencia de las Partes en la Convención de las Naciones Unidas contra la Delincuencia Organizada Transnacional” 2018

  • United Nations Secretariat “2010 Recent developments in the use of science and technology by offenders and by competent authorities in fighting crime, including the case of cybercrime” report 

  • United Nations Asia and Far East Institute for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders 

  • 2010 US CRS Report for Congress (Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress) entitled “Organized Crime: An Evolving Challenge for U.S. Law Enforcement” 

  • UNODC “Handbook on Identity-related Crime” (2011)

  • International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children’s report “Online Grooming of Children for Sexual Purposes: Model Legislation & Global Review” (2017)

  • ITU’s report “Understanding Cybercrime: A Guide For Developing Countries” (August 2011) 

  • Working paper for the Twelfth UN Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice 

  • UNODC Wildlife and Forest Crime Analytic Toolkit report (2012)

  • United Kingdom (UK) Intellectual Property Office (IPO)’s 3D Printing and Intellectual Property Futures (2018)

  • United States Department of Energy’s report (2019)

One of my published cryptographic protocols was included in two independent submissions to the IEEE 802.11, the working group setting the standards for wireless LANs, by computer scientists from Fujitsu Labs in America; and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) / Network Working Group by a team of computer scientists from Tropos Networks (US), Toshiba, Huawei, and University of Murcia. A protocol jointly proposed with Sherman Chow (formerly of New York University, US) was used in the P2P solution of the Milagro TLS (pairing-based cryptography for Transport Layer Security) presented to the IETF by researchers from MIRACL Ltd in 2016.

My published design principle about how session keys should be constructed in cryptographic (key establishment) protocols that result in significant benefits for their security was cited in a special publication (SP 800-56A) – Recommendation for Pair-Wise Key Establishment Schemes Using Discrete Logarithm Cryptography – by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology. This is one of four academic (i.e. non-NIST and non-international standard) citations, and the other three academic citations are publications of (1) Professor Alfred Menezes (University of Waterloo), Professor Phillip Rogaway (UC Davis), Professor Mihir Bellare (UC San Diego), and Professor Dan Boneh (Stanford University) – the top scholars in the field, and NIST Special Publication 800-56A Revision 3 (April 2018). My cloud forensics research is also cited in the NIST Cloud Computing Forensic Science Challenges report (Draft NISTIR 8006, 2015) and the final NISTIR 8006: NIST Cloud Computing Forensic Science Challenges report.

I can be contacted on (email) raymond [DOT] choo [AT] fulbrightmail [DOT] org