Introduction

Objective

The objective of the Cyber Security Research Excellence Course is to strengthen Estonia's position on international cyber security research excellence. The main purpose is to give our cyber security students a unique experience in academic research, working on industry-related projects, academic writing, and presenting the work to an international audience. This builds the basis for establishing long-term collaborations on an international level. The starting point for this will be working on some concrete projects in cyber security that build the basis for a MSc thesis, an academic career or industry collaboration.

Outcome

The students will write a paper to be published at a conference or in a journal on original research done over the year. They will gain experience in conducting research and academic writing, build international long-term collaborations with students and supervisors at TalTech University as well as the partner universities.

Partners

This course will take place in collaboration between three universities:

TalTech University (Estonia) [1]
University of Adelaide (Australia) [2]
University of Applied Sciences Ravensburg-Weingarten (Germany) [3]

We cooperate with the following industry partners:

Tallink - the largest passenger and cargo shipping company in the Baltic Sea region [4]
Avira Operations GmbH & Co. - Avira is German antivirus company offering security solutions against malware, viruses and spyware [5]

Organisation

Timeline

It is expected from the students that they will actively "drive" the course, set their own milestones and be responsible for their progress. Throughout the course the students will be constantly mentored on a one-to-one basis. Furthermore, the students can get help from mentors participating in this collaboration, which currently includes academics working at the University of Adelaide, TalTech University and University of Applied Sciences Ravensburg-Weingarten.

October 2018 Getting acquainted with the course
November - December 2018 Signing up for the course, selecting the topic area, starting a literature review
January 2019 Option to participate at Research Bootcamp at the University of Adelaide. Over the two weeks, you will be working closely together with mentors and you should find other participants interested in your research, ideally working in related areas, willing to support you over the year. Obviously, you should be willing to support them as well. Participation at the Research Bootcamp is not mandatory but a wonderful opportunity and we highly recommend.
February - May 2019 Regular meetings with the supervisors. During the spring, the students will meet with the supervisors regularly and discusses progress and questions arising from the work. This also includes discussions on topics such as 'how to conduct a literature review', 'research methodology', 'how to select a conference or journal', etc. Also submitting a 1,000 word research abstract and initial findings to the ICR2019: 5th Interdisciplinary Cyber Research workshop. Submission of abstract is mandatory
June 2019 Attend at ICR2019 and present (if accepted) ongoing research at the workshop
July 2019 Option to participate at the Cyber Security Summer School C3S2019 “Blockchain and Quantum Cryptography”
Autumn 2019 In the second half of the year we will more focus on analysing data, writing-up a paper using latex, etc
October 2019 Poster presenting research methodology, and results
January 2020 Research paper draft ready to submit to journal or conference

Please note that semester at University of Tartu will not affect the eligibility for taking this course.

Research topics

Students are welcome to propose their own topics, or work with a supervisor on a per-defined topic. An initial list of per-defined projects include (list will be expanded over time):

Application of Machine Learning to the Cyber Security Problems

In this project, the student(s) will apply machine learning algorithms to solve a cyber security problem which is mainly detecting a cyber attack in the selected network environment. There exist various publicly available datasets that include legitimate and attack records obtained from enterprise networks, SCADA systems, IoT networks, mobile systems. The student will select a problem domain (such as internal threat, IoT botnet, mobile malware, SCADA attacks) and create machine learning classifiers that discriminate attack records from legitimate ones with high accuracy detection rates.

Establishing an IoT Security Test Setup

In this project, the student(s) will establish a test setup that resembles a realistic IoT network. The main goal is to launch the cyber attacks in the environment where the normal traffic is also simulated and create a dataset that can be used by the other researchers. This test setup can be also utilized in an attack-defence type of course and may enable us to deal with some research problems about cyber security exercises/games.

Establishing a SCADA Security Test Setup

In this topic, the student(s) will create a test setup that includes physical/virtual components of SCADA networks. The main goal is to launch the cyber attacks in the environment where the normal traffic is also simulated and create a dataset that can be used by the other researchers. This test setup can be also utilized in an attack-defence type of course. The further study can be conducted for understanding how to create a totally virtual system that can be easily replicated for cyber security exercises. One other interesting question could be the comparison of the degree of fidelity provided by the physically established system and totally virtual one.

Conducting a Study in the Area of Cyber Doctrine Development

On 14 June 2016 the defence ministers of NATO countries agreed to recognise cyberspace as a domain of warfare at that year’s Warsaw Summit. However, although now regarded as equal to operations on land, sea, air and space, cyber doctrine is still immature and developing. The production of coherent strategy is further hindered by a lack of alignment in a definition of cyberspace. In this topic, the student(s) will have an opportunity to study in this area.

Maritime Cyber Security

In collaboration with Tallink we offer several projects on cyber security aspects of smart bridges or smart passenger desks. This project builds knowledge in secure system design, and penetration testing, risk analysis.

Projects in collaboration with Avira Operations

Please find the complete list of project proposals here: PDF

ECTS

The course is running through all 2019 and valued at 15 ECTS (6 ECTS for spring semester 2019, 6 ECTS for autumn semester 2019, 3 ECTS C3S Summer School).

Participants

Target group

The course is targeted at Cyber Security MSc students, who have a strong interest in pursuing an academic career, conducting research, and publishing papers. Furthermore, we encourage MSc students to participate in this course in order to understand the more academic perspective early on and then join our PhD program and thereby strengthens Estonia's Cyber Security research.

Important dates and events

Please keep track of the following dates and deadlines:

In 2018

Cyber Security Student Briefing on 5 November 2018 at 15:00 - 17:00. Venue: Auditorium U01-202 TalTech University main building (Ehitajate tee 5). Official launch of the course, briefing, possible to meet organisers and mentors, Q&A. Find the agenda: HERE Slides from 5th of Nov student brief
Sign up for the course by 6 November 2018 at 23:59.
Course eligibility will be determined based on interviews on 7 November 2018 For signing up for the course, please book an interview time: HERE Interviews will take place in TalTech University ICT building (Akadeemia tee 15a) room ICT-420.
Option to participate at Cybersecurity University Industry Networking (CUIN) at Startup Week TLN on 21 November 2018 at 14:00 - 17:00. Venue: TalTech Mektory (Raja 15). CUIN is a cyber security industry and university networking event which will bring young researchers and practicing experts in the cyber domain closer to stimulate research and development collaboration between the University and Industry. More information about the event, agenda and registration HERE

The list to be updated

In 2019

Adelaide Research Bootcamp 2019 14 - 25 January 2019 (optional)
Abstract submission deadline for ICR2019 15 April 2019 (mandatory)
Notification if accepted for presenting at ICR2019 6 May 2019
ICR2019: 5th Interdisciplinary Cyber Research workshop 29 June 2019 at TalTech. More information about the event: HERE
Cyber Security Summer School C3S2019 “Blockchain and Quantum Cryptography” 1 - 5 July 2019 at University of Tartu (optional)