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Research Fellow in Cyber Security - School of Computer Science

Employer
Global Academy Jobs
Location
United Kingdom
Salary
£33,797.00 - £42,792.00
Closing date
Nov 29, 2020

Job Details

Research Fellow in Cyber Security - 96371

Position Details

Area: School of Computer Science in the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences

Salary: Full time starting salary is normally in the range £30,942 to £40,322 with potential progression once in post to £42,792

Band/Grade: Grade 7

Hours: Full time

Duration: Fixed-term for up to 36 months

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, UK

Closing Date: 29 November 2020

Background

This is an exciting opportunity to join the University of Birmingham's Centre for Cyber Security and Privacy on an exciting EPSRC funded project 'CAP-TEE: Capability Architectures in Trusted Execution'.

Project Summary:

Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) shield computations using security-sensitive data (e.g. personal data, banking information, or encryption keys) inside a secure "enclave" from the rest of the untrusted operating system. A TEE protects its data and code even if an attacker has gained full root access to the untrusted parts of the system. Today, TEEs like ARM Trustzone and Intel SGX are therefore widely used in general-purposes devices, including most laptops and smartphones. But with increasingly wide-spread use, TEEs have proven vulnerable to a number of hardware and software-based attacks, often leading to the complete compromise of the protected data.

In this project, we will use capability architectures (as e.g. developed by the CHERI project) to protect TEEs against such state-of-the-art attacks. We address a wide range of threats from software vulnerabilities such as buffer overflows to sophisticated hardware attacks like fault injection. CAP-TEE will provide a strong, open-source basis for the future generation of more secure TEEs.

When developing such disruptive technologies, it is key to minimise the efforts for porting existing codebases to the new system to facilitate adoption in practice. In CAP-TEE, we therefore focus on techniques to ease the transition to our capability-enabled TEE. In industrial cases studies for the automotive and rail sector, we will demonstrate how complex code written in a memory-unsafe language like C(++) can be seamlessly moved to our platform to benefit from increased security without a full redesign.

The successful candidate will be based at the School of Computer Science as part of the Centre for Cyber Security and Privacy and will be working closely with Dr David Oswald. The centre is recognised by NCSC and EPSRC as an Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Research.

Summary of Role
  • Work within specified research grants and projects and contribute to scientific publications
  • Operate within area of specialism
  • Analyse, develop and interpret research findings and results
  • Contribute to generating funding
  • Contribute to licensing or spin out deals with demonstrated commercial success (such as revenues, asset or company sales, IP generated) and/or public understanding of the discipline or similar


Main Duties and Responsibilities

The responsibilities may include some but not all of the responsibilities outlined below.
  • Conduct own and original research
  • Develop research objectives and proposals for own or joint research, with assistance of a mentor if required
  • Contribute to writing bids for research funding
  • Analyse and interpret data
  • Apply knowledge in a way which develops new intellectual understanding
  • Disseminate research findings for publication, research seminars etc
  • Supervise students on research related work and provide guidance to PhD students where appropriate to the discipline
  • Contribute to developing new models, techniques and methods
  • Undertake management/administration arising from research
  • Contribute to Departmental/School research-related activities and research-related administration
  • Contribute to enterprise, business development and/or public engagement activities of manifest benefit to the College and the University, often under supervision of a project leader
  • Collect research data; this may be through a variety of research methods, such as scientific experimentation, literature reviews, and research interviews
  • Present research outputs, including drafting academic publications or parts thereof, for example at seminars and as posters
  • Provide guidance, as required, to support staff and any students who may be assisting with the research
  • Deal with problems that may affect the achievement of research objectives and deadlines
  • Promotes equality and values diversity acting as a role model and fostering an inclusive working culture.


Person Specification
  • First degree in area of specialism and normally, hold or be close to completing a PhD, relevant to research area or equivalent qualifications
  • High level analytical capability
  • Ability to communicate complex information clearly
  • Fluency in relevant models, techniques or methods and ability to contribute to developing new ones
  • Ability to assess resource requirements and use resources effectively
  • Understanding of and ability to contribute to broader management/administration processes
  • Contribute to the planning and organising of the research programme and/or specific research project
  • Co-ordinate own work with others to avoid conflict or duplication of effort
  • Knowledge of the protected characteristics of the Equality Act 2010, and how to actively ensure in day to day activity in own area that those with protected characteristics are treated equally and fairly


Informal enquiries can be made to Dr David Oswald d.f.oswald@cs.bham.ac.uk

We value diversity at The University of Birmingham and welcome applications from all sections of the community

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