Internet Security

Research Area leader: Dr Yeslam Al-Saggaf

Overview
Members
Projects
Current Students
PHD/DIT Topics
Honours Topics

Of the 23 million people who live in Australia today, more than 19 million of them use the internet for all aspects of daily life including socialising, shopping and paying bills to name a few. As the number of users needing to access information continues to increase and as more and more businesses, government departments and other organizations make their services available online, the sophistication of attackers, driven by financial gains, continues to increase suggesting the threats to personal information, financial data, corporate assets and critical infrastructure are greater than ever. Therefore it is very vital for computerized systems, web servers, networks and applications over the internet to be sufficiently secure against such threats and attacks.

The aim of this Research Area is to address the security issues that accompany the advancements in information and communication technologies (ICTs) including the securing of computerized systems, web servers, networks and applications with the mission to make a significant contribution to Australia’ s readiness and response to the various security threats and attacks. The ICT Security Research Area is well aligned with the National Security Science and Innovation Priorities (‘the Annual Statement’) which was released by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet on 15 November 2011.

The ICT Security group, housed within the School of Computing and Mathematics, conducts innovative, relevant and ground-breaking research across a wide spectrum of security areas including: Computer Network Security, Security issues in Wireless Sensor Networks, Data Protection in Social Network Sites, Privacy Preserving Data Mining in centralized and distributed data sets and Security Threats in Cloud Computing.

Several members of this group have been successful in attracting ARC and industry funding and publishing their research results in top ranking journals. Members of the group are also collaborating with important partners such as Global Institute for Cybersecurity + Research, IT Masters, and the Department of Lands.

Name	Title/Position	Employer if not Faculty of Business, CSU	Location
Yeslam Al-Saggaf	Senior Lecturer		Wagga
Maumita Bhattacharya	Lecturer		Albury
Oliver Burmeister	Senior Lecturer		Wagga
Ken Eustace	Lecturer		Wagga
Junbin Gao	Professor		Bathurst
Jason Howarth	Lecturer		Bathurst
Zahidul Islam	Lecturer		Bathurst
Mohammed Kaosar	Teaching Fellow		Bathurst
Rashid Khokhar	Teaching Fellow		Wagga
Manoranjan Paul	Lecturer		Bathurst
Mohammad Rezvan	Teaching Fellow		Albury
Lihong Zheng	Lecturer		Wagga
Tanveer Zia	Senior Lecturer		Wagga
Rafiqul Islam	Lecturer		Albury
Quazi Mamun	Lecturer		Wagga
Peter White	Adjunct Lecturer	Department of Lands	Bathurst

+ Current Projects

Project Name	Brief Description	Funding Body	Investigators
The Threats to Privacy from Data Mining	The aim of this study is to explore the potential of data mining as a technique that could be used by malicious data miners to threaten the privacy of SNS users.	Compact funding	Yeslam Al-Saggaf and Zahid Islam
An Analytical study of IT Security Governance (ITSG) in Australian Organisations from International Perspectives	This study will advance the IT security processes in Australian organisations and compare it with international standards and guidelines for ITSG.	Compact funding	Tanveer Zia and Maumita Bhattacharya
Computational Intelligence for Anomaly Detection in Networks: An Investigation	In this research we shall review the existing computational intelligence (CI) -based anomaly detection methods for network intrusion detection. Next, comparative performance of anomaly detection approaches will be investigated as against signature-based and misuse detection methods	Compact funding	Maumita Bhattacharya and Tanveer Zia

Project Name

Brief Description

Funding Body

Investigators

The Threats to Privacy from Data Mining

The aim of this study is to explore the potential of data mining as a technique that could be used by malicious data miners to threaten the privacy of SNS users.

Compact funding

Yeslam Al-Saggaf and Zahid Islam

An Analytical study of IT Security Governance (ITSG) in Australian Organisations from International Perspectives

This study will advance the IT security processes in Australian organisations and compare it with international standards and guidelines for ITSG.

Compact funding

Tanveer Zia and Maumita Bhattacharya

Computational Intelligence for Anomaly Detection in Networks: An Investigation

In this research we shall review the existing computational intelligence (CI) -based anomaly detection methods for network intrusion detection. Next, comparative performance of anomaly detection approaches will be investigated as against signature-based and misuse detection methods

Compact funding

Maumita Bhattacharya and Tanveer Zia

+ Past Projects

Project Name	Brief Description	Funding Body	Investigators
The Digital Divide in Asia	A project that looked at the digital divides in Yemen, Pakistan, China and Bangladesh	n/a	Yeslam Al-Saggaf, Tanveer Zia, Zahid Islam and Lihong Zheng
Information Security in IT Service Management	A study conducted to gauge the level of information security adoption in IT Service Management.	CSU Small Grant	Tanveer Zia
Reputation and Trust Management in Wireless Sensor Networks	A study of trust in wireless sensor networks based on communal reputation and individual trust (CRIT) in sensor nodes.	FoB Seed Grant	Tanveer Zia and Zahid Islam
A Concurrent Hybrid Approach to Secure Computer Systems	This project investigated concurrent application of AI and visualisation techniques for network security	CSU Competitive Grant	Maumita Bhattacharya, Xiaodi Huang

Name	Award	Topic	Supervisor
Saeed Shariati	Hons	The causes of digital divide for Iranian women.	Dr Yeslam Al-Saggaf yalsaggaf@csu.edu.au 02 6933 2593
Peter Hough	Hons	Privacy threats from data mining on social network site users.	Dr Zahid Islam zislam@csu.edu.au 02 69332415
Aidan Short	Hons	Determining effective and functional user inputs into motion capture user interfaces.	Dr Peter White C/ zislam@csu.edu.au 02 69332415
Anthony Van Donselaar	Hons	VDI Implementation, an architectural approach for private clouds.	Dr Peter White C/ zislam@csu.edu.au 02 69332415

The following opportunities exist in Internet Security:

Supervisor	Topic
Dr Yeslam Al-Saggaf yalsaggaf@csu.edu.au 02 6933 2593	Data protection in social networks sites
Dr Zahid Islam zislam@csu.edu.au 02 69332415	Privacy preserving data mining Privacy preserving trust models for business to business communication
Dr Tanveer Zia tzia@csu.edu.au 02 6933 2024	Redefining information security metrics to increase the maturity level of security processes Designing deployable information security standards Security issues in an increasing interconnected world of large-scale IT infrastructures Closing the gap between users mental model of the information security system and the reality of the system Data breach prevention strategies for smart devices Setting the compliance standards in cloud security Designing a simulative architecture for penetration testing Study of procedures for testing the robustness of exploits and their ability to bypass the detection systems A balance between accessibility of information and its costs to privacy
Dr Maumita Bhattacharya mbhattacharya@csu.edu.au 02 6051 9619	Computational intelligence for network security
Dr Lihong Zheng lzheng@csu.edu.au 02 6933 2387	Secure the cloud

Supervisor	Topic
Dr Yeslam Al-Saggaf yalsaggaf@csu.edu.au 02 6933 2593 Wagga Wagga Discipline: Computing & Mathematics.	Threats to personal information in social networks sites Invading privacy at country level: The case of Google
Dr Lihong Zheng lzheng@csu.edu.au 02 6933 2387 Wagga Wagga Discipline: Computing & Mathematics.	Secure the cloud
Dr Zahid Islam zislam@csu.edu.au 02 69332415 Bathurst Discipline: Computing & Mathematics.	Business to business collaboration while hiding sensitive information
Dr Tanveer Zia tzia@csu.edu.au 02 6933 2024 Wagga Wagga Discipline: Computing & Mathematics	Vulnerability patching in smart phones
Dr Maumita Bhattacharya mbhattacharya@csu.edu.au 02 6051 9619 Albury-Wodonga Discipline: Computing & Mathematics.	Biologically inspired computation for anomaly detection

Supervisor

Topic

Dr Yeslam Al-Saggaf
yalsaggaf@csu.edu.au
02 6933 2593
Wagga Wagga
Discipline: Computing & Mathematics.

Threats to personal information in social networks sites
Invading privacy at country level: The case of Google

Dr Lihong Zheng
lzheng@csu.edu.au
02 6933 2387
Wagga Wagga
Discipline: Computing & Mathematics.

Secure the cloud

Dr Zahid Islam
zislam@csu.edu.au
02 69332415
Bathurst
Discipline: Computing & Mathematics.

Business to business collaboration while hiding sensitive information

Dr Tanveer Zia
tzia@csu.edu.au
02 6933 2024
Wagga Wagga
Discipline: Computing & Mathematics

Vulnerability patching in smart phones

Dr Maumita Bhattacharya
mbhattacharya@csu.edu.au
02 6051 9619
Albury-Wodonga
Discipline: Computing & Mathematics.

Biologically inspired computation for anomaly detection