An active approach to detect and defend against peer-to-peer botnets. The aim of this project is to develop an effective defence system to help organisations detect and defend against the peer-to-peer (P2P) botnets. If this research is accomplished successfully, it will be a big step forward in defeating this new but devastating malicious software widely utilised by Internet criminals and terrorists. The capability of a nation to defend against the P2P botnet attacks on its information infrastru ....An active approach to detect and defend against peer-to-peer botnets. The aim of this project is to develop an effective defence system to help organisations detect and defend against the peer-to-peer (P2P) botnets. If this research is accomplished successfully, it will be a big step forward in defeating this new but devastating malicious software widely utilised by Internet criminals and terrorists. The capability of a nation to defend against the P2P botnet attacks on its information infrastructure is central to the control of such attacks and hence to a nation's long-term survival and prosperity. The outcomes of this project can be directly used in Australian research communities and adopted by industry and government agencies.Read moreRead less
Defending AI based FinTech Systems against Model Extraction Attacks. This project aims to develop new methods for defending artificial intelligence (AI) based FinTech systems from highly potent and insidious model extraction attacks whereby an adversary can steal the AI model from the system to cause intellectual property (IP) violation, business advantage disruption, and financial loss. This can be achieved by examining various attack models, creating active and utility-preserving defences, and ....Defending AI based FinTech Systems against Model Extraction Attacks. This project aims to develop new methods for defending artificial intelligence (AI) based FinTech systems from highly potent and insidious model extraction attacks whereby an adversary can steal the AI model from the system to cause intellectual property (IP) violation, business advantage disruption, and financial loss. This can be achieved by examining various attack models, creating active and utility-preserving defences, and inventing non-removable watermarks on AI models. The outcomes are new tools for securing AI-based FinTech systems before deployment and tools for IP violation forensics post-deployment. Such capabilities are beneficial by improving the security and safety of FinTech systems and other nationally critical AI systems.Read moreRead less
Privacy-preserving data processing on the cloud. This project aims to address the current lack of privacy of user data processed by common cloud computing web servers, including email, business data, and confidential files. This project aims to develop new techniques in cryptography. The anticipated outcome is a suite of practical tools enabling common cloud computing processing operations such as search, statistical analysis, and multi-user access control, to be performed efficiently while pres ....Privacy-preserving data processing on the cloud. This project aims to address the current lack of privacy of user data processed by common cloud computing web servers, including email, business data, and confidential files. This project aims to develop new techniques in cryptography. The anticipated outcome is a suite of practical tools enabling common cloud computing processing operations such as search, statistical analysis, and multi-user access control, to be performed efficiently while preserving the data privacy. These tools should provide significant benefits to the privacy of cloud users, as well as financial and reputation benefits to the IT industry, by significantly reducing the likelihood of massive user data privacy breaches in the event of a cyber-hacking attack on the cloud server.Read moreRead less
Internet authentication protocols: theory and practice. Authentication is the foundation for secure electronic communication. It is the first step for many everyday online processes such as remote login or electronic banking. This project aims to make analysis of such protocols more realistic and more complete, allowing online communication to become more secure for both corporate users and individuals.
Post-Quantum Functional Encryption : Principles, Protocols and Practice. Modern cryptography has the power to revolutionise virtually every aspect of our online lives. Large-scale secure data sharing could become a breeze, with tools such as functional encryption (FE) to give us fine control over access rights by means of expressive languages, and there will be no more juggling of crypto keys. Finally, the known foundations of FE will crumble when even small-sized quantum computers become realit ....Post-Quantum Functional Encryption : Principles, Protocols and Practice. Modern cryptography has the power to revolutionise virtually every aspect of our online lives. Large-scale secure data sharing could become a breeze, with tools such as functional encryption (FE) to give us fine control over access rights by means of expressive languages, and there will be no more juggling of crypto keys. Finally, the known foundations of FE will crumble when even small-sized quantum computers become reality, perhaps next decade. This project aims to recreate and expand the power of FE from post-quantum (PQ) mathematical principles, immune to quantum attacks, building on recent discoveries of limited forms of PQ-FE from rock-solid crypto principles. It begs exploring, for the truly spectacular outcomes likely to ensue.Read moreRead less
Embedding Enterprise Systems in IoT Fog Networks through Microservices. The project will enable automated re-engineering of enterprise systems, to allow them to reused in Internet-of-Things (IoT) applications. It will support efficient ways in which the core business logic of these large scale and monolithic systems can be extended into resource control and data sensing functions managed through the IoT. The project will develop a novel, fine-grained software architecture style suitable for loca ....Embedding Enterprise Systems in IoT Fog Networks through Microservices. The project will enable automated re-engineering of enterprise systems, to allow them to reused in Internet-of-Things (IoT) applications. It will support efficient ways in which the core business logic of these large scale and monolithic systems can be extended into resource control and data sensing functions managed through the IoT. The project will develop a novel, fine-grained software architecture style suitable for localised IoT execution, through microservices executing autonomously on nodes of IoT fog networks. It will develop new techniques for automated discovery of microservices from enterprise systems and the verification of future-state system execution based on current-state behavioural and other properties such as security.Read moreRead less
Enabling Anonymity and Privacy for Blockchain Technology in a Quantum World. Blockchain is a promising technology in the digital world today. However, existing approaches for enabling blockchain applications, particularly with privacy protection and anonymity, are vulnerable to quantum computer attacks. This project aims to enable novel cryptographic mechanisms together with their cryptographic libraries for protecting blockchain in the quantum world, hence, post-quantum secure blockchain. The e ....Enabling Anonymity and Privacy for Blockchain Technology in a Quantum World. Blockchain is a promising technology in the digital world today. However, existing approaches for enabling blockchain applications, particularly with privacy protection and anonymity, are vulnerable to quantum computer attacks. This project aims to enable novel cryptographic mechanisms together with their cryptographic libraries for protecting blockchain in the quantum world, hence, post-quantum secure blockchain. The expected outcomes of this project include innovative technologies, as well as secure and practical post-quantum protocols for protecting future blockchain applications. This will provide economic and social benefits to Australian industry through the enablement of advanced technologies which are developed in Australia.Read moreRead less
Feature-Level Fusion with Incomplete Data for Automatic Person Identification. This research addresses the current key problems in automated person recognition with incomplete data using multiple traits. The outcomes of this research will not only make a significant contribution to fundamental theory but also result in a wide range of crime and terrorism preventing applications including police database searching, access control, security monitoring and surveillance. They can be used either by p ....Feature-Level Fusion with Incomplete Data for Automatic Person Identification. This research addresses the current key problems in automated person recognition with incomplete data using multiple traits. The outcomes of this research will not only make a significant contribution to fundamental theory but also result in a wide range of crime and terrorism preventing applications including police database searching, access control, security monitoring and surveillance. They can be used either by police and law enforcement agencies, or at places of airport, government buildings, military facilities and even sensitive areas in offices and factories. It will help reduce crime, enhance the security of the nation to a world-advanced level, and generate new industry and export opportunities for Australian security industry.Read moreRead less
Face recognition under varying pose and lighting--towards automatic personal identification for surveillance systems. One of the key remaining problems in computerized human face recognition is the need to handle the variability in appearance due to changes in pose. This proposed research targets at identifying a person with a face image in a pose different from the example view by using a novel texture analysis and synthesis technique. This technique makes use of facial textures at different vi ....Face recognition under varying pose and lighting--towards automatic personal identification for surveillance systems. One of the key remaining problems in computerized human face recognition is the need to handle the variability in appearance due to changes in pose. This proposed research targets at identifying a person with a face image in a pose different from the example view by using a novel texture analysis and synthesis technique. This technique makes use of facial textures at different viewing directions and can recover appropriate textures for virtual views in arbitrary poses. The successfulness of the proposed research would make a technical breakthrough towards solving the major remaining problem in face recognition.Read moreRead less
Semantic change detection through large-scale learning. This project aims to develop technologies which understand the content of images before higher-level analysis is performed. This approach is intended to allow more accurate and reliable decisions to be made using automated image analysis than has previously been possible. The project will particularly investigate the detection of change in the contents of an image.