KESS2 Scholarship: Rail Sector Threat Intelligence (MbyRes)

Masters by Research
This is a funded MbyRes, including a generous stipend and tuition fees, with well-resourced circumstances for a successful scholarship.

Here is an exciting opportunity to study a system and its associated technology which could lead to entirely new approaches in Command and Control Systems. The selected candidate will apply their skills and ambition to construction of an advanced prototype system that can perform Rail Sector Threat Intelligence. This project will allow the student to develop transferable knowledge and skills in this most exciting and active field of networking and command and control research.

This project is backed by THALES is a large multi-national national company with locations in Wales and the UK. Thales is a company that designs and builds electrical systems and provides services for the aerospace, defence, transportation and CNI/security markets. Recently THALES has created the National Digital Evaluation Centre (NDEC) in Wales. The goal of the NDEC is to function as a research and development platform through which technology can be demonstrated and transferred to a wide community. The R&D problem domain and themes for the NDEC are as follows:
• Critical National Infrastructure Protection (CNIP). This will include SCADA systems such as road and rail, as well as power generation and distribution.
• Critical Systems Design. This will include how to reduce complexity – decompose systems – how to measure security & build security into critical partitions.
• Proactive Cyber Defence (PCD). This will include data analytics for resilience/maintainability and computer/digital-systems forensics. In particular this area will focus upon mitigation strategies for evolving cyber threats.
• Autonomy and Industrial IOT. This will include novel systems for threat intelligence and artificial intelligence.


Programme of Research:
Current practice in Threat Intelligence as it related to the Rail Transport Network focuses upon the analysis of open-source data feed such as Twitter and data mining on the Dark Web. Current model for threat intelligence lack specificity and are generic and abstract in nature. The research challenge to be addressed in this model is the develop if a specific threat model for the Rail/Metro infrastructure.
The project seeks to develop and validate a Threat Intelligence Model for Rail/Metro CNI infrastructure. In particular, the aims of this project are as follows:
• To develop a Threat Intelligence Model for Rail/Metro infrastructure
• To validate that model through a series of case studies relating to the Rail/Metro infrastructure
• To utilise access to Thales reference systems in DLR & Manchester Metro as the specific case-study

Application Process:
To download an application package, please visit: Participant Application Package

For any queries on eligibility, please contact: KESS Team at Research and Innovation Services, University of South Wales: [Email Address Removed] Tel: 01443 482578

For informal enquiries or further programme information, please contact: Dr Eric Llewellyn [Email Address Removed]
Closing date for applications: midnight Sunday 2nd February 2020