Security and Privacy in the Internet of Medical Things

Research Area:

As the number of Internet of things (IoT) is growing significantly, achieving robust security in IoT is becoming increasingly challenging. Recent study revealed that around 98 per cent of traffic sent by IoT devices is unencrypted. With the heavy use of Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) - in fact 70% of healthcare organisation have already adopted - and its data sensitivity, the Security and Privacy (S&P) in IoMT poses a serious threat not only to patients’ privacy but also put patients’ lives at risk. Therefore, ensuring the security of the IoMT is an urgent issue.

The aim of the project is to explore novel intrusion detection system for detecting compromised sensors or actuators embedded in an IoMT for supporting safe and secure IoMT applications in healthcare environment upon which patients and healthcare personnel can depend with high confidence. Various intrusion detection techniques (signature, anomaly and behaviour) will be investigated to detect cyber-attack on medical devices embedded in an IoMT. Several established metrics such as Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) which can reveal the trade-off between the detection rates versus the false positive probability will be used. A testbed would be developed to prove the viability of the selected solutions.

The Materials and Engineering Research Institute (MERI) is a dynamic interdisciplinary research institute dedicated to addressing industrial problems through the application of fundamental science and engineering. For information about MERI please visit https://www.shu.ac.uk/research/specialisms/materials-and-engineering-research-institute


Application deadline: applicants accepted all year round with enrolments during September, February (January on website) and May

Duration: 4 years full time, 7 years part time.