Towards Securing Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAV) infrastructure to mitigate Virtual Vehicle Hijacking

Reference Number: RS/22/07

Applications are invited for a PhD (via MPhil) Studentship within the School of Psychology and Computer Science, based at the Preston (UK) Campus. The studentship is tenable for up to 3 years full time (subject to satisfactory progress). The studentship will provide an annual stipend of £15,609 for 3 years. Both UK/Home and EU/International Applicants may apply but Tuition Fees will only be covered at the UK/Home rate for up to 3 years. EU/International Applicants would be expected to pay the difference between the UK/Home fee rate and EU/International fee rate. (Current rates for 2021-2022; UK/Home £4,550 per year, EU/International £14,000 with rates subject to change each year).

It is expected the successful applicant will commence 1^st Sep 2022.

Project Title:

Towards Securing Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAV) infrastructure to mitigate Virtual Vehicle Hijacking

Project Description:

Future vehicles are no longer stand-alone transportation medium due to the increasing advancements on Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I). The connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) are aimed towards sustainable developments in transportation by enhancing safety and efficiency. The sensor enabled intelligent automation of vehicle’s mechanical operations enhance safety in on-road travelling whereas, cooperative traffic information sharing in vehicular network improves travelling efficiency.

However, safety and efficiency-oriented sustainability in transportation via Internet of connected Vehicles (IoV) comes with greater risk of virtual vehicle hijacking. Ranging from unauthorized accessing of wheels, disabling brakes, locking doors, engine disruption to path forging, location and identity manipulation, denial of traffic service, tracking, are the few examples virtual vehicle hijacking. We have witnessed security threat in computer networks in terms of unauthorized system and application hijacking in greater scale targeting particularly individuals, specific organization or even entire systems of a country. So, there is also necessity to prepare for a virtual vehicle hijacking in CAV, concerning the reliable, ubiquitous and seamless CAV communication.

Due to the increasing automation on vehicles enabling via sensor and vehicular communication advancements, operational security in connected vehicles has emerged as a potential technical issue in vehicular network environments.

Some of the research questions for securing CAV are as follows:

• How to provide a solution for a hijacking scenario, from autonomous connected vehicle to disconnected mechanical machine?
• How to ensure the integrity of accumulated traffic information from neighboring vehicles?
• How to avoid identity theft on vehicular communication system and GPS tracking?
• What are the implications in implementing cryptographic security on vehicular networks considering ad-hoc networking scenario?
• What are the non-cryptographic security mechanisms suitable for ad-hoc vehicular network environments such as human centric approach?

Further information

Informal project related enquiries about the post can be made to Professor Rupak Kharel via email: [Email Address Removed]  

For the application form and full details go to: https://www.uclan.ac.uk/research/research-degrees/studentships

Completed application forms should be returned to the Research Admissions email [Email Address Removed] quoting the studentship reference number RS/22/07.

Closing Date: 23^rd February 2022

Proposed Interview Date: TBC

CURRENT UCLAN RESEARCH STUDENTS WILL NOT BE ELIGIBLE TO APPLY FOR THIS RESEARCH STUDENTSHIP