Research
Research Activities
I have more than 15 years of experience of research and innovation in information and system security at different levels of activities:
- Management of research and innovation activities in several EU co-funded projects under Horizon 2020, FP7, and FP6;
- Expert evaluator for the EC under Horizon Europe and Horizon 2020 of the EU in the areas of Digital Security, Future and Emerging Technologies, and Ethics;
- Innovation activities with reference to publications and evaluation of technological solutions for international conferences and journals in the field.
I have a long-standing experience in managing partner-specific work in collaborative projects. My research activities have been driven by involvement in EU co-funded RTD projects. Over the years, I have learned to deliver results under strict deadlines and strong inter-dependencies to other activities, and to adapt and meet professional standards even under changing conditions and priorities.
Please refer to section Projects for a summary of my activities and results per project (chronologically ordered) with references to publications co-authored.
Research and Practical Application Interests
- Anomaly and intrusion detection in EPES and OT protocols Modbus, IEC-104, DNP3 based on both signature-based IDS and ML-based detectors;
- Security architectures and enforcement mechanisms with a recent focus on cyber range architectural solutions and IoT security;
- Sandbox-based malware behaviour analysis;
- Models of authorization, access control and trust management;
- Identity management and privacy.
Domains of interest: service-oriented and cloud computing systems, federated systems, Internet of things and cyber-physical systems.
I have specific technical expertise in:
- X.509 certificate standard both identity and attribute certificates for authentication and access control;
- Public-key infrastructure and privilege management infrastructure (PKI/PMI) for user identity and (entity) attribute management in decentralised environments;
- Federated Identity Management. Technical realisation of Single Sign-On (SSO). Use of Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) for federated identity information exchange, and X.509 certificates for user authentication.
Reviewer Activities
Project proposals evaluation for the European Commission’s Horizon Europe and H2020 frameworks:
- Horizon Europe: PATHFINDER OPEN as Vice Chair Quality Control (2022, 2021);
- Horizon Europe: PATHFINDER CHALLENGES as Vice Chair Quality Control (2021);
- Horizon Europe: Ethics screening of proposals under MSCA and Increased cybersecurity areas (2021);
- H2020: Digital Security Focus Area, Evaluator of poposals for Work Programme Year: 2016-2017;
- H2020: FET-OPEN – Novel Ideas for Radically New Technologies, Evaluator of poposals for Work Programme Year: 2014-2015;
- H2020: Ethics screening of project proposals related to Big Data research (2015-2018);
- H2020: Ethics screening of project proposals related high performance computing (2014);
- H2020: Ethics screening of project proposals related to European research infrastructures (2014-2015).
Journal reviewer:
- Computers & Security, Elsevier (2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2012).
- ACM Transactions on Internet Technology (2016).
- Journal of Information Security and Applications, Elsevier (2016).
- Service Oriented Computing and Applications, Springer (2016, 2015, 2013, 2011, 2008).
- Security and Communication Networks, John Wiley & Sons (2014, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009).
- World Wide Web Journal, Springer (2014).
- African Journal of Business Management, AcademicJournals (2013).
- Journal of Zhejiang University Science C, Springer (2013).
- Simulation Modelling Practice and Theory, Elsevier (2011).
- Future Internet, MDPI AG (2011).
- IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials (2010).
- Journal Of Systems and Software, Elsevier (2010).
- Journal of Internet Services and Applications, Springer (2010).
- Computer Communications, Elsevier (2008).
Program committee member:
- International Conference on Information Systems Security and Privacy:
- IFIP International Conference on New Technologies, Mobility and Security:
- International Workshop on Emerging Technologies for Authorization and Authentication:
- International Workshop on Security Engineering for Cloud Computing:
- IARIA International Conference on Emerging Security Information, Systems and Technologies:
- SECURWARE-2019, SECURWARE-2018, SECURWARE-2017, SECURWARE-2016, SECURWARE-2015, SECURWARE-2014, SECURWARE-2013, SECURWARE-2012, SECURWARE-2011, SECURWARE-2010, SECURWARE-2009, SECURWARE-2008 (Introducing ECOSEC: Ecosystem Security and Trust)
- International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence:
- IARIA International Conference on Advances in Human-oriented and Personalized Mechanisms, Technologies, and Services:
- International ACM Conference on Management of Emergent Digital EcoSystems:
- International Workshop on Security and Privacy in Model Based Engineering 2015 (SPIE-2015)
- 3rd International Workshop on Privacy Enhanced Technology and Security Engineering (PETSE 2011).
- International Symposium on Service, Security and its Data management technologies in Ubi-com:
- 1st International Conference on Digital Businesses (Digibiz-09).
- 2nd International Conference on Information Security and Assurance / Session on Security & Privacy in Pervasive Computing environments (SPPC-2008).
External reviewer:
- European Symposium on Research in Computer Security: ESORICS 2016, ESORICS 2015.
- International Conference on Information and Communication Technology Research: (ICTRC-2015).
- 8th International Workshop on Formal Aspects of Security and Trust (FAST-2011).
- International Symposium on Engineering Secure Software and Systems: ESSoS-2010, ESSoS-2009.
- 5th International Conference on Security and Cryptography (SECRYPT-2010).
