/info-sec-contacts

List of available research positions in information security

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This page serves as an entry point for aspiring graduate students (and post-docs) who are looking for positions in the broad field of information security. We are maintaining an up-to-date list of contacts who are advertising current positions in the field.

Background

Originally, this list was created to quickly advertise positions for students affected by the US travel bans. All past positions displayed on this website (and in the original document) have been moved here. If a previously advertised position is still active, please inform us using the method below.

Content

Available positions

PhD Studentship on Understanding, Measuring and Improving the Security of Collaboration Tools

Contact name: Steven Murdoch

Location: London, UK

Institution: University College London (Computer Science)

Email: s.murdoch@ucl.ac.uk

Whenever you communicate with someone electronically there are intermediaries that process and carry your communication, helping it reliably get to the intended destination, or storing it until the recipient goes online to collect it. We hope that these intermediaries behave properly, but sometimes they get hacked, or the people running them act maliciously, and your communications can then be tampered with and eavesdropped, with potentially severe consequences. End-to-end encryption is designed to protect against such threats and has been available for decades, but it’s still rarely used because it interferes with modern ways of working. For example, if the company that provides your email service can’t read it, you can’t search it without downloading it all; with collaboration applications, like Google Docs or chat applications, current end-to-end encryption approaches won't even work.

Even if data is encrypted end-to-end, analysis of the meta-data can still violate privacy, for example disclosing who is working with whom. Anonymous communication systems like Tor can help protect meta-data but the delay that the most secure systems (e.g. Loopix) introduce would prevent standard collaboration technologies from working properly. This project will develop techniques to build collaboration applications that are end-to-end secure, and protect privacy.

We will quantify how secure and effective they are, working with investigative journalists who need high levels of security in their collaboration applications. Within this project there is considerable flexibility for the successful candidate to choose a research topic that matches their interests and abilities.

To be considered for this scholarship, please submit your application no later than 27 April 2018. Please indicate your interest in this research project in the cover letter, and include a research proposal as part of your application that indicate your area of interest within the broad research area outlined above.

Funding is available for a 4-year PhD studentship working on this project, providing a standard stipend and fees (at UK/EU rate). The project will be supervised by Dr Steven Murdoch and will start in October 2018 (unless agreed otherwise).

Expiry date: 27 April 2018

PhD in Cybersecurity of Connected and Autonomous Ships

Contact name: Shishir Nagaraja

Location: Glasgow, UK

Institution: University of Strathclyde (Computing)

Email: shishir.nagaraja@strath.ac.uk

Position details:

The student will be expected to perform security analysis, develop attacks, and build defences, so hands-on skills including programming skills are required. In addition a strong fundamentals in any area of machine learning, statistics, networks, privacy, signal processing, cryptography, or security will be a significant plus.

Funding details:

Any UK or EU resident is eligible to apply. UK/EU citizenship is not required. The studentship is for 3.5 years, and includes tuition fees and a competitive stipend. Applicants should send complete applications including two academic references, research proposal, transcripts, and degree certificates via the Post Graduate Application Portal by 05 May 2018. See https://www.strath.ac.uk/courses/research/computerinformationsciences/.

Expiry date: 01 June 2018

PhD in Network Security and Privacy

Contact name: Shishir Nagaraja

Location: Glasgow, UK

Institution: University of Strathclyde (Computing)

Email: shishir.nagaraja@strath.ac.uk

Position details:

A fully funded PhD studentship is available in the area of Network Security and Privacy. The PhD topic is fairly flexible however applicants interested in working at the intersection of software engineering, control theory, network security, or communications theory are particularly welcome. Students should be skilled programmers with an interest in the foundations of: statistics, distributed systems, and networks.

Funding details:

Any UK or EU resident is eligible to apply. UK/EU citizenship is not required. The studentship is for 3.5 years, and includes tuition fees and a competitive stipend. Applicants should send complete applications including two academic references, research proposal, transcripts, and degree certificates via the Post Graduate Application Portal by 05 May 2018. See https://www.strath.ac.uk/courses/research/computerinformationsciences/.

Expiry date: 01 June 2018

Adding entries to list

Submit a pull request containing the following information:

  • Contact name
  • Location (city/country)
  • Institution (department)
  • Contact information (email, telephone number etc.)
  • Research areas of interest
  • Positions available/funding opportunities
  • Expiry date for opening

Alternatively, if you do not know how to submit a pull request, you may also submit a Github issue or send an email to infoseccontacts@gmail.com containing the above information.

Contact us

Contact the maintainers of this list via email at infoseccontacts@gmail.com.