In order to provide better and more effective service to their customers, we see an accelerating trend among enterprises towards digital transformation. However, as devices are now connected outside their silos to other devices in an organization, the attack surface and in turn the risk for a cyber incident increases manifold. While the need to secure networks is evident, for many of the devices and systems involved in an organization’s digital transformation, the standard portfolio of enterprise security solutions is not applicable. Some of these systems might be legacy devices, unable to receive security updates. Other devices will experience a long update cycle due to extensive testing and regulatory procedures. Finally, newly introduced enterprise IoT devices for low cost, pervasive sensing of the production environment might simply be too underpowered to run any meaningful security. This means that in any integrated heterogenous enterprise environment, security has to be mainly provided through the network itself, which is the objective of this PhD project.

In particular, the aim is to realize a new level of detection capability by defining normal and anomalous behavior of devices within the context of interaction sequences between network hosts and the semantic interpretation of processes. As network flows to and from semi-trusted IoT / legacy devices will hence be subjected to very tight behavioral boundaries, possible compromise and abuse of a device can be detected and mitigated very rapidly.

 The successful candidate has obtained a master's degree with excellent marks in computer science, is proficient in networking and programming, and enjoys working in a multi-disciplinary project. In particular, experience in network security, artificial intelligence, and software-defined networking is considered to be an advantage. The candidate is a team player, able to cooperate with the other PhD candidates working on related research topics at TU Delft.

Fixed-term contract: Temprorary, 4 years.

TU Delft offers a customisable compensation package, a discount for health insurance and sport memberships, and a monthly work costs contribution. Flexible work schedules can be arranged. An International Children’s Centre offers childcare and an international primary school. Dual Career Services offers support to accompanying partners. Salary and benefits are in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities.
As a PhD candidate you will be enrolled in the TU Delft Graduate School. TU Delft Graduate School provides an inspiring research environment; an excellent team of supervisors, academic staff and a mentor; and a Doctoral Education Programme aimed at developing your transferable, discipline-related and research skills. Please visit www.tudelft.nl/phd for more information.

Technische Universiteit Delft

Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) is a multifaceted institution offering education and carrying out research in the technical sciences at an internationally recognised level. Education, research and design are strongly oriented towards applicability. TU Delft develops technologies for future generations, focusing on sustainability, safety and economic vitality. At TU Delft you will work in an environment where technical sciences and society converge. TU Delft comprises eight faculties, unique laboratories, research institutes and schools.

Faculty Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science

The faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science (EEMCS) is known worldwide for its high academic quality and the social relevance of its research programmes. The faculty’s excellent facilities accentuate its international position in teaching and research. Within this interdisciplinary and international setting the faculty employs more than 1100 employees, including about 400 graduate students and about 2100 students. Together they work on a broad range of technical innovations in the fields of sustainable energy, telecommunications, microelectronics, embedded systems, computer and software engineering, interactive multimedia and applied mathematics.

The successful candidate will become part of the Lab on Internet Science  of the Embedded & Networked Systems group and of the Cyber Threat Intelligence lab of the Cyber Security group, both at EEMCS. In this collaboration ENS brings expertise on IoT, while CyS brings expertise on cyber security.