PhD student on Security of Industrial IoT Systems

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.

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.

Functie eisen

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, and integrate well with Cognizant, the industry partner with whom the project will be executed.

Arbeidsvoorwaarden

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.

Informeren en solliciteren

For information about this vacancy, you may contact Fernando Kuipers, email: f.a.kuipers@tudelft.nl, or Christian Doerr, email: c.doerr@tudelft.nl.

For information about the selection procedure, please contact Emiel Turlings, HR-Adviser, email: hr-eemcs@tudelft.nl.

To apply, please e-mail a detailed CV along with a motivation letter and a detailed transcript of university grades to: hr-eemcs@tudelft.nl. When applying for this position, please refer to vacancy number EWI2019-05. Applications will be accepted until the position has been filled.