Emerging Technologies and Applications
We have many practical research projects investigating the application of cybersecurity and software engineering tools and technologies to a wide range of industry and societal challenges.
Current Projects
Attributing global digital payments linked to crime (ARC NISDRG grant administered by Griffith University) (2021–2024)
This project aims to automate the process of linking cryptocurrency payments to crime in real time. Cryptocurrencies present a fast-evolving global challenge for crime/ intelligence attribution. The novel investigative toolkit facilitates law enforcement agencies to disrupt suspicious/ ransomware payment. The outcomes include an innovative technique to extract feature vectors to defeat anonymity from multi-blockchain networks; a new machine learning tool to fuse streaming mixed datasets and reconstruct provenance; an attribution mechanism which informs analyst and policy makers to improve national security. This benefits Australia as a world-leader in investigating crypto related criminal activities and creating usable evidence across laws.
Grant Value: $590,843.00
Researchers: A/Prof Vallipuram Muthukkumarasamy (CI) (Griffith), Prof Ryan Ko (CI), Prof Marimuthu Palaniswami (CI) (UniMelb)
Agriculture Trusted Remote Inspection, Provenance and Traceability
Trusted computing and applications into AgTech, IoT, Edge, Cloud Computing and OT environments.
Researchers: Ryan Ko, Joshua Scarsbrook, Omar Jarkas, Bondi Labs (Josh Hall, Stu Smith, Jonathan Marshall), Curtin University (Md Redowan Mahmud)
Funding: Commonwealth SURF Funds ($2.5 Million for 2022-2023; administered by SAFS and QAAFI) - $35,000 for this project in 2022.
Development of quality assurance technologies for meat processing plants (2021)
Researchers: Ryan Ko, Guangdong Bai, Bondi Labs (Josh Hall, Stu Smith, Jonathan Marshall)
Innovation Connections Fund (Commonwealth DISER)
Funding awarded: $200,000
Massive static and real-time datasets for cyber security research and digital competitiveness (2020–2022)
Researchers: Ryan Ko, Guangdong Bai, Naipeng Dong, Surya Nepal, Marthie Grobler
CSIRO Data 61 – University Collaboration Agreement (DUCA)
Funding awarded: $272,119
Security of Agriculture IoT devices
Researchers: Guangdong Bai, Ryan Ko, Louw Hoffman (QAAFI), Bondi Labs (Josh Hall, Stu Smith, Jonathan Marshall)
Funding: UQ Cyber Seed Funding
Application of machine learning for OT security automation
Researchers: Ryan Ko, Abigail Koay, Ken Radke, Hinne Hettema
Automating Operational Technology (OT) Security
Focusing on automating detection and mitigation of security threats for Industrial Control Systems (ICS) and related protocols.
Researchers: Ryan Ko, Taejun Choi, Alex Ladur (First Watch Ltd (NZ)), Jeremy Hulse (Sage Automation)
Data Privacy and Privacy Enhancing Technologies
Enabling secure and private multi-party computation and federated learning.
Researchers: Ryan Ko, Guangdong Bai, Yanjun Zhang (now at Deakin University), Xue Li, Chen Chen, Caitlin Curtis
Automating Cyber Security for Critical Infrastructure
Designing cyber autonomy to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of Security Operation Centres and Incident Responders
Researchers: Ryan Ko, Abigail Koay, Jonathan Wilton, Miao Xu, Nan Ye, AARNET (Charles Sterner, Miao Xie).
Provenance of distributed computing systems
Overcoming querying and storage bottlenecks in distributed computing.
Researchers: Ryan Ko, David Abramson, Guangdong Bai, Hetong Jiang, Mohan Baruwal Chhetri (Data61)
Applying Situation Crime Prevention to Cybercrime Prevention (in collaboration with UQ Criminology)
Applying SCP techniques into processes and controls to prevent cybercrime.
Researchers: Hee Meng Ho, Ryan Ko, Lorraine Mazerolle, John Gilmour
Justice for sexual assault and rape: Digital media and Australian courts (in collaboration with UQ Criminology)
Researchers: Jonah Rimer, Allison Fish, Ryan Ko, Rita Lok
COVID-19, the U.S. Sex Trade, and Prostitution-related crime: Institutional-Anomie Theory and a Routine Activity Approach (in collaboration with UQ Criminology)
Researchers: Abigail O’Hara, Renee Zahnow, Ryan Ko
Creating Measurable Indicators of Cyber Resilience (in collaboration with UQ Business School)
Developing a framework to quantify factors allowing senior executives to understand and make decisions about cyber resilience
Researchers: Ryan Ko, Sergeja Slapnicar, Elinor Tsen