Senior Research Officer

Department
The School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering (CSEE) is a large and vibrant department in the Faculty of Science and Health. The REF ranked CSEE 6th in the UK for Computer Science research power and 100% of its research impact was rated world-leading or internationally excellent. CSEE is internationally known for its research in a range of areas and offers a broad range of degree courses to its students.

About the role and project
The Senior Research Officer will work as part of the recently awarded Chameleon: Dynamic Device-Unique Confidentiality and Fingerprinting Project funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). This project will research novel techniques for dynamically generating keys from inherent and environmental characteristics of digital systems. Such keys will be used for cryptographically protecting the confidentiality and authenticity of the intellectual property (code and data) aboard a device within a target deployment environment. Chameleon will build the first environmentally-bound platform that preserves code and data confidentiality by design by dynamically deriving keys from contextual factors while fulfilling device communication. To this end, we will employ a novel combination of ISR, contextual key generation, and channel creation from shared telecommunication features.

The work is in collaboration with the Universities of Manchester and Newcastle. The Essex team will work to determine a robust set of environmental contextual features that satisfy Chameleon’s security and functional requirements. The key derivation from contextual features is core to the project. It is necessary to identify a set of features suitable for cryptographic usage, i.e. sufficient entropy, while minimising computational and energy requirements, e.g. for battery-powered devices. The features must also be sufficiently unique to a given deployment scenario to prevent threats where attackers replicate the environment to facilitate forensic efforts.

Please note, any offers made for this post will be subject to additional vetting required, which is undertaken by The National Security Technology and Innovation Exchange (NSTIx). Further details of the checks and information will be provided at the written offer stage.

Skills and qualifications required
Applicants are expected to hold a relevant doctoral level degree in Computer Science, Electronic Engineering, Computer Engineering or equivalent professional experience or practice or be close to completion of PhD. Along with an MSc/BSc in Computer Science, Electronic Engineering, Computer Engineering or a related discipline. You will have the ability and willingness to complement and enhance the research project/department/school’s education and research strengths and areas of planned development. Strong communication skills, both written and verbal are also essential for the post.

As part of the process and to be successful you will be required to demonstrate how you your research has been impactful within and beyond the academic sphere, recognising the importance of this and the effect it will have on the University.

Please use the 'Apply' button to read further information about this role including the full job description and person specification which outlines the full duties, skills, qualifications and experience needed for this role. You will also find details of how to make your application here.

Our website http://www.essex.ac.uk contains more information about the University of Essex. If you have a disability and would like information in a different format, please email resourcing@essex.ac.uk.

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