[TYPES/announce] PhD Studentship in Cyber Security at Royal Holloway, University of London

[Johannes Kinder]

A fully funded, 3.5 year PhD studentship in Cyber Security is available at Royal Holloway, University of London. Applications are invited now, with a closing date of June 22. The student will start in the 2014/15 academic year and will be advised by Dr. Johannes Kinder and Prof. Kenny Paterson. The studentship comes with an annual stipend of £23,000 over 3.5 years, and additionally covers fees and funds for equipment and travel to conferences.

The topic of the studentship will be the analysis of software that uses cryptographic libraries and routines. Recently, several incidents have been publicised in the media where the implementations of secure protocols turned out to be insecure or prone to vulnerabilities, such as the infamous OpenSSL Heartbleed. These vulnerabilities are often due to subtle programming errors, but they can completely subvert the protection offered by standard cryptographic routines. In this project, we will develop methods and tools to automatically analyse program code and uncover such cryptographic weaknesses. We will build on recent developments in systematic test generation, which already allow to automatically find vulnerabilities like buffer overflows. This project will provide the opportunity to build on strong theoretical foundations to work on real problems in real-world software.


=== Requirements ===

Applicants should have a solid computer science background and a keen interest in information security. Background knowledge in program analysis, automated test generation, cryptography, and C++ or JavaScript is a plus, but not required.

This GCHQ-funded studentship is available only to UK nationals who have been resident in the UK for ten years. Each year, the student will have the opportunity to spend 2-4 weeks with GCHQ on site in Cheltenham.


=== How to Apply ===

The deadline for applications is June 22, 2014. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis as they are received and an offer will be made to the strongest candidate as soon as possible after the closing date. 

For informal inquiries about the position, please contact Johannes Kinder (johannes.kinder at rhul.ac.uk). To apply, please follow the instructions on:

  http://www.cs.rhul.ac.uk/home/kinder/vacancies.html


=== About Royal Holloway ===

The student will be hosted at the Department of Computer Science and the Information Security Group (ISG) of Royal Holloway, University of London. The Computer Science Department is one of the UK's leading centres for research into Computer Science. In the most recent Research Assessment Exercise (RAE 2008), we ranked 11th in the UK for the quality of our research output. Times Higher Education ranks Royal Holloway as 12th in the UK and 102nd worldwide. The ISG is one of the largest academic security research groups in the world, and it is widely recognised for its research in cryptography. 

Situated just 35 minutes by train from Central London and 7 miles from Heathrow, our campus is one of the most beautiful in the world set in 135 acres of stunning parkland. It is home to a vibrant yet friendly community displayed by our proud tradition of music and performance as well as sporting excellence.

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Dr. Johannes Kinder
Lecturer in Computer Science
Royal Holloway, University of London
http://www.cs.rhul.ac.uk/home/kinder/