Research

I am a researcher in Human-centred security. I seek to answer questions relating to security, privacy and trust at the intersection between humans and digital technologies, in particular the Internet. Current Research interests include, but are not limited to:

Areas of Interest

Human Factors in Security:

• Exploits against humans: phishing, social engineering, human error;
• Cyber Psychology and human behaviour;
• Security by Design, Usability and Situational Awareness;
• Cybercrime.

Privacy and Trust:

• User privacy and Digital footprints;
• Fake news (misinformation) and trustworthy content on social networks and the Internet.

Other Technical:

• IoT Security;
• Botnet and DDoS Detection.

If you are interested in studying for a PhD in any of the topics above, please get in touch via my mailing list

Selected Published work

• McDermott, C.D. et al., 2022. Removing Human Input in Spam Detection using Deep Learning In 2022 HCI for Cybersecurity, Privacy and Trust. HCII 2022. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2022

• Nicho, Mathew, McDermott, Christopher D, Modelling Technical Countermeasures of Advanced Persistent Threats In 2019 International Conference on Applied Computing, 2019

• Nicho, Mathew, McDermott, Christopher D, Dimensions of ‘Socio’ Vulnerabilities of Advanced Persistent Threats In 2019 27th International Conference on Software, Telecommunications and Computer Networks (SoftCOM), 2019

• McDermott, Christopher D, John P. Isaacs. Towards a Conversational Agent for Threat Detection in the Internet of Things , 2019. In 2019 International Conference On Cyber Situational Awareness, Data Analytics And Assessment, Cyber SA 2019.

• McDermott, Christopher D., John P. Isaacs, and Andrei V. Petrovski., 2018. Evaluating User Awareness and Perception of Security and Privacy within the Internet of Things (IoT) Informatics (Human Factors in Security and Privacy in IoT (HFSP-IoT)), Vol. 5.

• McDermott, C.D., Haynes, W. & Petrovski, A. V., 2018. Threat Detection and Analysis in the Internet of Things using Deep Packet Inspection International Journal on Cyber Situational Awareness, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 61-83.

• McDermott, C.D. et al., 2018. Towards Situational Awareness of Botnet Activity in the Internet of Things In 2018 International Conference On Cyber Situational Awareness, Data Analytics And Assessment, Cyber SA 2018.

• McDermott, C.D. et al., 2018. Botnet Detection in the internet of Things using Deep Learning Approaches In `2018 International Joint Conference on Neural Networks.``

• McDermott, C.D., & Petrovski, A., 2017. Investigation of Computational Intelligence Techniques for Intrusion Detection in Wireless Sensor Networks International Journal of Computer Networks & Communications (IJCNC), 9(4), pp.45-56.

Scholary Activities

I have held various roles, in academia and industry. A selected set of these is listed below.

Public Engagement: Talks and Articles

• British Science Week (Workshop) Capture The Flag (CTF) events explained Link (2022)

• Cyber Scotland Week (Workshop sponsored by SICSA ) What to expect and how to get involved in a Capture The Flag (CTF) event Zoom link (2022)

• TrackGenesis (Invited Talk Aberdeen) Innovation Skills - Demystifying Blockchain Zoom link (2022)

• Nimbus-Blue (Panel Member) Ask the Cyber Guys Link (2022)

• Fintech Times (Interview) Facial Recognition and Fingerprints – Foolish or Fool Proof? Link (2022)

• Security Advisor Middle East (Article) High Alert: Advanced Persistent Threats Issue 45 (2020)

• British Council (Invited Talk: Beijing, Qingdao, Hangzhou, Shenzen, Kunming, Hong Kong) Digital Footprint & WiFi Triangulation (2018)

• British Council (Invited Talk: Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea) Dark Data & Digital Footprints (2017)

• British Council (Invited Talk: Pune, Chennai) IoT Security (2017)

• British Computer Society (Invited Talk: Aberdeen) Security in the Internet of Things (2016)

Editorial Activities

• IEEE Pervasive Computing Peer Reviewer (2022 - Present)

• IEEE Internet of Things Peer Reviewer (2018 - Present)

• Computer Networks and Communications Peer Reviewer (2018 - Present)

• Applied Sciences Peer Reviewer (2018 - Present)

• Remote Sensing Peer Reviewer (2018 - Present)

• IEEE Cyber Science Peer Reviewer (2018 - Present)

Higher Education Engagement

• Lancaster University: UA92 External Advisor: Course Validation BSc Computer Science (2019-2020)

• Coventry University: Scarborough External Advisor: Course Validation BSc Computer Science & BSc Cybersecurity (2017)