Academia
Dr McDermott is a lecturer and researcher in Human-centred security
where he leads a Human-centred Security
research team. He seeks to answer security related questions 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:
- Security by Design: System, Threat and User/Attacker (Personas) Modelling;
- Secure Behaviour: Trust, Influence, Error and Crime;
- Usable Security and Situational Awareness.
Machine Learning for Cybersecurity:
- Exploits involving humans: Phishing, Social Engineering, Insider Threat;
- Misinformation (fake news, deep fakes) and trustworthy content on the Internet;
- Threat Detection: IoT Botnet and DDoS.
If you are interested in studying for a PhD in any of the topics above, please get in touch
Outside of my academic research, I write about Digital Wellbeing
and Privacy
where I explore tools and strategies that can help us lead healthy, safe and authentic digital lives. Specifically, how to manage our digital footprint and online persona.
Selected Published work
-
Nicho, Mathew, Alblooki, M, AlMutiwei, S, McDermott, Christopher D, Ilesanmi, O, 2023. A Crime Scene Reconstruction for Digital Forensic Analysis: An SUV Case Study In 2023
International Journal of Digital Crime and Forensics, Vol. 15, Issue. 1, pp. 20.
, 2023 -
Nicho, Mathew, McDermott, Christopher D, Fakhry, Hussein, Girija, Shini, 2023. A System Dynamics Approach to Evaluate Advanced Persistent Threat Vectors
International Journal of Information Security and Privacy, Vol. 17, Issue. 1, pp. 23.
, 2023 -
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.
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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.``
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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
Dr McDermott has held various roles, in academia and industry. A selection of these are listed below.
Public Engagement: Talks and Articles
-
International Workshop on the Challenges in Cybersecurity Education (Workshop)
The challenge of teaching cybersecurity in education
International Conference on Cryptology and Network Security (2023) -
Senior Leaders Cyber Summit (Panel Speaker)
What have we learnt
Conference (2023) -
Aberdeenshire Schools Visit (Community Outreach)
Two Factor Authentication
(2023) -
OT/IT Cyber Summit (Academic Partner & Panelist)
Securing the future of the industry against the continued cyber threat
Conference (2023) -
Cyber News Global Magazine (Bimonthly Column)
Human-centred Security Series
Issue 2 , 3 (2023) -
Police Scotland/Scottish Government Funded Cyber Collaboration (Invited Talk)
Be Cyber Aware
Project Launch (2023) -
Cyber News Global Magazine (Article)
Change Cyber Behaviour
Issue 1 (2022) -
Cyber Resilience Conference (Academic Partner)
Cyber Resilience for National Security & the Energy Sector
(2022) -
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
-
External Examiner: MSc Cybersecurity & Human Factors; MSc Digital Health
Bournemouth University (2023-) -
PhD Examiner
(Ongoing) -
External Advisor: Course Validation BSc Computer Science
Lancaster University: UA92 (2019-2020) -
External Advisor: Course Validation BSc Computer Science & BSc Cybersecurity
Coventry University: Scarborough (2017)