Recent Publications
Peer-reviewed research exploring human factors in cybersecurity, security education, usable privacy and implications of security.
Journal papers
Australian Teen Voices on Age Verification and Age Assurance Measures
Woodley G, See HW, O'Neill B, Green L, Staksrud E, Haskell-Dowland PS
Policy & Internet, Volume 17, Issue 4
Age verification and age assurance technologies, including biometrics, facial recognition software and digital identification, have been explored as potential measures to restrict access of young people to social media and sexually explicit media (SEM), including pornography. However, there is...
Real-world continuous smartwatch-based user authentication
Al-Naffakh N, Clarke NL, Li F, Haskell-Dowland PS
The Computer Journal, Vol. 68, Iss. 1
User authentication is often regarded as the 'gatekeeper' of cyber security. It has, however, long suffered from significant usability issues that have resulted in research focussing upon frictionless and transparent biometric approaches. Activity-based user authentication—a technique...
Examination of Traditional Botnet Detection on IoT-Based Bots
Woodiss-Field A, Johnstone M, Haskell-Dowland PS
Sensors, Vol. 24, Iss. 3, pp1027
A botnet is a collection of Internet-connected computers that have been suborned and are controlled externally for malicious purposes. Concomitant with the growth of the Internet of Things (IoT), botnets have been expanding to use IoT devices as their attack vectors. IoT devices utilise specific...
Energy-Efficient Covert Wireless Communication Through Probabilistic Jamming
Lu X, Huang Y, Yan S, Yang W, Haskell-Dowland PS
IEEE Wireless Communications Letters, Vol. 12, Iss. 5, pp932-936
In this work, we propose a novel energy-efficient covert wireless communication scheme through probabilistic jamming, where a jammer probabilistically transmits artificial noise (AN) with variable power against a warden’s detection. For the proposed scheme, the closed-form expressions for the...
Establishment and mapping of heterogeneous anomalies in network intrusion datasets
Riddell L, Ahmed M, Haskell-Dowland PS
Connection Science, Volume 34, Issue 1, pp2755-2783
Anomaly detection in the scope of network security aims to identify network instances for the unexpected and unique, with various security operations employing such techniques to facilitate effective threat detection. However, many systems have been designed based on the absolute mapping of attacks...
Conference papers
A Physically Unclonable Function Authentication Protocol to Secure IEEE C37.118 Communications
Griffiths T, Ahmed M, Haskell-Dowland PS
Proceedings of the 25th European Conference on Cyber Warfare & Security (ECCWS 2026), Nottingham, UK, 29-30 June
This paper outlines the need for security on the smart grid, specifically for Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) and Phasor Data Concentrators (PDCs). These devices are targeted due to their criticality to the smart grid and the insecure communication protocols used. Common attacks on these devices...
On Relaying Strategies in Multi-Hop Covert Wireless Communications
Yu X, Yan S, Hu J, Haskell-Dowland PS, Han Y, Ng DWK
IEEE International Conference on Communications, pp666-672, DOI: 10.1109/ICC45855.2022.9838514
Multi-hop transmissions are desirable in realizing large-scale long-distance covert wireless communications, since a single-hop transmission cannot fully satisfy the covertness requirement even with high transmit power. Against this background, this work compares amplify-and-forward (AF) and...
Towards Evaluating the Effectiveness of Botnet Detection Techniques
Woodiss-Field A, Johnstone M, Haskell-Dowland PS
International Conference on Ubiquitous Security (UBISEC 2021), pp 292-308 (published 2022), Springer, DOI: 10.1007/978-981-19-0468-4_22
Botnets are a group of compromised devices taken over and commanded by a malicious actor known as a botmaster. In recent years botnets have targeted Internet of Things (IoT) devices, significantly increasing their ability to cause disruption due to the scale of the IoT. One such IoT-based botnet was...
IoT Threat Detection Advances, Challenges and Future Directions
Karie NM, Sahri NM, Haskell-Dowland PS
2020 Workshop on Emerging Technologies for Security in IoT (ETSecIoT), 21-21 April, Sydney, Australia
It is predicted that, the number of connected Internet of Things (IoT) devices will rise to 38.6 billion by 2025 and an estimated 50 billion by 2030. The increased deployment of IoT devices into diverse areas of our life has provided us with significant benefits such as improved quality of life and...
Hybrid Routing for Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) Attack Detection in IoT Networks
Kang J, Fahd K, Venkatraman S, Trujillo-Rasua R, Haskell-Dowland PS
2019 29th International Telecommunication Networks and Applications Conference (ITNAC), ISBN: 978-1-7281-3674-5, pp. 1-6
Affordable and expandable low power networks such as 5G and Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN) in the public and private network areas have improved network bandwidth capacities and processing performance. Internet of Things (IoT) technologies are increasing in popularity with numerous...
Books/Chapters
Information Security and Privacy – Challenges and Outlook
Furnell SM, Haskell-Dowland PS, et al. (multiple authors)
Advancing Research in Information and Communication Technology, pp 383-401, ISBN: 978-3-030-81700-8
The ongoing demand for new and faster technologies continues to leave consumers and business users to face the constant challenge of updating systems and software. This unrelenting pace of technological evolution has not always been matched with a commensurate focus on security and privacy matters....
E-mail Security: A Pocket Guide
Furnell SM, Dowland PS
IT Governance Publishing, ISBN: 978-1849280969, pp108
Don't let an email cause an information security incident at your company - buy this pocket guide today! Your business relies on email for its everyday dealings with partners, suppliers and customers. While email is an invaluable form of communication, it also represents a potential threat to...
User Authentication Technologies
Clarke NL, Dowland PS, Furnell SM
in Securing Information and Communications Systems: Principles, Technologies, and Applications. S.M.Furnell, S.K.Katsikas, J.Lopez and A.Patel (Eds), Artech House, ISBN 978-1-59693-228-9, pp35-59
This chapter introduces the principles of user authentication technology. It begins by examining the need for reliable identification and authentication of users, and introducing the three primary foundations of authentication techniques (i.e. something the user knows, has or is). Subsequent...
Security Concepts, Services, and Threats
Dowland PS, Furnell SM
in Securing Information and Communications Systems: Principles, Technologies, and Applications. S.M.Furnell, S.K.Katsikas, J.Lopez and A.Patel (Eds), Artech House, ISBN 978-1-59693-228-9, pp5-20
This chapter provides a baseline introduction to the concepts of IT security, as well as providing a background on the need for protection from an organizational perspective. It begins by providing examples of incidents, statistics indicating the scale and nature of the problem and a number of cases...
Edited Books
ICT Systems Security and Privacy Protection
Janicke H, Futcher L, Sarker I, Thomson KL, Haskell-Dowland PS
Springer, 9-11 June, Perth, Australia, pp587, ISBN: 978-3-032-27992-7
This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 41st IFIP International Conference on ICT Systems Security and Privacy Protection, SEC 2026, held in Perth, Australia, during June 9–11, 2026. The 39 full papers included in this book were carefully reviewed and selected from 164 submissions....
Cybersecurity Teaching in Higher Education
Sikos L, Haskell-Dowland PS
Springer, pp139, ISBN: 978-3-031-24216-8
This book collects state-of-the-art curriculum development considerations, training methods, techniques, and best practices, as well as cybersecurity lab requirements and aspects to take into account when setting up new labs, all based on hands-on experience in teaching cybersecurity in higher...
Cybersecurity for Smart Cities
Ahmed M, Haskell-Dowland PS
Springer, ISBN: 978-3-031-24945-7
Ensuring cybersecurity for smart cities is crucial for a sustainable cyber ecosystem. Given the undeniable complexity of smart cities, fundamental issues such as device configurations and software updates should be addressed when it is most needed to fight cyber-crime and ensure data privacy. This...
Next-Generation Enterprise Security and Governance
Ahmed M, Moustafa N, Barkat A, Haskell-Dowland PS
Routledge, pp288, ISBN 9780367639624
Internet is making our daily life as digital as possible and this new era is called the Internet of Everything (IoE). The key force behind the rapid growth of the Internet is the technological advances of enterprises. The digital world we live in is facilitated by these enterprises’ advances and...
Secure Edge Computing: Applications, Techniques and Challenges
Ahmed M, Haskell-Dowland PS
CRC Press, 304pp, ISBN: 9780367464141
The internet is making our daily life as digital as possible and this new era is called the Internet of Everything (IoE). Edge computing is an emerging data analytics concept that addresses the challenges associated with IoE. More specifically, edge computing facilitates data analysis at the edge of...
Other publications
Want to break free from big tech? 'Self‑hosting' could be the answer
Hampton N, Haskell-Dowland PS
The Conversation, 28 July
Self-hosting is a general catch-all term for taking control of your own data. It comes in many flavours.
Australian scam victims could get rapid $3,000 refunds. Yet in the UK, it’s more like $160,000
Haskell-Dowland PS
The Conversation, 1 June
The median scam in Australia last year cost $400 – so a rapid refund of up to $3,000 sounds generous. But take a closer look and it starts to look oddly low.
Police equipment can be tracked via Bluetooth. What about your phone, watch and headphones?
Haskell-Dowland PS
The Conversation, 4 May
Unless you go completely offline, you cannot completely eliminate the risk of being tracked.
The social media ban is just the start of Australia’s forthcoming restrictions – and teens have legitimate concerns
Woodley G, Haskell-Dowland PS
The Conversation, 11 December
A host of other restrictions will affect social media use in the coming months. Our research shows teens worry about them – and will find a way around them.
Iran’s internet blackout left people in the dark. How does a country shut down the internet?
Ahmed M, Haskell-Dowland PS
The Conversation, 24 June
If a government wants to shut down the internet, it really can – the technical capability is there.