Dr. Naveed Aman is an Assistant Professor of Cybersecurity at the School of Computing, University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). He earned his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and an M.Eng. in Industrial Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, in 2012. He also holds a B.Sc. in Computer Systems Engineering from KPK University of Engineering and Technology, Peshawar, and an M.Sc. in Computer Engineering from the Center for Advanced Studies in Engineering, Islamabad. Previously, Dr. Aman served in the School of Computing at the National University of Singapore. His research spans several cutting-edge areas, including Internet of Things (IoT) and cyberphysical systems security, trustworthy machine learning, and quantum-era cybersecurity. Among his notable contributions are pioneering device attestation algorithms and developing physical layer security techniques that leverage transceiver and wireless channel characteristics. He has also significantly advanced the understanding of privacy attacks on machine learning models.

Title: Securing Critical Infrastructure Sectors Against Cyberthreats

Abstract: Imagine waking up one day, grabbing your coffee, and realizing the power is out, the traffic lights are flashing random colors like a Christmas tree on steroids, and your local water treatment plant is suddenly streaming cat videos. Welcome to the nightmare scenario of what could happen if critical infrastructures aren’t properly secured against cyberthreats! In this light-hearted yet eye-opening talk, we’ll dive into the high-stakes world of keeping the backbone of society—energy grids, transport systems, healthcare, and more—safe from cyberattacks. While the topic is serious, we’ll keep things entertaining as we look at how hackers might try to turn a city’s smart grid into their personal light show or why outdated software in power plants could be the ultimate villain in an action movie we never wanted to watch. We’ll explore some real-world cyber incidents that have targeted critical infrastructures, revealing how vulnerabilities can quietly creep into these systems. More importantly, we’ll discuss practical strategies and best practices for strengthening defenses and keeping these essential services secure. Whether you’re a security professional, a policymaker, or someone with a vested interest in the resilience of modern infrastructure, this session will offer valuable insights—delivered with a dash of humor—into how we can collectively guard against cyberthreats before they escalate into full-blown crises. Let's ensure our critical systems remain robust and resilient in the face of evolving challenges.

Dr Robert Atkinson is a Reader in the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Strathclyde, where he leads the Industrial AI Lab. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE and a Member of the IET. His research interests include the application of machine learning to real-world industrial problems including cyber-security, machine/animal/human health and AgriTech. He has a particular interest in applying AI to situations where there is limited ground truth data (labels) available to train AI models. He is a visiting Reader at NHS Lanarkshire and is a co-founder of the cyber-security start-up, Lupovis Ltd.

Title: Intrusion Detection Systems for Cyber-Security – Challenges and Potential Solutions

Abstract: The talk will outline the state-of-the-art in the application of machine learning to detecting communications networks intrusions. Although AI shows great promise in detecting well-known attacks, it struggles when previously unseen attacks emerge, so-called zero-day attacks. The talk will explore the use of contrastive learning as a solution that does not suffer from a high false positive rate that afflict outlier detection strategies. Another problem is related to the heterogeneity of communications networks: IDS systems trained to detect malicious traffic in one network do not translate well to another (target) network. The talk will discuss the potential for domain adaptation strategies to address this issue.

Professor Ts. Dr. Madihah Mohd Saudi is a pioneering force in cybersecurity and education. As a Professor in the Information Security & Assurance (ISA) Programme, Faculty of Science and Technology (FST) at Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM), Malaysia, she drives innovation in both realms. Her tenure as USIM's former Chief Information Officer underscores her visionary integration of technology and education. With a remarkable career spanning over 20 years, Prof. Madihah has authored numerous books, strategic plans, and impactful journal papers. She holds esteemed positions worldwide, including Honorary Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Bristol's CyberSecurity Group, Uniten Kingdom and Visiting Professor roles at prominent institutions in Indonesia and Uzbekistan. A member of influential organizations like IEEE Computer Society, she excels in cybersecurity and machine learning. Her educational journey, from a BSc (Hons) in Computer Science to a PhD in Computer Security, combined with certifications like GSEC and CEH, reflects her commitment to expertise. Prof. Madihah's influence resonates across borders, shaping a brighter future in cybersecurity and education. Her legacy of knowledge, mentorship, and global collaboration continues to guide aspiring minds and professionals alike. Her research interests are on malware detection and response, mobile security and machine learning.

Title: Ransomware Evolvement Against Internet of Medical Things (IoMT): Advances and Challenges

Abstract: TThe intelligent ransomware attacks evolvement with camouflage and anti-forensics capability to bypass detection mechanisms, have triggered cybercrime attacks such as data breaches, data privacy intrusion and data theft against different sectors across the world. Unfortunately, the existing solutions are limited to certain platforms and lack intelligent analysis capability with complex analysis. Apparently, we need more efficient and comprehensive solution to detect ransomware attacks especially against cyber physical systems such as national defense and security, telecommunication, energy systems, water distribution systems and healthcare. Hence, during this session, the speaker will present on the current ransomware evolvement and challenges, and a solution to detect ransomware against the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) ecosystem based on the integration of phylogenetic, a bio-inspired algorithm.