Dr Theodoros Spyridopoulos
Senior Lecturer
- spyridopoulost@cardiff.ac.uk
- Room 5.67, Abacws, Senghennydd Road, Cathays, Cardiff, CF24 4AG
- Available for postgraduate supervision
Overview
I have been a Lecturer in the School of Computer Science and Informatics and a member of the Cybersecurity group since June 2022. I have a strong industry and academic background, having worked in the past for Toshiba Research Europe in Bristol, UK, Airbus in Newport, UK and the University of the West of England in Bristol, UK.
My research interest lies in the field of AI for cybersecurity and cybersecurity for AI, with a particular focus on decentralised distributed large-scale systems (e.g. IoT systems and smart cities). In addition, I am interested in cybersecurity modelling and simulations (for risk management, threat analysis etc.) for complex, large-scale systems using methods such as Game Theory, Epidemiology Modelling, Viable System Modelling, System Dynamics etc. If you are interested in these or similar areas, please feel free to contact me.
I am a photography enthusiast, a 10k runner and a fan of anime!
Biography
Since June 2022, I have been a Lecturer in the School of Computer Science and Informatics at Cardiff University. I am a member of the Cybersecurity group, where I co-lead the group's industrial engagement. I am also the module leader for the Operating Systems Security module, which is part of Cardiff's new NCSC-accredited Cyber Security and Technology MSc, supported by PwC.
Prior to Cardiff University, I worked as a senior lecturer in the department of Computer Science and Creative Technologies at the University of the West of England in Bristol. My role involved module leadership in a series of modules including Security and Forensic Tools (UGT), Critical Systems Security (PGT) and Final Year Projects (UGT).
I have strong industry experience. I worked for Toshiba Research Europe from February 2020 to June 2022 as a senior research engineer conducting research on the intersection between AI and cybersecurity, as well as research around connected autonomous vehicles. I was responsible for the lab’s cyber security research strategy, collaborating with Toshiba’s business units, and industrial and academic stakeholders. I was also actively involved in a series of projects, including "CAVShield", a feasibility study funded by Innovate UK (£281,990) on the requirements of a cyber security test and evaluation centre for Connected Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) and Cooperative Intelligent Transportation Systems (C-ITS), and “SWAN: Secure Wireless Agile Networks”, a collaborative project with the University of Bristol funded by EPSRC, GCHQ, Toshiba and Roke. Additionally, I led research project bidding activities including SYNERGIA (Secure bY desigN End to end platfoRm for larGe scale resource-constrained Iot Applications) for which I was the technical leader and system architect. Funded by Innovate UK (£2.2M) under the 2020 “Demonstrators addressing cyber security challenges in the Internet of Things: round 2” call, SYNERGIA focused on the end-to-end security of large-scale resource-constrained IoT applications that rely on Edge processing. The project involved the development and demonstration of cyber security research innovations around: i) AI-based intrusion detection at the Edge, ii) secure communication of sensor devices (Endpoints) with other Endpoints and the Edge, iii) secure configuration management of Endpoints and their dataflows at the Edge and iv) the development of the IoT platform’s back end.
I also hold a patent on the “Detection of Model Attacks in Distributed AI”, published in May 2022, which focuses on a method to mitigate model attacks in Distributed AI architectures using a decentralised approach.
My industrial experience also includes my employment as a cyber security research engineer at Airbus Group Innovations in Newport in 2015, where I was involved in research around threat detection for Industrial Control Systems.
Honours and awards
Best Teacher of the Year, Department Of Computer Science and Creative Technologies, UWE, Bristol; Academic year: 2018-19.
Best Paper Award, 6th International Workshop on Digital Forensics and Incident Analysis (WDFIA). Title: “Towards a forensically ready cloud storage service”, Authors: T. Spyridopoulos, V. Katos
Professional memberships
- Member of PETRAS.
- ISACA Professional Membership.
- Palo Alto Networks Authorised Cybersecurity Academy Instructor.
- Higher Education Academy Fellow (Recognition Reference: PR132452).
- License to practise the profession of Degree holder Engineer, Greek Technical Chamber.
Academic positions
- 2022 - present: Lecturer, Cardiff University
- 2016 - 2020: Senior Lecturer, UWE, Bristol
Committees and reviewing
- Grant reviewer, Dutch Research Council (NWO - Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek)
- Conference Co-chair, International Conference on Security of Information and Networks
- Programme Committee Member: Globecom CISS
- Journal reviewer, Computers and Security, Journal of Information Security and Applications, Journal of the Operational Research Society
Publications
We are currently unable to retrieve the list of publications. Visit our institutional repository.Teaching
Supervision
The areas I'm interested in supervising are:
- Cybersecurity for AI and AI for cybersecurity (e.g. distributed AI for cybersecurity)
- Cybersecurity modelling and simulations (epidemiology modelling, systems theory, game theory, attack trees etc.)
