Cardiff University

Attacks on Critical National Infrastructure (CNI), such as the energy, transport management, and supplies sectors, may have disastrous consequences. Such attacks may be performed by a variety of threat actors, including lone individuals, crime organisations, and nation states. Likewise, the goals of the attacks comprise a wide range, such as attention-seeking, terrorism, monetary gain, and cyber warfare. Attackers may use a large array of approaches to reach these goals. They may perform pure cyberattacks - which can be executed from anywhere in the world. Deception provides a virtual environment that resembles the actual physical environment as closely as possible, in order to fool the attacker into believing they are attacking the real system Deception has two aims: Enabling the study of attackers' Tools, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs) within a secure environment. This supports the gathering of threat intelligence. One well-known instance is the classical "honeypot" approach. Defending the system by drawing attackers' attention and effort away from the real environment into the virtual one. We are seeking an enthusiastic, creative and technically skilled candidate for an exciting and unique fully-funded scholarship opportunity to study deception in the context of cybersecurity for critical national infrastructure. The result of this PhD will be novel research that addresses a subset of the challenges outlined below, and begins to develop a realistic technical implementation. The successful candidate will be supported by internationally recognised researchers at Cardiff University's NCSC Academic Centre of Excellence for Cybersecurity Research, as well as industry experts and world class testbeds at Thales' National Digital Exploitation Centre (NDEC). You will join the ESPRC DTP Hub in Cyber Security Analytics at Cardiff University, becoming part of an interdisciplinary cohort of students studying the human and algorithmic aspects of AI in the context of cybersecurity. Objectives This project will investigate existing deception approaches for CNI systems in both the academic and the industrial domain. Due to the context, there are many intellectual, scientific and technical challenges to be addressed: Realistic systems: The deception system must appear realistic in order to convince the attacker. Hence, its components and topology must closely match the real system. This is made particularly challenging by the fact that attackers may attack the system not just in the cyberspace. Therefore, the deception system will have to emulate not just digital components, but social and physical systems as well. Realistic responses: The system must react to attacks in a convincing way. As attackers can monitor the success of their attacks in the physical world and in the media, these must be covered as well. Scalability: Depending on the real system in question, CNI may involve a large number of diverse components. This raises questions of emulating those in a scalable way without replicating the original system in its entirety. Automation: Generating an instance of the deception system for a particular real system cannot be done manually. Therefore, the project must support the automated discovery and matching of a real system, including components, topology, and behaviour. Publicity and impact: The deception system will operate within an intellectually challenging field. On the one hand, some information needs to be publicised in order for it to operate (see (2), above). On the other hand, generating false information about attacks on a CNI may cause problems. In addition, the fact that a deception system is in operation should not be publicised.

We are bringing in Anthony who has practical business experience in this area to undertake a three year piece of work to investigate sustainable supply chain management (Sustainable SCM). Organisations often buy and supply goods and services to one another. They do this along a supply chain that stretches upstream from the extraction of raw materials all the way downstream to the end consumer, who uses and disposes of the product. Sustainable SCM entails organizations utilising their purchasing and supply activities to promote sustainable development. This involves trying to minimize negative environmental impacts, whilst ensuring that supply chain partners employ good social practices, and that supply chain partners can make a fair profit. Looking along the supply chain This programme aims to explore sustainable supply chain management through case studies with organisations and their suppliers. It will investigate how organisations approach sustainability, and how they engage in sustainable SCM with one of their key suppliers. In turn, we will investigate how the key supplier engages in sustainable SCM with one of it's key suppliers. In this way, we hope to develop a better understanding of how sustainability is perceived and implemented along supply chains. The three aspects of sustainability A lot of research has previously focused on the environmental aspects of sustainable SCM. In this research, we aim to explore the 3 elements of sustainable SCM, including social, environmental and economic issues. We aim to understand how the different aspects might be balanced. For example, does a supply chain manager put efforts into reducing carbon emissions and packaging in the supply chain, or should they focus on ensuring the acceptable labour practices of their suppliers? Trying to understand the trade-offs and how they might be balanced will be an important aspect of the research. Sustainable SCM and performance The research will also look at whether sustainable SCM influences organisational performance. Do organisations that support sustainability in their supply chains perform better? And in what ways can that be measured? Is the improvement distributed evenly across the supply chain, or do some supply chain partners benefit more than others? Proposed Research Methods Literature Review The nominated candidate will conduct a comprehensive literature review to assess the latest research in sustainable SCM, and to determine the theoretical underpinnings of the research. Sampling The research on sustainable SCM is likely to be conducted in several sectors, and the approach to sampling across sectors will be determined by the literature review. Sectors may include construction, food and retail as the candidate and mentor already have contacts in these sectors. The research will entail five in depth intensive case-studies. Data collection Data are to be primarily collected via semi-structured, open-ended interviews, and participant observation of supplier meetings. Secondary data (e.g. annual reports, supplier contracts, internal documents) will also be collected to increase the study's reliability. The data will be subject to thematic coding utilising NVivo software. Workshop Participating case organisations and practitioners will be invited to a workshop to disseminate the findings. The case studies will encompass five focal firms and their first and second tier supply chain partner organisations. The informants for each organisation should be supply chain managers, senior buyers and CSR managers well conversant with the sustainable SCM activities of the organisation. The research will entail a total of approximately 75 interviews, composed of a number of focal companies and their primary and secondary suppliers, plus other key stakeholders.

The manufacture, performance and end-of-life (recycling, environmental fate) of polymers (plastics) is an area of intense current interest and importance. Research in this area is often fragmented; this hub brings together expertise in polymer synthesis and recycling, together with wider aspects of plastics manufacture, application and environmental impact. Specific areas of interest and potential projects include Chemistry (catalysis for synthesis of sustainable polymers; catalysis for recycling; catalysis for the sustainable synthesis of polymer intermediates), Engineering (mechanical performance and durability, mechanical aspects of recycling), Biosciences (degradation pathways, environmental impact, including physical and biogeochemical transport and fate of plastics and degradation products), and Social sciences (single-use behaviours, waste management options, Life Cycle Assessments, costs benefit analysis).

Older humans are susceptible to infections and malignancy indicating that their immune systems become less effective. The continuous challenge by infectious agents, especially those such as viruses that persist in the body throughout life, may drive the reactive white cells towards exhaustion. Secondly, one of the main attributes of the immune system is the capacity of white cells to migrate from the blood to the tissues and back again, a phenomenon known as immunosurveillance. In this project we make use of reagents that enable us to investigate the quality of T cells as well as their capacity for migration in older humans, to determine if one or both of these essential functions are defective. We will also investigate the white cells in the blood and in the lymph nodes and in the blood and bone marrow in two different groups of individuals simultaneously. This is a unique opportunity as normally only the leukocytes in blood are studied in humans due to the difficulty of obtaining tissue samples. We have all the appropriate ethical approval to be able to perform these studies. This project will also utilize additional novel technology that we developed, to measure the telomeres, the equivalent of an ageing clock in white cells that react to viruses. The cells with long telomere have the potential to persist in the body while those with short telomeres (senescent) are close to running out of time and will be lost. Furthermore, by using time-lapse microscopy, we can visualize the capacity of white cells from old and young subjects to migrate across blood vessel cells that are grown in the laboratory. Collectively this will tell us about whether senescent cells, that have decreased function accumulate during ageing and whether these cells are defective in imunosurveillance. Stress is known to be bad for immunity, especially during ageing. The scientist for whom funding is being sought in this proposal, Dr. Natalie Riddell used a technique for generating mild stress in humans during her PhD studies. This involved asking volunteers to give a verbal account of a situation to a small audience of 3 people. Significantly, this mild stress in young subjects (<40 yrs) was able to induce the mobilization of white cells from tissues into the blood to the same extent as excercise. This method is therefore a surrogate assessment of capacity for immunosurveillance. What we will now investigate is the capacity of older subjects (>70 yrs) to mobilize white cells during this stress response and to determine the quality of the cells that are mobilized. These studies will provide new information on changes in the quality of immunity during ageing and also the ability of the immune system in older humans to respond to external influences. This is cross-disciplinary work that utilizes multiple technologies to understand the impact of ageing on human immunity.

To develop novel composite materials for high strength, light weight, low friction bearings for aerospace applications and embed the capability to develop new materials.