The Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT) at Queen's University Belfast proudly announces that Mark Megarry, a PhD student, won the ‘Best Student Paper Award’ at the International Conference on Industrial Networks and Intelligent Systems (INISCOM) held in February 2024. This prestigious recognition highlights CSIT's commitment to advancing research and innovation in cybersecurity.

Mark Megarry, funded under CSIT’s Doctoral Training Programme in the School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering, and Computer Science (EEECS), received the award for the paper titled Understanding the Security Implications in O-RAN with Abusive Adversaries. Co-authored with Antonino Masaracchia, Muhammad Fahim, Vishal Sharma, and Trung Q. Duong of Queen's University Belfast, the paper highlights groundbreaking research on enhancing security measures within O-RAN architecture to counteract abusive adversaries effectively.

The awarded paper discusses the challenges posed by abusive adversaries in O-RAN systems, using a novel approach that combines Markov Decision Processes (MDP) and Fuzzy Inference Systems (FIS) to predict and mitigate potential Denial of Service (DoS) attacks. This innovative research provides valuable insights for network operators on securing offloading operations against sophisticated cyber threats.

Upon receiving the award, Mark commented, “It is an honour to receive this award so early in my PhD studies. I’m extremely thankful for the support from my co-authors and supervisors, and for the efforts of the conference organisers. With the continued support of Queen’s University Belfast and CSIT, we aim to continue investigating emerging threats against O-RAN networks to secure tomorrow’s communications.

Dr. Vishal Sharma, one of Mark's supervisors and co-authors, also shared his thoughts: "Mark's dedication and our team's hard work have led to this significant achievement. We are grateful for this recognition by INISCOM's programme committee, and it encourages us to continue our pursuit of innovative solutions to protect against cyber threats in open networks."

For more information on the award and INISCOM please visit https://iniscom.eai-conferences.org/2024/

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Ankisha Rana (a.rana@qub.ac.uk) | Helen Lappin (h.lappin@qub.ac.uk)