Dr Neetesh Saxena

Senior Lecturer

School of Computer Science and Informatics

: saxenan4@cardiff.ac.uk
: Abacws, Senghennydd Road, Cathays, Cardiff, CF24 4AG

: Available for postgraduate supervision

I am a Senior Lecturer with the School of Computer Science and Informatics at Cardiff University, UK having 16+ years of professional experience. Previosuly, he had affiliations with the Bournemouth University (UK), Georgia Institute of Technology (USA), Stony Brook University (USA) and SUNY Korea. I was a DAAD Scholar at Bonn-Aachen International Center for Information Technology (B-IT), Rheinische-Friedrich-Wilhelms Universität, Bonn (Germany) and was also a TCS Research Scholar. My current research interests include cyber security and critical infrastructure security, including cyber-physical system security: smart grid, V2G and cellular communication networks.

Dr Neetesh Saxena is an Associate Professor (Senior Lecturer) at Cardiff University, UK. He has extensive research/teaching experience over 16 years in Cyber Security. His research focuses on Cyber Security, Cyber-Physical System Security, Cellular Network Security, and IoT Security. Previously, Postdoc Fellow- Georgia Tech and Stony Brook University, USA. IEEE Senior Member. Author of 100+ papers (incl. IEEE/ACM Transactions and conferences). Two Best Paper Awards. Draft committee member for IEEE Standards.

Interviewed by:

Interviewed by the Security, Privacy, Identity, Trust in the Digital Economy (SPRITE+) (Aug 2021).

https://spritehub.org/2021/08/18/sprite-member-spotlight-neetesh-saxena/

Interviewed by IEEE ComSoc Young Professionals (Sep 2017).

http://cyp.committees.comsoc.org/interview-with-neetesh-saxena/

Honours and awards

Best Paper Award at 35th International Conference on Information Networking (2021).

GW4 Crucible Future Research Leader Award (2021).

A paper titled “PharmaCrypt: Blockchain for Critical Pharmaceutical Industry to Counterfeit Drugs” is featured on the Front Page of the IEEE Computer Journal (2020).

European Initiative Expert Visitor Award to Singapore by EPIC – European Pacific Partnership for ICT (2018).

ComSoc YP and WICE Best Paper Award at IEEE ICC by IEEE ComSoc YP & WICE Committees (2017).

DAAD Scholarship Award (2013).

TCS Scholarship Award (2012).

Professional memberships

IEEE Senior Member

ACM Member

Academic positions

2019 - Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Cardiff University (UK)

2016-19 - Lecturer, Bournemouth University (UK)

2015-16 - Postdoctoral Researcher, Georgia Institute of Technology (USA)

2014-15 - Postdoctoral Researcher, Stony Brook University (USA) & the State University of New York (Korea)

2005-11 - Assistant Professor, IMS Engineering College (India)

Speaking engagements

Clarity: A Web Security Tool at COMSNETS, Bengaluru, India (2023).

Cyber-Physical Security (invited talk) in the Faculty Development Programme on Recent Trends in Cyber Security and Machine Intelligence, Indraprastha Engineering College, India (2022).

Cyber Security for Critical Infrastructure (invited talk) at Indraprastha Engineering College, India (2021).

Socially Engineered Phishing E-mail Detection in the UK-Kuwait Cyber Security Education & Research Conference, Kuwait (2020).

Critical Infrastructure Security in the CHUNAUTI, by STPI Govt. of India (2020).

Smart Grid Security (invited talk) in COMSNETS workshop – Cybersecurity and Blockchain, India (2020).

Security and Privacy in V2G Networks (webinar) to IEEE Transportation Electrification Community (2019).

Smart Grid Security to Bristol Research & Innovation Laboratory, Toshiba Research Europe Limited, UK (2019).

Seminar on Smart Grid Security at Queen University, Belfast UK (2019).

Systematic Analysis: Resistance to Traffic Analysis Attacks in Tor System for Critical Infrastructures at IEEE SMC, Miyazaki Japan (2018).

Smart Grid Security (invited talk) in Workshop on Advanced Computing and Networking at Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou China (2017).

Cyber-Physical Smart Grid Security Tool for Education and Training Purposes (invited) in Cyber Security Education workshop at NSWU, Canberra, Australia (2017).

Smart Grid Security in UK Science Collaboration Symposium on Cyber Security, organized by the British Council UK, at the University of Manchester, Manchester, UK (2017).

CPSA: A Cyber-Physical Security Assessment Tool for Situational Awareness in Smart Grid at ACM Workshop on Cyber-Physical Systems Security & Privacy (CPS-SPC) in Conjunction with ACM CCS, Dallas, USA (2017).

Secure Algorithms for SAKA Protocol in the GSM Network at 10th Wireless and Mobile Networking Conference (WMNC), Valencia Spain (2017).

Security & Privacy in Vehicle-to-Grid Network (invited talk) at Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management (LBSIM), Delhi, India (2017).

Electric Vehicles Security & Privacy in a summer school “Human Factors in Systems Safety and Security” at Bournemouth University, UK (2017).

Security & Privacy in Vehicle-to-Grid Network (invited talk) at the Institute of Technology and Science (ITS), Ghaziabad India (2017).

Security and Privacy in Vehicle-to-Grid Networks (invited talk) in Advance Computing and Networking workshop at Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou China (2016).

A seminar on Smart Grid Security at the Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) USA (2016).

A seminar (to GT research group and researchers from Sandia National Lab, USA) on Cyber Security and Privacy in SG and V2G Networks at ACES Lab, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta USA (2015).

A seminar on Design of Authentication Protocols for Secure SMS based Applications at Smart Energy Lab, The State University of New York, South Korea (2014).

NS-AKA: An Improved and Efficient AKA Protocol for 3G (UMTS) Networks at IRED International Conf. on Advances in Computer Science and Electronics Engineering, Kuala Lumpur Malaysia (2014).

Analysis of Attacks on GSM Phone using Open Source Software: OsmocomBB, OpenBSC, and OpenBTS at Bonn-Aachen International Center for Info. Tech., Bonn Germany (2014).

Message Security in Wireless Networks at 29th Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC), New Orleans USA (2013).

VAS-AKA: An Efficient Batch Verification Protocol for Value Added Services at IEEE International Conference on System, Man, and Cybernetics (SMC), Manchester UK (2013).

Routing and Message Information Security in Wireless Networks at 9th Global TCS Technical Architects' Conf. (TACTiCS), TCS Siruseri, Chennai India (2013).

Participated in the interaction meeting for Capturing Vision of Young India – Technology Vision 2035 organized by the TIFAC, Department of Science & Technology (DST), Govt. of India at New Delhi (2012).

Security in Cellular Networks & their Applications at the Computer Engineering Department, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (2012).

Committees and reviewing

Associate Editor - Cyber-Physical Systems (T&F); Computer Communications (Elsevier); SCN (Hindawi).

Associate Editor, IEEE Access. Lead Guest Editor - ACM TCPS; Sustainability (MDPI); IEEE TII.

Track Chair - IEEE SmartGridComm 2022, TEMSCON 2018.

Journal Reviewer – 60+ journals, including IEEE TIFS, TDSC, TC, TMC, TVT, TII; ACM TOIT, TIOT, TOPS.

TPC Member – 90+ conf., ACM CCS, IEEE EuroS&P, ICC, TrustCom, WiMob, SmartGridComm, INFOCOM, MILCOM.

Cybersecurity Expert Research Proposal Reviewer.

2023

Nafees, M. N., Saxena, N., Cardenas, A., Grijalva, S. and Burnap, P. 2023. Smart grid cyber-physical situational awareness of complex operational technology attacks: A review. ACM Computing Surveys 55(10), article number: 215. (10.1145/3565570)
Mohammed, A. S., Anthi, E., Rana, O., Saxena, N. and Burnap, P. 2023. Detection and mitigation of field flooding attacks on oil and gas critical infrastructure communication. Computers and Security 124, article number: 103007. (10.1016/j.cose.2022.103007)
Saxena, N., Potter, C. and Maity, S. 2023. Clarity: Analysing security in web applications. Presented at: COMSNETS, Bengaluru, India, 3-8 January 2023.

2022

Althunayyan, M., Saxena, N., Li, S. and Gope, P. 2022. Evaluation of black-box web application security scanners in detecting injection vulnerabilities. Electronics 11(13), article number: 2049. (10.3390/electronics11132049)
Mohammed, A. S., Saxena, N. and Rana, O. 2022. Wheels on the modbus - attacking ModbusTCP communications. Presented at: 15th ACM Conference on Security and Privacy in Wireless and Mobile Networks (WiSec 2022), San Antonio, TX, United States, 16-19 May 2022WiSec '22: Proceedings of the 15th ACM Conference on Security and Privacy in Wireless and Mobile Networks. New York: ACM pp. 288-289., (10.1145/3507657.3529654)
Verma, G., Gope, P., Saxena, N. and Kumar, N. 2022. CB-DA: Lightweight and escrow-free certificate-based data aggregation for smart grid. IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing (10.1109/TDSC.2022.3169952)
Li, S., Iqbal, M. and Saxena, N. 2022. Future industry internet of things with aero-trust security. Information Systems Frontiers (10.1007/s10796-021-10199-5)
Merlino, J. C., Asiri, M. and Saxena, N. 2022. DDoS cyber-incident detection in smart grids. Sustainability 14(5), article number: 2730. (10.3390/su14052730)
Kumar, A., Saxena, N., Souhwan, J. and Choi, B. J. 2022. Improving detection of false data injection attacks using machine learning with feature selection and oversampling. Electronics 15(1), article number: 212. (10.3390/en15010212)
Ali, S. S., Ganapathi, I. I., Vu, N., Ali, S. D., Saxena, N. and Werghi, . 2022. Image forgery detection using deeplearning by recompressing the images. Electronics 11(3), article number: 403. (10.3390/electronics11030403)
Aljohani, R., Saxena, N. and Bhadoria, R. S. 2022. Security issues and challenges in cloud computing. In: Alharahsheh, H. H. and Mazumdar, A. eds. Handbook of Research on Cloud Computing Applications in SMES. IGI Global
Khan, R., Saxena, N., Rana, O. and Gope, P. 2022. ATVSA: vehicle driver profiling for situational awareness. Presented at: IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy, ACSW, Genoa, Italy, 06-10 June 2022. IEEE
Kumar, P., Maity, S. and Saxena, N. 2022. A quantum communication based secure road condition monitoring application in intelligent internet of vehicular things. Presented at: IEEE INDICON, Kerala, India, 24-26 November 2022.
Nafees, M. N., Saxena, N. and Burnap, P. 2022. Physics-informed augmentation for contextual anomaly detection in smart grid. Presented at: ACM CCS, Los Angeles, USA, 7-11 November 2022.
Nafees, M. N., Saxena, N. and Burnap, P. 2022. On the efficacy of physics-informed context-based anomaly detection for power system. Presented at: IEEE International Conference on Communications, Control, and Computing Technologies for Smart Grids, Singapore, 25-28 October 2022.

2021

Nafees, M. N., Saxena, N. and Burnap, P. 2021. Optimized predictive control for AGC cyber resiliency. Presented at: 2021 ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS), Seoul, South Korea, 14-19 November 2021CCS '21: Proceedings of the 2021 ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security. ACM pp. 2450-2452., (10.1145/3460120.3485358)
Orr, F., Nafees, M. N., Saxena, N. and Choi, B. J. 2021. Securing publisher-subscriber in smart grid infrastructure. Electronics 10(19), article number: 2355. (10.3390/electronics10192355)
Liu, C., Alrowaili, Y., Saxena, N. and Konstantinou, C. 2021. Cyber risks to critical smart grid assets of industrial control systems. Energies 14(17), article number: 5501. (10.3390/en14175501)
Burke, G. and Saxena, N. 2021. Cyber risks prediction and analysis in medical emergency equipment for situational awareness. Sensors 21(16), article number: 5325. (10.3390/s21165325)
Karunarathne, S. M., Saxena, N. and Khan, M. K. 2021. Security and privacy in IoT smart healthcare. IEEE Internet Computing 25(4), pp. 37-48. (10.1109/MIC.2021.3051675)
Chugh, N., Tomar, G. S., Bhadoria, R. S. and Saxena, N. 2021. A novel anomaly behavior detection scheme for mobile ad hoc networks. Electronics 10(14), article number: 1635. (10.3390/electronics10141635)
Saxena, N., Xiong, L., Chukwuka, V. and Grijalva, S. 2021. Impact evaluation of malicious control commands in cyber-physical smart grids. IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Computing 6(2), pp. 208-220. (10.1109/TSUSC.2018.2879670)
Nafees, M. N., Saxena, N. and Burnap, P. 2021. Specification-based process control attack detection in substation automation. Presented at: 42nd IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy 2021, Virtual, 23-27 May 2021.
Sharma, U., Tomer, P., Ali, S. S., Saxena, N. and Bhadoria, R. S. 2021. Optimized authentication system with high security and privacy. Electronics 10(4), article number: 458. (10.3390/electronics10040458)
Gope, P., Millwood, O. and Saxena, N. 2021. A provably secure authentication scheme for RFID-enabled UAV applications. Computer Communications 166, pp. 19-25. (10.1016/j.comcom.2020.11.009)
Kumar, A., Saxena, N. and Choi, B. J. 2021. Machine learning algorithm for detection of false data injection attack in power system. Presented at: 35th International Conference on Information Networking (ICOIN 2021), Jeju Island, Korea, 13-16 January 2021.
Asiri, M., Saxena, N. and Burnap, P. 2021. Investigating usable indicators against cyber-attacks in industrial control systems. Presented at: 17th Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (USENIX Security 2021), Virtual, 08-10 August 2021.
Kumar, A., Saxena, N. and Choi, B. J. 2021. FedTLG: federated learning using trusted local groups. Presented at: 16th ACM ASIA Conference on Computer and Communications Security (ACM ASIACCS 2021), Virtual, 07-11 June 2021.
Alrowaili, Y., Saxena, N. and Burnap, P. 2021. Determining asset criticality in cyber-physical smart grid. Presented at: 26th European Symposium on Research in Computer Security (ESORICS 2021), Virtual, 04-08 October 2021.

2020

Saxena, N., Hayes, E., Bertino, E., Ojo, P., Choo, K. R. and Burnap, P. 2020. Impact and key challenges of insider threats on organizations and critical businesses. Electronics 9(9), article number: 1460. (10.3390/electronics9091460)
Tung, Y., Wei, H., Ti, Y., Tsou, Y., Saxena, N. and Yu, C. 2020. Counteracting UDP flooding attacks in SDN. Electronics 9(8), article number: 1239. (10.3390/electronics9081239)
Saxena, N., Thomas, I., Gope, P., Burnap, P. and Kumar, N. 2020. PharmaCrypt: blockchain for critical pharmaceutical industry to counterfeit drugs. Computer 53(7), pp. 29-44. (10.1109/MC.2020.2989238)
Saxena, N., Shen, H., Komninos, N., Choo, K. R. and Chaudhari, N. S. 2020. BVPSMS: A batch verification protocol for end-to-end secure SMS for mobile users. IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing 17(3), pp. 550-565. (10.1109/TDSC.2018.2799223)
Saxena, N., Cardenas, A. A., Beyah, R. and Lu, R. 2020. Introduction to the special issue on user-centric security and safety for CPS [Editorial]. ACM Transactions on Cyber-Physical Systems 4(3), article number: 29. (10.1145/3392715)
Bhadoria, R. S., Nimbalkar, A. and Saxena, N. 2020. On the role of Blockchain technology in the Internet of Things. In: Kim, S. and Deka, G. C. eds. Advanced Applications of Blockchain Technology. Springer, pp. 129-140.
Singh, V., Saxena, N., Pathak, D., Saini, G. and Bhatnagar, D. 2020. Improving smart healthcare safety & security using Kinect. Presented at: International Conference on Cybersecurity in Emerging Digital Era (ICCEDE 2020), Greater Noida, India, 9-10 October 2020.
Asad, B., Saxena, N. and Katos, V. 2020. Analysis of the security and privacy risks and challenges in smart cities’ traffic light system. Presented at: 3rd Smart Cities Symposium (SCS 2020), Virtual, 21-23 September 2020.
Asad, B. and Saxena, N. 2020. On the feasibility of DoS attack on smart door lock IoT network. Presented at: 8th International Symposium on Security in Computing and Communications (SSCC 2020), Virtual, 14-17 October 2020.
Nafees, M. N., Saxena, N., Burnap, P. and Choi, B. J. 2020. Impact of energy consumption attacks on LoRaWAN-enabled devices in industrial context. Presented at: ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS 2020), Virtual, 9-13 November 2020.
Nafees, M. N., Saxena, N., Khan, R. and Burnap, P. 2020. Towards distance relay attack discrimination for situational awareness-based anomaly detection. Presented at: Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC 2020), Virtual, 7-11 December 2020.

2019

Adewole, K., Saxena, N. and Bhadauria, S. 2019. Application of cryptocurrencies using Blockchain for e-commerce online payment. In: Maleh, Y. et al. eds. Blockchain for Cybersecurity and Privacy: Architectures, Challenges and Applications. C&C Press, Taylor & Francis Group, pp. 263-306.
Saxena, N., Conti, M., Choo, K. R. and Chaudhari, N. S. 2019. BAS-VAS: A novel secure protocol for value added service delivery to mobile devices. IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security 15, pp. 1470-1485. (10.1109/TIFS.2019.2940908)

2018

Saxena, N. and Grijalva, S. 2018. Efficient signature scheme for delivering authentic control commands in the smart grid. IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid 9(5), pp. 4323-4334. (10.1109/TSG.2017.2655014)
Saxena, N. and Choi, B. J. 2018. Integrated distributed authentication protocol for smart grid communications. IEEE Systems Journal 12(3), pp. 2545-2556. (10.1109/JSYST.2016.2574699)
Chaudhary, R., Jindal, A., Aujla, G. S., Kumar, N., Das, A. K. and Saxena, N. 2018. LSCSH: Lattice-based secure cryptosystem for smart healthcare in smart cities environment. IEEE COMMUNICATIONS MAGAZINE 56(4), pp. 24-32. (10.1109/MCOM.2018.1700787)
Saxena, N., Grijalva, S. and Choi, B. J. 2018. Securing restricted publisher-subscriber communications in smart grid substations. Presented at: International Conference on COMmunication Systems and NETworkS (COMSNETS), Bengaluru, India, 3-7 Jan. 20182018 10th International Conference on Communication Systems & Networks (COMSNETS). IEEE pp. 364-371., (10.1109/COMSNETS.2018.8328220)
Stone, J. A., Saxena, N. and Dogan, H. 2018. Systematic analysis: Resistance to traffic analysis attacks in Tor System for critical infrastructures. Presented at: IEEE International Conference on System, Man, and Cybernetics (SMC), Miyazaki, Japan, 7-10 Oct. 20182018 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (SMC). IEEE pp. 2832-2837., (10.1109/SMC.2018.00482)
Saxena, N. and Chaudhari, N. S. 2018. Secure algorithms for SAKA protocol in the GSM network. Presented at: 10th IFIP Wireless and Mobile Networking Conference (WMNC), Valencia, Spain, 25-27 Sep. 20172017 10th IFIP Wireless and Mobile Networking Conference (WMNC). IEEE pp. 1-8., (10.1109/WMNC.2017.8248853)

2017

Saxena, N., Chukwuka, V., Xiong, L. and Grijalva, S. 2017. CPSA: A cyber-physical security assessment tool for situational awareness in smart grid. Presented at: ACM Workshop on Cyber-Physical Systems Security & Privacy (CPS-SPC) in Conjunction with ACM CCS, Dallas, USA, 3 Nov. 2017CPS '17: Proceedings of the 2017 Workshop on Cyber-Physical Systems Security and PrivaCy. ACM pp. 69-79., (10.1145/3140241.3140246)
Saxena, N., Grijalva, S., Chukwuka, V. and Vasilakos, A. V. 2017. Network Security and Privacy Challenges in Smart Vehicle-to-Grid. IEEE Wireless Communications 24(4), pp. 88-98. (10.1109/MWC.2016.1600039WC)
Saxena, N. and Grijalva, S. 2017. Dynamic secrets and secret keys based scheme for securing last mile smart grid wireless communication. IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics 13(3), pp. 1482-1491. (10.1109/TII.2016.2610950)
Saxena, N., Choi, B. J. and Grijalva, S. 2017. Secure and privacy-preserving concentration of meeting data in AMI networks. Presented at: IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC), Paris, France, 21-25 May 20172017 IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC). IEEE pp. 1-7., (10.1109/ICC.2017.7996874)

2016

Saxena, N., Grijalva, S. and Chaudhari, N. S. 2016. Authentication Protocol for an IoT-Enabled LTE Network. ACM Transactions on Internet Technology 16(4), pp. -., article number: 25. (10.1145/2981547)
Saxena, N. and Choi, B. J. 2016. Authentication scheme for flexible charging and discharging of mobile vehicles in the V2G networks. IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security 11(7), pp. 1438-1452. (10.1109/TIFS.2016.2532840)
Saxena, N., Choi, B. J. and Lu, R. 2016. Authentication and authorization scheme for various user roles and devices in smart grid. IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security 11(5), pp. 907-921. (10.1109/TIFS.2015.2512525)

2014

Saxena, N. and Chaudhari, N. S. 2014. EasySMS: a protocol for end to end secure transmission of SMS. IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security 9(7), pp. 1157-1168. (10.1109/TIFS.2014.2320579)

CMT310 Developing Secure Systems and Applications

My current research interest is cybersecurity, cyber-physical system security, and IoT security.

Industrial Control System Security (Particularly, Smart Grid and Electric Vehicle Security): Secure smart grid infrastructure, securing smart grid network with plugged-in devices, decision support secure control centres in smart grid, cyber incident-response smart grid tool, developing techniques for monitoring the current health of the cyber-physical system in real-time, building cyber range capabilities under a virtual simulated environment.

5G and SMS Security: Security analysis of SMS-based applications, and real-time authentication and authorization among several new actors in the system.

IoT and Smart Cities' Security: Develop automated tools for identifying security vulnerabilities and interdependencies in devices and services, and developing IoT configuration and monitoring capable tools.

Human-Centric Security: Safety and security

For more information, please visit here.

Topics for Potential Candidates:

Monitoring Critical Infrastructure Situational Awareness

Monitoring Safety Critical Systems’ Situational Awareness

Cyber-Physical Smart Grid Resilience

EV Infrastricture Security and Resilience

Autonomous Vehicle Security and Resilience

5G Communication Network Security

Improving the IoT security infrastructure of Smart Cities

If you are looking for a PhD in one of these or similar topics and willing to work with me, please drop me an email with your proposal including the following points:

A. Title of your PhD work

B. Motivation of the work

C. Research problem and questions (any 3) that you want to address in your work

D. Research gaps - limitations of the existing solutions/tools inline with your research problem

E. Current/existing challenges in developing a better solution

F. Initial thoughts on your proposal/idea and contributions that you will make in this work.