Autonomous Identity-Centric Threat Inference and Response System

About the Project

One fully funded PhD position in the Blockpass Identity Lab at Edinburgh Napier University on a project titled “Autonomous Identity-Centric Threat Inference & Response System”. This work is co-funded by Acumen Cyber.

The research aims to build a MITRE Centre for Threat-Informed Defence Technique Inference Engine (TIE), and which predicts likely attacker behaviours as with MITRE ATT&CK framework. This concept evolves the model into a fully autonomous, identity-aware security system.

The PhD position is available to UK and International applicants and comes with a full stipend and covers all the PhD fees (including a fee waiver for international students).

Essential attributes:

• Strong analytical and programming skills.
• A good Bachelor’s Hons degree (2.1 or above or international equivalent) and/or Master’s degree in a relevant subject (computer science, cybersecurity, mathematics, physics, engineering, or related subject)
• Proficiency in English (both oral and written)
• Strong motivation, with evidence of independent research skills relevant to the project.

Desirable attributes:

• Good mathematical skills.
• Knowledge of cryptography fundamentals and agentic AI, and their applications.

For informal enquiries about this PhD project, please contact Professor Bill Buchanan (b.buchanan@napier.ac.uk) or Rich Macfarlane (r.macfarlane@napier.ac.uk)

Project start date tbc.