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Network, Information and Computer Security Lab
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NICS Lab

Network, Information and Computer Security Lab

NICS Lab is an international leading Security research group led by Javier Lopez, Full Professor of the Computer Science Department at University of Malaga. NICS is composed of 20 persons, including faculty members, post-doc researchers, top PhD students, and technical and management staff, all belonging to a major research group GISUM, being distributed on two different locations, the Ada Byron Research Building at the extension of Campus Teatinos and the Computer Science Department at Campus Teatinos.

The research activities of the group started back in 1994, when Prof. Lopez published his first research work on electronic mail security in Local Area Networks, followed by others on probabilistic primality tests for public keys, and public-key directories security based on Neural Networks. Since then, NICS members have published over 300 publications, among them more than 60 journal publications with impact factor (ISI-ranked).

Additionally, NICS members have participated in more than 50 security research projects at international and national level, funded by V, VI and VII European Frameworks Programmes as well as by different Ministries in Spain, Japan, Norway and Singapore.

NICS Lab actively participates in international committees and Working Groups in the Security area, as well as in the organization of multiple international conferences and workshops. Moreover, NICS is particularly dynamic in the exchange of researchers with other research institutions, having signed official scientific and technical cooperation agreements in US with NIST (Information Technology Laboratory, Computer Security Division), and in Singapore with I2R (Cryptography & Security Department).

Over the years, NICS members have been especially active in technology transfer to companies like ATOS Origin, HP Labs, Telefonica, France Telecom, Siemens, Indra, Banesto, Orange, Endesa, Sermepa and Telvent, as well as to public entities like the Spanish Ministry of Defense, the Andalusian Government, and RedIRIS (Spanish advanced communications network for academic and R+D Centres).

last news

last publications

Carmen Fernandez-Gago, Davide Ferraris, Rodrigo Roman, Javier Lopez

Trust interoperability in the Internet of Things Journal Article Forthcoming

In: Internet of Things, vol. 26, Forthcoming.

Abstract | BibTeX | Links:

Daniel Morales, Isaac Agudo, Javier Lopez

Toward a Framework for Cost-Effective and Publicly Verifiable Confidential Computations in Blockchain Journal Article Forthcoming

In: IEEE Communications Magazine, Forthcoming, ISSN: 1558-1896.

Abstract | BibTeX | Links:

Panagiotis Bountakas, Konstantinos Fysarakis, Thomas Kyriakakis, Panagiotis Karafotis, Sotiropoulos Aristeidis, Maria Tasouli, Cristina Alcaraz, George Alexandris, Vassiliki Andronikou, Tzortzia Koutsouri, Romarick Yatagha, George Spanoudakis, Sotiris Ioannidis, Fabio Martinelli, Oleg Illiashenko

SYNAPSE - An Integrated Cyber Security Risk & Resilience Management Platform, With Holistic Situational Awareness, Incident Response & Preparedness Capabilities Conference Forthcoming

4th International Workshop on Advances on Privacy Preserving Technologies and Solutions(IWAPS) , Forthcoming.

Abstract | BibTeX | Links:

Andrew D. Syrmakesis, Cristina Alcaraz, Nikos D. Hatziargyriou

DAR-LFC: A data-driven attack recovery mechanism for Load Frequency Control Journal Article

In: International Journal of Critical Infrastructure Protection, vol. 45, iss. 100678, pp. 100678, 2024, ISSN: 1874-5482.

Abstract | BibTeX | Links:

Cristina Alcaraz, Javier Lopez

Protecting Digital Twin Networks for 6G-enabled Industry 5.0 Ecosystems Journal Article

In: IEEE Network Magazine, vol. 37, no. 2, pp. 302-308, 2023, ISSN: 0890-8044.

Abstract | BibTeX | Links:

Davide Ferraris, Carmen Fernandez-Gago, Rodrigo Roman, Javier Lopez

A Survey on IoT Trust Model Frameworks Journal Article

In: The Journal of Supercomputing, 2023.

Abstract | BibTeX | Links:

Daniel Morales, Isaac Agudo, Javier Lopez

Integration of MPC into Besu through an extended private transaction model Proceedings Article

In: IEEE International Conference on Metaverse Computing, Networking and Applications, pp. 266-273, IEEE Computer Society IEEE, Kyoto, Japan, 2023.

Abstract | BibTeX | Links:

Cristina Alcaraz, Jesus Cumplido, Alicia Triviño

OCPP in the spotlight: threats and countermeasures for electric vehicle charging infrastructures 4.0 Journal Article

In: International Journal of Information Security, 2023, ISSN: 1615-5262.

Abstract | BibTeX | Links:

Daniel Morales, Isaac Agudo, Javier Lopez

Private set intersection: A systematic literature review Journal Article

In: Computer Science Review, vol. 49, no. 100567, 2023, ISSN: 1574-0137.

Abstract | BibTeX | Links:

Rodrigo Roman, Cristina Alcaraz, Javier Lopez, Kouichi Sakurai

Current Perspectives on Securing Critical Infrastructures’ Supply Chains Journal Article

In: IEEE Security & Privacy, vol. 21, no. 4, pp. 29-38, 2023, ISSN: 1540-7993.

BibTeX | Links:

Antonio Muñoz, Ruben Rios, Rodrigo Roman, Javier Lopez

A survey on the (in)security of Trusted Execution Environments Journal Article

In: Computers & Security, pp. 103-180, 2023, ISSN: 0167-4048.

Abstract | BibTeX | Links:

Antonio Muñoz, Carmen Fernandez-Gago, Roberto Lopez-Villa

A Test Environment for Wireless Hacking in Domestic IoT Scenarios Journal Article

In: Mobile Networks and Applications, 2022, ISSN: 1383-469X.

BibTeX | Links:

Jesus Cumplido, Cristina Alcaraz, Javier Lopez

Collaborative anomaly detection system for charging stations Proceedings Article

In: The 27th European Symposium on Research in Computer Security (ESORICS 2022), pp. 716–736, Springer, Cham Springer, Cham, 2022.

Abstract | BibTeX | Links:

George Suciu, Aristeidis Farao, Giorgio Bernardinetti, Ivan Palamá, Mari-Anais Sachian, Alexandru Vulpe, Marius-Constantin Vochin, Pavel Muresan, Michail Bampatsikos, Antonio Muñoz, Christos Xenakis

SAMGRID: Security Authorization and Monitoring Module Based on SealedGRID Platform Journal Article

In: SENSORS, vol. 22, iss. 6527, no. 17, 2022, ISSN: 1424-8220.

Abstract | BibTeX | Links:

Luca Faramondi, Marta Grassi, Simone Guarino, Roberto Setola, Cristina Alcaraz

Configuration vulnerability in SNORT for Windows operating systems Proceedings Article

In: 2022 IEEE International Conference on Cyber Security and Resilience (IEEE CSR), pp. 82-89, IEEE IEEE, https://www.ieee-csr.org, 2022, ISBN: 978-1-6654-9952-1.

Abstract | BibTeX | Links:

Daniel Morales, Isaac Agudo, Javier Lopez

Real-time Crowd Counting based on Wearable Ephemeral IDs Proceedings Article

In: 19th International Conference on Security and Cryptography (SECRYPT 2022), pp. 249-260, Scitepress Scitepress, Lisbon, 2022, ISSN: 2184-7711.

Abstract | BibTeX | Links:

Davide Ferraris, Carmen Fernandez-Gago, Javier Lopez

Verification and Validation Methods for a Trust-by-Design Framework for the IoT Proceedings Article

In: 36th Annual IFIP WG 11.3 Conference on Data and Applications Security and Privacy (DBSec’22), pp. 183-194, Springer Springer, Newark, NJ, USA, 2022, ISBN: 978-3-031-10683-5.

BibTeX | Links:

Davide Ferraris, Carmen Fernandez-Gago, Javier Lopez

Novel Approaches for the Development of Trusted IoT Entities Proceedings Article

In: 37th International Conference on ICT Systems Security and Privacy Protection – IFIP SEC 2022, pp. 215-230, Springer Springer, Copenhagen, 2022, ISSN: 1868-4238.

BibTeX | Links:

Andrew D. Syrmakesis, Cristina Alcaraz, Nikos D. Hatziargyriou

Classifying resilience approaches for protecting smart grids against cyber threats Journal Article

In: International Journal of Information Security, vol. 21, pp. 1189–1210, 2022, ISSN: 1615-5262.

Abstract | BibTeX | Links:

Xueou Wang, Xiaolu Hou, Ruben Rios, Nils Ole Tippenhauer, Martin Ochoa

Constrained Proximity Attacks on Mobile Targets Journal Article

In: ACM Transactions on Privacy and Security (TOPS), vol. 25, no. 10, pp. 1 - 29, 2022, ISSN: 2471-2566.

Abstract | BibTeX | Links:

Cristina Alcaraz, Javier Lopez

Digital Twin: A Comprehensive Survey of Security Threats Journal Article

In: IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, vol. 24, no. thirdquarter 2022, pp. 1475 - 1503, 2022, ISSN: 1553-877X.

Abstract | BibTeX | Links:

Ishak Meraouche, Sabyasachi Dutta, Sraban Kumar Mohanty, Isaac Agudo, Kouichi Sakurai

Learning multi-party adversarial encryption and its application to secret sharing Journal Article

In: IEEE Access, 2022, ISSN: 2169-3536.

Abstract | BibTeX | Links:

Ruben Rios, Jose A. Onieva, Rodrigo Roman, Javier Lopez

Personal IoT Privacy Control at the Edge Journal Article

In: IEEE Security & Privacy, vol. 20, pp. 23 - 32, 2022, ISSN: 1540-7993.

Abstract | BibTeX | Links:

Francesco Flammini, Cristina Alcaraz, Emanuele Bellini, Stefano Marrone, Javier Lopez, Andrea Bondavalli

Towards Trustworthy Autonomous Systems: Taxonomies and Future Perspectives Journal Article

In: IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computing, 2022, ISSN: 2168-6750.

Abstract | BibTeX | Links: