PhD candidate in Modeling Security Service Alliances

Faculty of Science – Informatics Institute

The Faculty of Science at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) embeds a concentration of e-Science development and application groups, benefitting from its central position in the Science Park Amsterdam. This position is offered by the System and Network Engineering (SNE) research group in the Faculty of Science, chaired by Prof. Ir. Cees de Laat in close collaboration with the Leibniz Center for Law headed by Prof. Tom van Engers and KLM Information Services represented by Dr. Ing. Leon Gommans.

Project description

COMMIT has awarded a research project that will study how the technical outcome of an NWO CyberSecurity project called SARNET can be organized as a Cybersecurity service, which is going to be delivered by multiple service providers allowing an active role of subscribed Enterprise Networks. The research goal of SARNET is to obtain the knowledge to create ICT systems that model the state (situation), discover by observations and reasoning if and how an attack is developing and calculate the associated risks. In addition, the goal is to have the knowledge to calculate the effect of counter measures on states and their risks, choose and execute one. The goal of the COMMIT contribution is to research how the functions of the ICT system can be organized and managed in a distributed way that is trusted amongst Service Providers and their Enterprise customers.

As such, a group of service providers must organize the development of rules and guidelines that can be administered and enforced amongst its members. Administration provides the necessary knowledge and information, which must be transformed into operational policies programmed into SARNET functions, such that this particular SARNET function is trusted by all other SARNET Alliance functions. To deliver the COMMIT contribution, the PhD candidate is expected to research the applicability of a (simulated) service provider group operational model, demonstrating the role(s) and responsibilities agents have when acting within it. Key aspect of the research will be that interactions must be (legally) trusted amongst agents that may belong to different organizations. The candidate is expected to translate existing and future Cybersecurity policies and relevant regulation into a computational model that will be used to create an agent based simulation. The research is performed in the context of Air France – KLM, Ciena Networks and TNO that provide data centre, telecom and Internet technologies and the business context for dissemination.

Requirements

• The candidates should have completed a master in computer science, or will acquire that on short notice and originate from the EU or USA. A 'Certificate of Conduct for Natural Persons (VOG NP)' may be requested by the partners;
• the candidates at master level must have knowledge of- and experience with Artificial Intelligence, Knowledge Representation and Agent Based Modeling;
• the candidates should preferably have affinity with organizing the establishment of IT policies and associated business architecture questions;
• since the candidates will stay short periods abroad, they must have the ability to give demonstrations to scientific and business audiences. Their grades list demonstrates their knowledge and ambition, their master thesis of their ability to continue with a PhD research in Computer Science.

Experience with Service Oriented Design is a pre.

Further information

• Prof. Ir. Cees de Laat
• Prof. Tom van Engers
• Dr. Ing. Leon Gommans

Appointment

The appointment will be full time (38 hours a week) for a period of four years (initial employment is 18 months and after a positive evaluation, the appointment will be extended further with 30 months) and should lead to a dissertation (PhD thesis). An educational plan that includes attendance of courses and national and international meetings will be drafted. The PhD candidate is also expected to assist in teaching of undergraduates. The salary is in accordance with the university regulations for academic personnel. The salary will range from €2,125 (first year) up to a maximum of €2,717 (last year) before tax per month (scale P) based on a full-time appointment. There are also secondary benefits, such as 8% holiday allowance per year and the end of year allowance of 8.3%. The Collective Employment Agreement of Dutch Universities is applicable.

English is the working language within the Informatics Institute. Moreover, since Amsterdam is a very international city where almost everybody speaks and understands English, candidates need not be afraid of the language barrier.

Some of the things we have to offer:

• very friendly, interactive and international working environment;
• new building located near the city center (20 minutes by bicycle) of one of Europe's most beautiful and lively cities;
• access to high-end computing facilities (e.g., cluster with 4,000+ cores).

Job application

Applications should include the following information, in separate PDF files (not zipped), using surname, initials and a self-evident word as file names, e.g., Smith J CV:

• a curriculum vitae (including an url allowing download of pdf of M.Sc. thesis -- if relevant);
• a letter of motivation (at most 1 page) explaining why you are interested in this position;
• a research statement (at most 2 pages), explaining your research interests and how you think they can be related to the topics mentioned in the Job Description above;
• a list of all university courses taken, including a transcript of grades;
• the name and contact details (including email address) of two – three referees who can provide details about your profile (one of whom should be the main supervisor of your Master thesis).

Completed applications should only be submitted via application-science@uva.nl and should state your name, vacancy number 15-139 and the position you are applying for in the subject field. The committee does not guarantee that late or incomplete applications will be considered.

The selection process commences immediately and continues until a suitable candidate is found.

Applications will be accepted until 19 May 2015.   #LI-POST   

No agencies please