PROFESSOR MOHAMMAD HAMMOUDEH

I am a highly proficient, experienced, and professionally certified cybersecurity professional, specializing in critical national infrastructure threat analysis and security management. I have been a researcher and publisher in the field of highly decentralised systems for more than a decade. My research expertise is in the cybersecurity of the Internet of Things (IoT)/Cyber-physical Systems (CPS), blockchain, wireless communications and cross-layered solutions to smart infrastructure. My research is applied in nature, and recently I have been investigating the topic of communication and security of civil and military critical infrastructures to support various applications such as military/satellite communications, pharmaceutical supply chain and power grid. More recently, I have been investigating the use of blockchain technology to provide various security solutions to classical distributed systems problems. I am the founder and co-Editor in Chief of ACM’s journal on Distributed Ledger Technology: Research & Practice. I am the co-founder of the first open-source smart city digital twin.

CLASSES

Title: Zero trust security for critical infrastructure applications, the case of blockchain

In this program, you will learn how to better protect your networks and distributed systems by adopting a zero trust approach to access control. The zero trust security model removes the assumed trust relationships by requiring that trust decisions are made at the time that access is requested - “never trust, always verify”.

The program begins with an introduction of the concept of access control and trust, before moving onto key principles of the zero trust model. Learners will understand the why zero trust promotes minimising trust relationships in distributed systems, and the tenets and models that have been proposed for zero trust. A practical approach on how to assess and implement zero trust will be presented. A number of practical case studies from a variety of sectors will be discussed.

Then, blockchain will be presented as one of the world’s most successful implementation of zero trust security architecture. An introduction to blockchain foundations, applications and challenges will be given. Learners will have the opportunity to build their own blockchain network and apply the key zero trust security principles.

The program learning outcomes are:
- Describe the limitations of current security architectures and how these can be mitigated using the zero trust mode.
- Describe zero trust security principles and benefits.
- Implement and assess zero trust security in critical infrastructures.
- Describe the foundations of blockchain, its operation and applications.
- Discuss open research problems in blockchain including scalability and interoperability.