Cyber Innovation Series 2022/23: ATDPS

Find out more about ATDPS and see the team in action at the Cyber ASAP Demo Day on 22 February. Alongside 14 other academic teams, they will be presenting their pitch and demonstrating their Proof of Concept.

Register here.

About ATDPS

At present, there isn’t an effective security solution on the market for NoC (Network on Chip) or SoC (system on a chip) systems, meaning the majority of large IT vendors are investing in developing private systems for their projects. However, despite these efforts, private security systems are vulnerable to breaches, due to a failure to detect and mitigate zero-day trojans.

Whilst existing solutions make use of the Trojan Detection System which is capable of mitigating known trojan signatures, there is currently no solution to combat unseen attacks. These solutions use firewall, cryptography, Automotive Penetration Testing and Authenticated frame transmission. However, they lack adaptivity, and are both expensive and resource exhaustive.

The team behind ATDPS seek to be the first in the market to provide significant protection against zero-day trojans, with a long-term ambition of providing security throughout the entire phase of an IC (integrated circuit) supply chain.

Their unique system – Adaptive Trojan Detection and Prevention System or ATDPS – provides a lightweight, adaptive and inexpensive solution with resilience against unknown trojans and scalability. It focuses on two areas: a Machine Learning (ML)-based approach for Trojan Detection and Prevention System and a Physically Unclonable Function (PUF)-based hardware protection system.

The initial focus will be on the automobile industry where there are lots of applications for the product. The solution will also be helpful when multiple companies are working together and there is risk of malicious intent. They also hope to support fabless manufacturers across verticals including industrial IoT, mobile, smart home and smart city industries.

Meet the ATDPS team

A team of specialists in cyber security from the University of Sheffield are the think tank behind this innovation, having discovered the market need when working on one of the team’s PhD projects.

This provided the motivation they needed to look at current solutions and conduct extensive research in existing security options on the market. On finding there wasn’t one that effectively protected against zero-day trojans, the concept behind ATDPS was born.

The team consists of:

• Dr Prosanta Gope – PI and lecturer and Assistant Professor in cyber security at University of Sheffield
• Dr Aryan Mohammadi Pasikhani – Project Mentor
• Soumadeep Das – Research Assistant, graduated from masters in Cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence last year
• Owen Millwood – Final year PhD student, focusing on resource constrained security and Physically Unclonable Functions

The team have a proof of concept which they hope to have taken through testing and have completed their MVP by mid-February 2023. They are currently working on two packages with two different partners, and are seeking further support within the automobile and hardware security industries.

Meet them at our Demo Day

Join us on Wednesday 22 February 2023 and be among the first to preview the team’s innovation, alongside a whole host of exciting cyber products and services from leading UK academic teams. Hear their pitches and learn more about each project in this unique showcase of ready-to-commercialise cyber innovations. Register here.

About CyberASAP

CyberASAP (Cyber Security Academic Startup Accelerator Programme) is the only pre-seed accelerator programme in the cyber ecosystem which provides expertise, knowledge and support to convert academic research into commercial products and services.

CyberASAP is funded by the UK Government Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT) and delivered in partnership with Innovate UK and Innovate UK KTN.