Professor Liqun Chen
Academic and research departments
Computer Science Research Centre, School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering.About
Biography
Liqun joined the Department of Computer Science at the University of Surrey as Professor in Secure Systems in 2016. Prior to this appointment, she was a Principal Research Scientist at Hewlett Packard Laboratories in Bristol, UK, which she joined in 1997. Before that, she worked at Royal Holloway, University of London, the University of Oxford, and Southeast University in P.R. China. Liqun is a visiting professor at Southeast University.
Patents
During her 19 years working for Hewlett Packard, Liqun had a number of patents granted and more out for review. Details of her granted US patents can be obtained from “US patents granted”, and details of her other US patent applications from “US patent applications”. Details of US patents, in general, can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/. She has also had patents granted and applied for in other countries and regions, but details of these patents are not provided here as they are mostly duplicates of the US ones. All of the patents are assigned to Hewlett Packard Enterprise or Hewlett Packard Inc.
ResearchResearch interests
Liqun's current research interests include cryptography applied to a broad range of areas in secure systems, such as trusted computing, hardware security, 5G/6G, cloud computing, distributed ledger, and Internet of Things, and she is also interested in quantum-resistant cryptographic solutions.
Research projects
FutureTPM will provide a new generation of Trusted Platform Module (TPM) based solutions, incorporating robust and formally verified Quantum-Resistant (QR) cryptographic primitives.
The goal is to enable a smooth transition from current TPM environments, based on existing widely used and standardised cryptographic techniques, to systems providing enhanced security through QR cryptographic functions. By designing an innovative portfolio of high-security QR algorithms for primitives such as encryption, digital signature, key exchange, cryptographic hash function, message authentication code, and Direct Anonymous Attestation (DAA). FutureTPM will fill the gaps that currently threaten its long-term security properties. This will enable FutureTPM systems to generate a secure root of trust that can be used for interacting with Cloud services, accessing corporate services, performing banking and eCommerce transactions, along with a wide range of other services.
In this EU H2020 project, we help shape the future development of secure and trustworthy Cyber-physical System of Systems and services that can greatly benefit the lifecycle of various safety-critical application domains. The core objective is to leverage and enhance runtime property-based attestation and verification techniques. The solution developed will be demonstrated in four scenarios: smart manufacturing, smart cities, smart aerospace, and smart satellite.
This EU H2020 project aims to deliver a holistic framework for cyber security risk assessment in order to enhance digital security, privacy, and personal data protection in complex Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructures. During the project, a toolkit and platform will be developed, demonstrated, and validated.
This EPSEC project is using hardware roots of trust to build cyber systems which are better equipped against vulnerabilities related to distance and timing measurements. The main use-case of this project is that of contactless payments, to counter illicit payments that can be made from a distance even if touch-and-pay is supposed to disallow it. The project is looking both at the formal treatment of security (e.g. mathematical proofs) and at practical aspects.
This EU Horizon project aims to address the convergence of security and safety in Connected, Cooperative and Automated Mobility (CCAM) by assessing dynamic trust relationships and defining a trust reasoning framework based on which involved entities can establish trust for cooperatively executing safety-critical functions.
This EU Horizon project aims to safeguard the entire workflow of secure processing; from the deployment and operation of system of systems to their patch management when new exploits have been identified during run-time. The project will provide new trust management mechanisms for the auditability and certification of software/hardware open-source specifications.
This EU Horizon project aims to develop dynamic trust assessment and reasoning for medical devices to establish security and privacy in a zero-trust paradigm. The project takes into account the latest technological advancements and connectivity expansions.
CASTORThis EU Horizon project develops and evaluates technologies to enable trustworthy continuum-wide communications, to realise an optimised, trusted communication path delivering innovation-breakthroughs to the so-far unsatisfied need: a) for distributed (composable) attestation of the continuum nodes and subsequent elevation of individual outcomes to an adaptive (to changes) continuum trust quantification; b) for the derivation of the optimal path as a joint computation of the continuum trust properties and resources; c) for continuum infrastructure vendor-agnostic trusted path establishment, seamlessly crossing different administrative domains. This 3-year project will start in October 2024.
Research interests
Liqun's current research interests include cryptography applied to a broad range of areas in secure systems, such as trusted computing, hardware security, 5G/6G, cloud computing, distributed ledger, and Internet of Things, and she is also interested in quantum-resistant cryptographic solutions.
Research projects
FutureTPM will provide a new generation of Trusted Platform Module (TPM) based solutions, incorporating robust and formally verified Quantum-Resistant (QR) cryptographic primitives.
The goal is to enable a smooth transition from current TPM environments, based on existing widely used and standardised cryptographic techniques, to systems providing enhanced security through QR cryptographic functions. By designing an innovative portfolio of high-security QR algorithms for primitives such as encryption, digital signature, key exchange, cryptographic hash function, message authentication code, and Direct Anonymous Attestation (DAA). FutureTPM will fill the gaps that currently threaten its long-term security properties. This will enable FutureTPM systems to generate a secure root of trust that can be used for interacting with Cloud services, accessing corporate services, performing banking and eCommerce transactions, along with a wide range of other services.
In this EU H2020 project, we help shape the future development of secure and trustworthy Cyber-physical System of Systems and services that can greatly benefit the lifecycle of various safety-critical application domains. The core objective is to leverage and enhance runtime property-based attestation and verification techniques. The solution developed will be demonstrated in four scenarios: smart manufacturing, smart cities, smart aerospace, and smart satellite.
This EU H2020 project aims to deliver a holistic framework for cyber security risk assessment in order to enhance digital security, privacy, and personal data protection in complex Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructures. During the project, a toolkit and platform will be developed, demonstrated, and validated.
This EPSEC project is using hardware roots of trust to build cyber systems which are better equipped against vulnerabilities related to distance and timing measurements. The main use-case of this project is that of contactless payments, to counter illicit payments that can be made from a distance even if touch-and-pay is supposed to disallow it. The project is looking both at the formal treatment of security (e.g. mathematical proofs) and at practical aspects.
This EU Horizon project aims to address the convergence of security and safety in Connected, Cooperative and Automated Mobility (CCAM) by assessing dynamic trust relationships and defining a trust reasoning framework based on which involved entities can establish trust for cooperatively executing safety-critical functions.
This EU Horizon project aims to safeguard the entire workflow of secure processing; from the deployment and operation of system of systems to their patch management when new exploits have been identified during run-time. The project will provide new trust management mechanisms for the auditability and certification of software/hardware open-source specifications.
This EU Horizon project aims to develop dynamic trust assessment and reasoning for medical devices to establish security and privacy in a zero-trust paradigm. The project takes into account the latest technological advancements and connectivity expansions.
This EU Horizon project develops and evaluates technologies to enable trustworthy continuum-wide communications, to realise an optimised, trusted communication path delivering innovation-breakthroughs to the so-far unsatisfied need: a) for distributed (composable) attestation of the continuum nodes and subsequent elevation of individual outcomes to an adaptive (to changes) continuum trust quantification; b) for the derivation of the optimal path as a joint computation of the continuum trust properties and resources; c) for continuum infrastructure vendor-agnostic trusted path establishment, seamlessly crossing different administrative domains. This 3-year project will start in October 2024.
Teaching
I teach the following MSc modules:
- COMM047: Secure Systems and Applications
- COMM048: Information and Network Security
- COMM068: Network Security
I teach the following undergraduate modules:
- COM2041: Computer Security
- COM3009: Computer Security
I supervise
- PhD projects
- MSc projects
- Undergraduate projects
I serve as a personal tutor for undergraduate students
Publications
Highlights
My publications primarily focus on applied cryptography, trusted computing, information security and network security
Most publications can be found at