Associate Professor Benjamin Turnbull

About Ben

My research goal is to provide comprehensive situation understanding and decision support for all areas integrating cyber systems. As part of this, I research the nexus of cyber security and kinetic effect to understand the true impacts of cyber-attack, best-practice automated analysis and visual techniques to aid decision support. 

I am a researcher and practitioner working in the Digital Forensics, Cyber Security, Knowledge Representation and Visual Analytics domains. My research interests include novel approaches to securing computers and networks, automated learning from large datasets, forensic analysis of non-traditional devices, cyber security, cyber situation awareness, knowledge management, network analysis and visual analytics. I believe in real-world research that helps the community at large, and implementation is a large part of this. Additionally, I also work with the US Naval Research Laboratory, conducting research on the Tor network. 

For more information, please see my Google Scholar profile. 

Research

Research Interests

• Cyber Security 
• Cyber Business Impact Analysis
• Internet of Things, Cyber Physical Systems Security
• Linked Data Analysis
• Artificial Intelligence Planning
• Exploratory Visualisation Techniques

External Research Grants

      2018 Australian Army Research Scheme

• Cyber Attacks on the Defence Supply Chain
• $AU49,000.

      2017-2018 Defence Science and Technology Competitive Research Agreement (DST CERA) 

• Automated Cyber Red Teaming
• $AU 77,684.

      2018 UNSW Canberra SEIT Infrastructure

• Cyber Computing Research Infrastructure
• $AU 110,000.

      2016 - 2018 United States Naval Research Laboratory

• Tor Single Onion Services
• $US 213,000 (approx. $AU 280,000). 

      2017 UNSW Canberra Defence-related Research Grants

• Ghost in The Network: Scenario-driven, model-based Automated Cyber Red-Teaming for Defence and Military Networks.
• $AU 12,090.

      2016 UNSW Canberra Rector’s Start Up Grant

• Calculating the Cost of Cyber-Attack: developing a cyber-kinetic battle damage assessment simulator.
• $AU 9550.

Research Supervised

      Current Researchers

• Rory MacLeod
• Tim Wilson-Brown

      Primary PhD

• Visualisation of Attack Graphs (ongoing)
• 3D Visualisation of network traffic (ongoing)
• Kinetic Impact of Cyber Attack (complete, 2017)
• Visualisation of Attack Graphs (ongoing)
• Visualisation of Forensic Data (complete, 2012)

      Honours

• 18 Honours student completions (2003-2015)

Teaching 

Program Coordination

• 2015 - 2017 - Co-Coordinator, Bachelor of Computing and Cyber Security
• 2015 - 2016 - Cyber-Security Honours Coordinator
• 2015 - Co-Founder, Bachelor of Computing and Cyber Security

Course Development and Redevelopment

• ZEIT8023 - Wireless, Mobile and Internet of Things Security - Co-Developer
• ZEIT8025 - Application & Software Security and Forensics - Co-Developer
• ZEIT8022 - Identity and Access Management - Co-Developer
• ZEIT3101 - IT Project 2 - Significant Redevelopment
• ZEIT3118 - IT Project 1 - Significant Redevelopment
• ZEIT2104 - Computers Security -Developer
• ZINT2100 - Introduction to Cyber Security - Co-Developer
• Digital Forensics - Co-Developer

Honours/Masters and Postgraduate

2017

• Semester 1 - ZEIT8023 - Wireless, Mobile and Internet of Things Security

2016

• Semester 2 - ZEIT8023 - Wireless, Mobile and Internet of Things Security
• Semester 1 - ZEIT8023 - Wireless and Mobile Security

2015

• Semester 2 - ZEIT8023 - Wireless and Mobile Security
• Semester 2 - ZEIT4101 - Combined Cyber Security Elective Course 2 
• Semester 2 - ZEIT4500 - Special Topic Supervision
• Semester 1 - ZEIT4111 - Combined Cyber Security Elective Course 1
• Semester 1 - ZEIT4216 - Special Topic Supervision
• Semester 1 - ZEIT8025 - Application & Software Security and Forensics 
• Semester 1 - ZEIT8022 - Identity and Access Management

Undergraduate Teaching

      2018 

• Semester 1 - ZEIT3118 - IT Project 1

      2017

• Semester 2 - ZEIT2104 - Computers Security
• Semester 2 - ZEIT3101 - IT Project 2
• Semester 1 - ZEIT3118 - IT Project 1

      2016

• Semester 1 - ZINT2100 - Introduction to Cyber Security (Undergraduate)

      2015

• Semester 2 - ZINT2100 - Introduction to Cyber Security (Undergraduate)
• Semester 1 - ZINT2100 - Introduction to Cyber Security (Undergraduate)

Older Teaching

      2008

• Semester 2 -Digital Forensics (Honours/Masters/Postgraduate)

      2007

• Semester 2 -Digital Forensics (Honours/Masters/Postgraduate)
• Semester 2 -Secure and High Integrity Systems (Undergraduate)
• Semester 1 -Secure and High Integrity Systems (University of Malaya)

      2006

• Semester 2 -Digital Forensics (Honours/Masters/Postgraduate)
• Semester 2 -Secure and High Integrity Systems (Undergraduate)
• Semester 2 -Secure and High Integrity Systems (Hong Kong Baptist University)
• Semester 1 -Secure and High Integrity Systems (Hong Kong Baptist University)

      2005

• Semester 2 -Secure and High Integrity Systems (Undergraduate)
• Semester 2 -Secure and High Integrity Systems (Hong Kong Baptist University)

      2004

• Semester 2 -Secure and High Integrity Systems (Undergraduate)