In the Applications, Platforms and Systems Security (APSS) research group we investigate the design and evaluation of trustworthy systems and machine learning models across mobile, cyber-physical, and generative AI domains. We combine large-scale empirical measurements with adversarial modeling, diffusion-based generative analysis, and explainability-driven methods to uncover privacy, security, and safety vulnerabilities enabling rigorous characterisation of novel attack surfaces. We design novel approaches for robust, accountable safeguards that ensure the robustness of next-generation computing environments. Through collaborations we draw expertise across domains and work with industry to transfer knowledge to computing environments used by billions of users.
Director: Dr. Soteris Demetriou
Related Teaching Modules at Imperial College London: (70004-97109-97110) Advanced Computer Security [Description] [Website]
We are always looking for outstanding PhD candidates to join our growing team.
If you are excited about cybersecurity, safety, and privacy, have strong evidence of relevant research
experience (e.g., publications in top international venues), and are interested in joining APSS,
please email Dr. Soteris Demetriou
using the subject line “Prospective Security PhD Student”.
Our Work Themes
🧠 GenAI Safety
Research on the robustness of generative AI models against security, privacy, and safety exploits, and on the design of effective and efficient safeguards.
🔐 Security & Privacy in ML and CPS
Study on the security and privacy of machine learning models and applications in IoT and cyber-physical systems.
📱 Mobile & IoT Systems Security
Study of adversarial capabilities and development of novel defense strategies for smartphone and IoT systems.
✅ Auth, AuthZ & Access Control
Study of effective and efficient authentication, authorization and access-control mechanisms.
Announcements
- Publication (May, 2025): Our paper titled “ClaritySpeech: Dementia Obfuscation in Speech” has been accepted at the 26th Interspeech Conference (Interspeech ’25).
- Publication (May, 2025): Our paper titled “Understanding Dementia Speech Alignment with Diffusion-Based Image Generation” has been accepted at the 26th Interspeech Conference (Interspeech ’25).
- Publication (May, 2025): Our paper titled “Leaky Diffusion: Attribute Leakage in Text-Guided Image Generation” has been accepted to the 25th Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium (PETS) 2025.
- Publication (October, 2024): Our paper titled “DiDOTS: Knowledge Distillation from Large-Language-Models for Dementia Obfuscation in Transcribed Speech” has been accepted to the 25th Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium (PETS) 2025.
- Publication (July, 2024): Our paper titled “Rain-Reaper: Unmasking LiDAR-based Detector Vulnerabilities in Rain” has been accepted at the 2024 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS ’24).
- Publication (July, 2024): Our paper titled “Prosody-Driven Privacy-Preserving Dementia Detection” has been accepted at the 25th Interspeech Conference (Interspeeech ’24).
- Award (May, 2024): Our paper titled “Adversarial 3D Virtual Patches using Integrated Gradients” has won the best paper award at the 8th IEEE/ACM Workshop on the Internet of Safe Things (IEEE/ACM SafeThings 2024), co-located with the 45th IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy.
- Publication (December, 2023): Our paper titled “MobileConfig: Remote Configuration Management for Mobile Apps at Hyperscale” has been accepted at the 21st USENIX Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation (NSDI ’24).
- Publication (November, 2023): Our paper titled “Username Squatting on Online Social Networks: A Study on X” has been accepted at the 19th ACM ASIA Conference on Computer and Communications Security (ACM ASIACCS ’24).
- Publication (July, 2023): Our paper titled “Evaluating User Behavior in Smartphone Security: A Psychometric Perspective” has been accepted at the 19th Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS ’23).
- Publication (July, 2023): Our paper titled “XFaaS: Hyperscale and Low Cost Serverless Functions at Meta” has been accepted at the 29th ACM Symposium on Operating Systems Principles (SOSP ’23).
- Publication (March, 2023): Our paper titled “ServiceRouter: Hyperscale and Minimal Cost Service Mesh at Meta” has been accepted at the 17th USENIX Symposium on Operating Systems Design and Implementation (OSDI ’23).
- Publication (March, 2023): Our paper titled “Conveyor: One-Tool-Fits-All Continuous Deployment at Meta” has been accepted at the 17th USENIX Symposium on Operating Systems Design and Implementation (OSDI ’23).
Recent Comments