Computer Science News

When you purchase an IP-based spy (hidden) camera for surveillance, are you aware that others may be spying on what you are watching? Recent research by Samuel Herodotou in the Department of Computer Science, Warwick, as part of his third-year undergraduate dissertation project under the supervision of Professor Feng Hao, has revealed a wide range of vulnerabilities of a generic camera module that has been used in many best-selling hidden cameras. Exploiting these vulnerabilities, an attacker may capture your hidden camera's video/audio streams from anywhere in the world, and furthermore, take complete control of the camera as a bot to attack other devices in your home network. To launch the attack, all the attacker needs to know is merely your hidden camera’s serial number. It is estimated that these vulnerabilities affect millions of hidden cameras, mostly sold in America, Europe and Asia. The (insecure) peer-to-peer network that is used by the affected cameras is also being used by 50 million IoT devices as a general communication platform. Hence, many millions of other IoT devices may also be affected. Researchers have responsibly disclosed findings to the manufacturers, and a CVE has already been assigned. Samuel will present this research work at the 17th International Conference on Network and System Security (Canterbury, UK, 14-16 August 2023). More details can be found in the paper.

We are happy to announce five promotions in the department, with effect from 1st August 2023.

• Dr James Archbold has been promoted to Associate Professor (Teaching Focussed)
• Dr Richard Kirk has been promoted to Assistant Professor (Teaching Focussed)
• Dr Claire Rocks has been promoted to Reader (Teaching Focussed)
• Dr Ian Saunders has been promoted to Associate Professor (Teaching Focussed)
• Dr Sathya Subramanian has been promoted to Assistant Professor (Research Focussed)

Many congratulations to our colleagues for all their achievements!

We are happy to share the news that Dr Alex Dixon has been promoted to the position of Assistant Professor, effective from 1 May 2023. Alex joined our department as a Teaching Fellow in September 2021, while still completing his PhD research. Despite juggling both roles, he has made significant contributions to the department's activities. Many congratulations to Alex for his accomplishments in completing his PhD research and for earning this well-deserved promotion.

We are happy to announce that Dr Amina Asif has joined the Department of Computer Science as a Teaching Fellow. Amina has previously worked with us as part of the Tissue Image Analytics (TIA) centre, where her research focussed on weak supervision and model robustness in Computational Pathology. We welcome her to the department!

An EPSRC Robust and Reliable Quantum Computing Grant will be awarded to Anuj Dawar (Cambridge), Tom Gur (Warwick), Tom Melham (Oxford), and Sergii Strelchuk (Cambridge). The project sets out to explore the role of symmetry and structure in quantum computation, with applications to classical verification and simulation of quantum computation.

In addition, the project aims to strengthen and create new connections and collaborations between Cambridge, Oxford, and Warwick in the field of Quantum Computing (building on existing initiatives such as the Cambridge-Warwick Quantum Colloquium) and establish new partnerships with Warwick Quantum.