The IERG is delighted to announce that it has recently been awarded new grants to undertake research into: privacy, security and trust in the Internet of Things; the use of social media in a public security context; the ethical issues raised by new technologies; and the detection and prevention of mass marketing fraud. Further information about the projects is detailed below.

ComPaTrIoTS - Commitment to Privacy and Trust in Internet of Things Security

ComPaTrIoTS is an EPSRC funded project that has been awarded to the IERG in association with Warwick Manufacturing Group. The grant supports a “Research Hub” of leading UK universities investigating the challenges associated with privacy, security and trust in the Internet of Things (IoT), including the various interactions, policy and governance, beliefs and behaviours, between people and the IoT systems. In particular, IERG Research Fellow, Dr. John Guelke, will be working on a sub-project called PETRAS, which will cover issues of informed consent to personal data use and processing on the internet.

MEDI@4SEC

MEDI@4SEC examines the role of social media use in enhancing and decreasing public security. This H2020 funded project will address questions such as ‘How and why are new forms of social media currently being adopted and used by public security planners, citizens and criminals?’; ‘How should social media use amongst law enforcement, public security planners and citizens evolve in the future?’; and ‘What are the social, ethical and legal implications of this increased use of new social media?’.

PRISMA

PRISMA is an H2020 funded collaboration with Warwick Manufacturing Group that addresses risks and public concerns raised by new transformative technologies. Responsible Research Innovation (RRI) is a methodology for the introduction of these technologies by developers. Actors from industry, research and civil society will jointly define, test out, evaluate, improve and, disseminate a roadmap for implementing RRI in industry. Through a number of RRI pilots, PRISMA will demonstrate how industry and societal actors can work together productively. Warwick Manufacturing Group projects in automated cars, the internet of things and new manufacturing materials will be the focus of collaborations with IERG. IERG is developing an “embedded ethicist” role in these new projects. This involves continuous discussion of ethical and societal issues raised by technologies as they are being developed. It adds an intensive consultation method to telephone advisory methods pioneered by IERG in the FP7 security project SURVEILLE.

DAPM – Detecting and Preventing Mass Marketing Fraud

Mass-marketing fraud (MMF) is a type of fraud that exploits mass communication techniques (e.g., email, Instant Messenger, bulk mailing, social networking sites, telemarketing) to con people out of money. This EPSRC project will develop novel techniques to detect and prevent MMF. Through its multi-disciplinary approach and close focus on co-designing the solutions with its range of project partners and testing them in-the-wild during live MMF-detection settings, the project will lead to not only new scientific understanding of the anatomy of MMF but also tools and techniques that can form the basis of practical interventions in tackling such fraud.