An advanced network manipulation method to (re)establish Peer to Peer botnet overlays within isolated Internet emulation testbeds
A USM short-term research grant to investigate methods to bootstrap real-life P2P botnets in an isolated testbed for further analysis.
The main objectives defined to achieve the goal of this research are:
- To investigate and propose a method to (re)establish a P2P botnet overlay using real-world malware samples
- To collect realistic P2P botnet datasets for further investigations and analysis
Project Duration: 01/09/2021-31/08/2023
Grant No: USM Short Term Grant 304/PNAV/6313332 (Short Term - Academic Staff)
Funding: RM 21,700.00; actual project duration 01/09/2021-28/02/2024
Project Members:
- Dr. Shankar Karuppayah (PI)
- Assoc. Prof. Dr. Selvakumar Manickam
Collaborators (TU Darmstadt):
- Prof. Dr. Max Mühlhäuser
- M.Sc. Leon Böck
Shankar Karuppayah is an Associate Professor and Deputy Director at the Cybersecurity Research Centre (CYRES), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), which he joined as Senior Lecturer in 2016. He is also the Founder & CEO of BitRanger Sdn. Bhd., a USM cybersecurity spin-off established in October 2023 that translates research and innovation from USM/CYRES into operational cybersecurity capabilities, including OwlSight, an outsourced Security Operations Centre platform.
He obtained his B.Sc (HONS) Computer Science from Universiti Sains Malaysia in 2009 and his M.Sc. Software Systems Engineering from King Mongkut’s University of Technology North Bangkok (KMUTNB) in 2011. In 2016, Shankar obtained his PhD (Dr. rer. nat.) from TU Darmstadt, where his research on advanced techniques for monitoring peer-to-peer botnets later formed the basis of his Springer book, Advanced Monitoring in P2P Botnets: A Dual Perspective.
His research has since expanded from P2P botnet monitoring and malware analysis into broader areas including intrusion detection, cyber threat intelligence, machine learning for cybersecurity, IoT and cyber-physical security, network security monitoring, and the translation of cybersecurity research into deployable, operational technologies.