Projects | Shankar Karuppayah

Research on Cyber and Physical System Security with the ERIA CPSF-ERAB Initiative in 2025 in Malaysia

Tue, 30 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

An international research collaboration under the ERIA CPSF-ERAB initiative on cyber and physical system security in the energy domain.

This project investigates cyber and physical system security challenges relevant to Malaysia’s energy infrastructure, conducted under the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) Cyber and Physical System Security Framework - ERIA Energy Research and Analysis Bureau (CPSF-ERAB) initiative.

Project Duration: 30/12/2025-30/12/2026

Funding: RM 259,240.00 (External Agency, International)

Project Member:

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Selvakumar Manickam (PI)
Dr. Shankar Karuppayah
Dr. Lokman Mohd Fadzil
Mohd Najwadi Yusoff

OpenSOC SEA-NREN Initiative: Empowering Research Networks Against Cyber Threats

Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

An APNIC ISIF Asia grant project to support emerging National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) in Southeast Asia in establishing Security Operations Centre (SOC) capabilities using open-source technologies.

Implemented through BitRanger and supported through the ISIF Asia Grants programme of the APNIC Foundation, the initiative covers participating communities in Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, and Timor-Leste. It focuses on building a collaborative framework that enables participating networks to monitor threats, share threat intelligence, and strengthen cybersecurity resilience across regional research and education infrastructures, including:

Building practical SOC operational capabilities
Training NREN cybersecurity personnel
Deploying pilot Security Operations Centres
Establishing collaborative threat intelligence capabilities and sharing Indicators of Compromise
Integrating honeypot and network telescope observations
Developing SOC deployment toolkits and playbooks
Strengthening cybersecurity policies associated with SOC operations

Consultancy Project (Principal Consultant).

Research Into Security Layer and Communication for i-Connect Industry 4.0 in Manufacturing Modular Model Industry 4.0 Digital Twin Factory With Intelligence System on Systems and IOT Connectivity for Industry 4.0

Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

An industrial research project to design and propose a lightweight AI-powered IDS mechanism for Manufacturing Industry 4.0 environments.

Industry Grant (Co-Researcher).

Project Duration: 01/01/2025-30/12/2026

Funding: RM 407,600.00 (External Agency, Industry/Private)

Project Member:

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Selvakumar Manickam (PI)
Dr. Shankar Karuppayah
Dr. Lokman Mohd Fadzil
Mohd Najwadi Yusoff

Cybersecurity Awareness Training

Mon, 01 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

A full-day awareness training program crafted to upskill members of an academic institution’s in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Consultancy Project (Trainer).

Enhancing Cybersecurity for Distributed Energy Resources in Malaysia

Tue, 01 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

An international research collaboration studying cybersecurity challenges for distributed energy resources (DER) and IoT controller deployment models in Malaysia.

This project enhances cybersecurity for distributed energy resources in Malaysia, and includes a related study of IoT controller deployment models within the distributed energy resources environment (RM 64,092.00, 01/01/2023-31/03/2024) — building on earlier work on .

Project Duration: 01/08/2023-31/01/2026

Funding: RM 316,134.38 (External Agency, International)

Project Member:

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Selvakumar Manickam (PI)
Dr. Shankar Karuppayah

Designing and Developing A Security Operations Center As A Service Sensor Prototype

Sun, 01 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

An industry project to design and develop a sensor to be leveraged for offering a Security Operation Center as a Service (SOCaaS).

Industry (Project Leader). This research contributed towards subsequent work in operational cybersecurity monitoring and .

Project Duration: 01/04/2023-31/03/2024

Funding: RM 10,000.00 (External Agency, Industry)

Project Member:

Dr. Shankar Karuppayah (PI)
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Selvakumar Manickam
Dr. Mohammed F.R. Anbar

Embedded Systems Upskilling Program For Computer Science/Engineering Graduates

Sun, 01 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

A three-month program crafted to upskill existing industry engineers with knowledge on embedded systems that is highly in demand within the manufacturing industries in Penang, Malaysia.

Industry Grant (Trainer).

Implementation and Experiment of the Research Platform in Malaysia For Real-Time Malicious TLS Traffic Detection Using Machine Learning Classifier

Sun, 01 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

An international collaborative research project to design a research platform to detect TLS-based malware communication using machine learning classifiers.

International Grant (Project Leader).

Project Duration: 14/12/2023-14/06/2025

Funding: RM 183,000.00 (External Agency, International)

Project Member:

Dr. Shankar Karuppayah (PI)
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Selvakumar Manickam
Dr. Mohammed F.R. Anbar
Mithiiran Parthipan

WATCH POWER: A Black Box-Based Cyber Security Monitoring Agent Device

Mon, 15 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

A USM Innovation Seed Fund project to design a black-box cyber security monitoring agent device for network environments.

This project designs and develops a black-box based agent device for cyber security monitoring, forming an early building block towards operational security monitoring capabilities later realized in .

Project Duration: 15/08/2022-14/08/2023

Funding: RM 10,000.00, Innovation Seed Fund (Internal, University)

Project Member:

Dr. Shankar Karuppayah (PI)
Dr. Mohammed F.R. Anbar
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Selvakumar Manickam

User-mobility Optimized Routing Protocol For Enabling Autonomous And Self-managing Disaster Communication Network

Sat, 01 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

A TRGS research grant to design and implement a user-mobility optimized routing protocol specific for disaster management scenarios.

National Grant (Project Leader).

Project Duration: 01/12/2022-30/11/2026

Funding: RM 291,050.00, Transdisciplinary Research Grant Scheme (TRGS)

Project Member:

Dr. Shankar Karuppayah (PI)
Dr. Lokman Mohd Fadzil
Dr. Mohammed F.R. Anbar
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Selvakumar Manickam
Ms. Chong Yung Wey

An advanced network manipulation method to (re)establish Peer to Peer botnet overlays within isolated Internet emulation testbeds

Sun, 12 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

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

Mechanism to Secure Communication over SECS/GEM Protocol in Manufacturing Industry

Tue, 07 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

An FRGS research grant to design mechanisms to secure SECS/GEM communications in manufacturing industry environments.

Industrial equipment increasingly relies on the SECS/GEM protocol for machine-to-machine communication, yet the protocol was not designed with security in mind. This project studies and proposes mechanisms to secure SECS/GEM communications for Industry 4.0 manufacturing environments, complementing related work on and .

Project Duration: 07/09/2021-06/09/2023

Funding: RM 76,700.00, Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS)

Project Member:

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Selvakumar Manickam (PI)
Dr. Shankar Karuppayah
Dr. Mohammed F.R. Anbar
Dr. Ho Yean Li
Dr. Raja Kumar Murugesan

A Periodicity-Agnostic Method for Detecting Parasitic Botnets in Distributed Hash Table-Based Peer-to-Peer Networks

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

An FRGS research grant to study and propose methods to detect parasitic botnets in DHT-based P2P networks.

National Grant (Project Leader). Parasitic botnets coexist with benign nodes and services in a Distributed Hash Table (DHT)-based Peer-to-Peer (P2P) network; recent years have observed the emergence of new parasitic botnets on the BitTorrent and IPFS networks. This project proposed a more effective method to detect such botnets within DHT-based P2P networks.

Project Duration: 07/09/2021-06/09/2024

Funding: RM 115,500.00, Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS)

Project Member:

Dr. Shankar Karuppayah (PI)
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Selvakumar Manickam
Prof. Dr. Max Mühlhäuser

Cyber-Physical Security Design for Energy Aggregation: Applicability In The Malaysian Landscape

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

A study and design on cyber-physical security design for energy aggregation domains and its application on the Malaysian market.

International Grant (Co-Researcher).

Project Duration: 01/09/2021-31/08/2022

Funding: RM 21,085.00 (External Agency, International)

Project Member:

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Selvakumar Manickam (PI)
Dr. Shankar Karuppayah

Joint Solution Design To The Technical Problems Faced By TF-AMD

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

A project to study and propose designs as solution to the technical problems faced by TF-AMD.

Industry Grant (Co-Researcher).

Project Duration: 26/07/2021-31/12/2022

Funding: RM 100,000.00 (External Agency, Industry/Private)

Project Member:

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Selvakumar Manickam (PI)
Dr. Shankar Karuppayah

Modular Automation Software for SECS/GEM-Based Production Line Testing

Mon, 30 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

A multi-year industry-funded research thread (BJIM) developing modular automation software and its secure integrative control for SECS/GEM-based production line testing.

This ongoing collaboration with industry (BJIM) has progressed through several funded phases:

Modular Automation S/W (External Grant Industry, RM 30,000.00, 30/11/2020-29/10/2026)
Integrative Control Software for SECS/GEM Module (Match NG Grant Industry, RM 38,300.00, 01/04/2022-31/10/2024)
Feasibility of Secure Modular Automation Software in an Actual Production Line Environment (Bridging Grant - Mentor, RM 25,000.00, 01/09/2025-31/08/2026)
Modular Automation S/W - Production Line Testing (External Grant Industry, RM 49,050.00, 01/03/2026-30/11/2026)

Project Member:

Dr. Shankar Karuppayah (PI)
Dr. Mohd Heikal Husin
Azleena Mohd Kassim
Nor Athiyah Abdullah
Chun Keng Foong
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Selvakumar Manickam
Mohd Najwadi Yusoff

NAHRIM Environmental Sensor System (NUESS)

Fri, 01 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

A NAHRIM funded project to design, develop and deploy a water/soil/air quality environmental monitoring system.

This NAHRIM funded-project aims to investigate, design, develop and deploy an environmental monitoring system focusing on water/soil/air quality for NAHRIM. This project brings in the expertise of several departments/faculties within USM.

Project Duration: 01/05/2020-30/06/2022

Funding: RM 268,000.00 (External Agency, Government)

Project Member:

Prof. Ir. Dr. Md Azlin Bin Md. Said (PI)
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Asrulnizam Bin Abd Manaf
Dr. Herni Binti Halim
Dr. Mastura Binti Azmi
Dr. Mohamad Adzhar Bin Md Zawawi
Dr. Mohamad Fared Bin Murshed
Dr. Mohamad Khairi Bin Ishak
Dr. Mohd Shahrimie Bin Mohd Asaari
Dr. Muhd Harris Bin Ramli
Dr. Nik Azimatolakma Binti Awang
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Noor Faizah Fitri Binti Md Yusof
Prof. Dr. Nor Azam Bin Ramli
Dr. Nuridah Binti Sabtu
Dr. Nurul Hana Binti Mokhtar Kamal
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Selvakumar Manickam
Dr. Shankar Karuppayah

Publications: (to be added)

ATHENE - Collaborative Botnet Analysis and Detection

Wed, 01 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000

A project named Collaborative Botnet Analysis and Detection within the Mission ABC (Analytics Based Cybersecurity) that is focused on research on botnets with a special emphasis on data analytics.

A project within Mission ABC (Analytics Based Cybersecurity) of Athene that focuses on collaborative botnet analysis and detection with a strong emphasis on data analytics.

Project Duration: 01/01/2020-31/12/2023

Project Member:

Prof. Dr. Max Mühlhäuser (PI)
Dr. Shankar Karuppayah (PostDoc)
M.Sc. Leon Böck (Doctoral Candidate)

Publications: (to be added)

Novel p2p Botnet Detection and Endpoint Mobilization

Wed, 01 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000

An international industry-funded project to carry out research on aspects of P2P botnet detection and countermeasures.

This Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) funded project is aimed at carrying out research on advanced P2P botnet detection and countermeasures.

Project Duration: 01/01/2019-31/12/2021

Project Member:

Prof. Dr. Max Mühlhäuser (PI)
Dr. Shankar Karuppayah (PostDoc)
M.Sc. Leon Böck (Doctoral Candidate)

Publications: (to be added)

SecureAsi@ v2.0

Tue, 11 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000

An EU funded-project to conduct a 5-day Hands-on Ethical Hacking Workshop for members of National Research Education Networks within AsiaConnect.

Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) and Malaysian Research and Education Network (MYREN) organized and conducted the SecureAsi@ v2.0 Advanced Security training workshop for year 2018 in Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia from 10th December till 14th December 2018.

The proposed workshop was aimed at bringing Asi@Connect partners’ network engineers and security administrators to the level qualified for the operation & management of network for their NRENs and therefore promote international collaborations as well as Asi@Connect applications.

As more and more security breaches being reported throughout the globe, it is such necessary that NRENs are more equipped to proactively identify potential security issues in their network BEFORE they are being exploited by hackers and malware. For that reason, this workshop provided a combination of theoretical and practical knowledge/experience to the participants of the workshop in terms of a more secure NREN.

USM provided two of its security experts and engaged with Technical University of Darmstadt (TUD) Germany to invite another expert in the field of Cyber Security to conduct the workshop over a period of five (5) days. The plan for the workshop was jointly developed by USM and TUD.

The objectives of the conducted workshop were:

To provide an overview of Cybersecurity.
To familiarize with concepts of malware, botnet, social engineering and other threats.
To learn the latest Internet security techniques, firewalls etc.
To provide a basic knowledge of ethical hacking using Kali Linux.

Instructors:

Dr. Shankar Karuppayah
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Selvakumar Manickam
Leon Böck

Detecting Sensor Nodes Deployed in P2P Botnets Using Graph-Theoretic Approaches

Fri, 30 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000

A USM short-term research grant to investigate the usage of graph-theoretic approaches to detect sensor nodes deployed within P2P botnets.

This project explores the usage of graph-theoretic approaches to detect sensor nodes (deployed by defenders for the purpose of passive botnet monitoring) within the P2P botnets.

Project Duration: 01/12/2016-30/11/2018

Grant No: 304/PNAV/6313332 (Short Term - Academic Staff)

Funding: RM 27,407.00

Project Members:

Dr. Shankar Karuppayah (PI)
Prof. Dr. Rosni Abdullah
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Selvakumar Manickam

Publications: (to be added)

DISTRIBUTED AND CLOUD-BASED NETWORK DEFENSE SYSTEM FOR NRENS

Fri, 01 Jun 2018 00:00:00 +0000

An EU funded-project to setup a distributed botnet monitoring mechanism as well as conduct capacity building for the NREN members.

This EU/AsiaConnect funded-project aims to investigate and deploy distributed botnet monitoring nodes in the NREN networks of the collaborators (MY, BD, ID and PH). Besides that, this project is also responsible to conduct two series of workshops (capacity building) in the domain of cyber security and botnets.

Project Duration: 01/06/2018-31/05/2022

Funding: RM 408,118.19 (External Agency, International)

Project Member:

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Wan Tat Chee (PI)
Ms. Chong Yung Wey
Dr. Mohammed F.r. Anbar
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Selvakumar Manickam
Dr. Shankar Karuppayah

Publications: (to be added)

Sense@USM - Smart Environmental Sensing With Low-Cost IoT Sensors

Mon, 28 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

A USM Bridging research grant to investigate the feasibility of setting up a smart environmental sensing with low-cost IoT sensors.

This project explores the feasibility and accuracy of using low-cost IoT sensors for the purpose of a smart environmental sensing platform within USM.

Project Duration: 25/01/2018-24/07/2019

Grant No: 304/PNAV/6316071 (Bridging Grant - Mentor)

Funding: RM 9,990.00

Project Member:

Dr. Shankar Karuppayah (PI)
Elwiya Ahmed Ghalib Khudhur

Publications: (to be added)

Development of Laboratory Information Management System

Mon, 01 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Design and development of a customized web-based LIMS system to facilitate the day-to-day operations of a service-based research centre within USM.

Internal Project (Project Leader).

Manufacturing Industry Automation Using IoT Devices

Thu, 30 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000

An industry-funded project to automate some of their existing workflows using IoT devices alongside Big Data Analysis.

This was an industry consultation project that focused on the utilization of IoT components to harmonize the various manufacturing industry-grade equipments in terms of data collection, recipe management and big data analysis to provide real-time status update to their various stakeholders. One particular emphasis of this project was the usage of SECS/GEM protocol to communicate to some of their modern equipments and retrofit older equipments with capabilities of communicating with the centralized server using SECS/GEM as well.

Project Duration: 01/05/2017-01/02/2018

Project Members:

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Selvakumar Manickam (PI)
Dr. Shankar Karuppayah

SecureAsi@

Mon, 23 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000

An EU funded-project to conduct a 3-day Hands-on Ethical Hacking Workshop for members of National Research Education Networks within AsiaConnect.

Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) and Malaysian Research and Education Network (MYREN) organized and conducted the SecureAsi@ workshop for year 2017 in Cyberjaya, Malaysia from 23rd October till 25th October 2017.

USM and MYREN provided two of its security experts and engaged with University of Hamburg (UH), Germany to invite another expert in the field of Cyber Security to conduct the workshop over a period of three (3) days. The plan for the workshop was jointly developed by USM, MYREN, and UH.

WORKSHOP OBJECTIVES

The objectives of the conducted workshop was:

To provide an overview of Cybersecurity.
To familiarize with concepts of malware, botnet, social engineering and other threats.
To learn the latest Internet security techniques, firewalls etc.
To provide a basic knowledge of ethical hacking using Kali Linux.

Instructors:

Dr. Shankar Karuppayah
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Selvakumar Manickam
Prof. Dr. Mathias Fischer

IoT-Based Recipe Management System

Sun, 01 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Design and development of an in-house system to interconnect various equipment in a shop floor with recipe management and data analytics capabilities.

Industry Grant (Co-Researcher).