Professor George Loukas

Professor George Loukas Head, Centre for Sustainable Cyber Security

Professor of Cyber Security (Human-centric and Cyber-physical Security)

George Loukas is a Professor of Cyber Security with particular interest in human-centric, applied and data-driven cyber security applications in cyber-physical environments. His research has been supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the European Commission, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), the UK Ministry of Defence and the British Council. Some highlights include the coordination of project EUNOMIA which developed the first social media platform that helps users tell the trustworthiness of what they share through it, and project CHAI which developed the first mechanism assisting users in telling whether their smart home AI has been compromised.

Professor Loukas has a PhD in Network Security from Imperial College. He is on the editorial board of IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security. He has previously been on the editorial board of BCS's The Computer Journal and Elsevier's Simulation Modelling Practice and Theory, as well as founding member of the IEEE working group on Internet of Things and Cultural Heritage. His 2015 book on cyber-physical attacks has been adopted in the curricula of universities internationally and was included in ACM’s top 10 of computing Milieux books and articles published that year.

Computer science and computing Computer science Computing

Computer science and informatics

Responsibilities within the university
  • Head, Centre for Sustainable Cyber Security
  • Subject Group Leader for "Networks, Security and Forensics"

Awards
Research Grants
2022 – 2025 P.I., Horizon Europe, SUN (UoG: €475K).
2021 – 2024 co-I, H2020 RESCUER (UoG: €441K)
2020 – 2023 P.I. & overall project coordinator, EPSRC CHAI (UoG: £453K, total project value: £1.9M including EP/T026812/1, EP/T026820/1, EP/T026707/1, EP/T026596/1).
2020 – 2022 co-I, H2020 ENSURESEC (UoG: €489K)
2019 – 2022 co-I, H2020 C4IIoT (UoG: €250K)
2018 – 2021 P.I. & overall project coordinator & technical manager, H2020 EUNOMIA (UoG: €512K, total project value: €2.9M)
2018 – 2021 co-I, H2020 CUREX (UoG: €250K).
2018 – 2019 P.I & overall project coordinator, British Council Secure Hajj (UoG: £20K, total project value: £42K)
2016 – 2018 UoG P.I. (co-I for Reading University), EPSRC/CHIST-ERA COCOON (UoG: 277K Euro)
2015 – 2018 P.I., H2020 TRILLION (UoG: €334K)
2013 – 2016 Co-I, MoD/dstl PhD scholarship (UoG: £117K)
2013 – 2014 P.I., EU ISEC ECENTRE (UoG: €70K)
Knowledge Exchange
2021 – 2022 Co-I., NCSC, Security Economics for the Connected Place Supply Chains (UoG: £50K).
2016 – 2017 Co-I., HEFCE, Cyber Security Engineering MSc (UoG: £50K)
2012 – 2013 P.I., Metropolitan Police, Cyber-physical counterterrorism training (UoG: £37.5K)

Research / Scholarly interests

Research topics

  • Internet of Things and Cyber-physical system security
  • Machine learning applications in cyber security
  • Information trustworthiness
  • Human-as-a-Security-Sensor
  • Digital forensics​
  • Network security
  • Trustworthy AI

Research supervision

Doctoral Students (Current)
  • Leonard Ikem: Optimising Cyber Risk Management in the era of AI.
  • Emily Parsons: Cyber Risk Management for IoT-enabled Smart Homes.
  • Blessing Odeleye: Cyber security of VR environments
  • Dennis Ivory: Human-as-a-security-sensor in the Internet of Things
  • William Oliff: Context-enhanced indoor localisation, tracking and occupancy detection
  • Lal Akhter: Model-based Software Security Assurance
  • Anthony Yekovie: Autonomous Safety and Security Validation System for IoT Applications
  • (External, Univ. of West Attica:) Christos Chatzigeorgiou
Doctoral Students (Completed)
  • Antonia Nisioti - 2022, PhD, Data-Driven Decision Support for Optimizing Cyber Forensic Investigations - Upon completion moved a to SOC Team Lead position at Secrutiny.
  • Ali Jaddoa - 2022, PhD, Computation offloading in IoT environments - Upon completion moved to a Univ. of Greenwich post-doc position at project RESCUER.
  • Terry Brett - 2020, PhD, Understanding contagion spreading processes of cyber security threats through social networks - Upon completion moved to an Application Developer position at IBM.
  • Dr David Gresty - 2018, PhD, Forensic timeline analysis - Upon completion moved to a University of Greenwich lecturer position.
  • Ryan Heartfield - 2017, PhD, Utilising the concept of Human-as-a-Security-Sensor for detecting semantic social engineering attacks - Upon completion moved to a Univ. of Greenwich postdoc position.
  • Anatolij Bezemskij - 2017, PhD, Safeguarding Autonomous Vehicles from Cyber Attacks< - Upon completion moved to a University of Greenwich post-doc position in EPSRC/CHIST-ERA project Cocoon.
  • Tuan Vuong - 2017, PhD, Cyber-physical security of robotic vehicles - Upon completion moved to a University of Greenwich lecturer position.
Postdoctoral Researchers
  • Dr Hsueh-Ju Chen – 2021-23, CHAI project – Moved to
  • Dr Ijaz Ahmed - 2020-22, ENSURESEC - Moved to lecturer position at Cardiff Metropolitan University.
  • Dr Areeg Elgazazz - 2020-21, ENSURESEC - Moved to postdoc position at UiT, Norway.
  • Dr Xing Liang - 2019-21, EUNOMIA - Moved to lecturer position at Kingston University.
  • Dr Ryan Heartfield - 2018-20, COCOON, EUNOMIA - Moved to Senior Security Architect role at Splunk.
  • Dr Ali Jaddoa – 2022-2023, RESCUER – Moved to lecturer position at Canterbury Christ Church Univ.
  • Dr Anatolij Bezemskij 2018-19, COCOON. Moved to a lecturer position at University of Greenwich.
  • Dr Syed Sadiqur Rahman - 2016-17, TRILLION - Moved to lecturer position at Prince Mugrin University.
  • Dr Avgoustinos Filippoupolitis - 2013-14, E-Centre. Moved to a Univ. of Greenwich lecturer position.

Recent publications

Article

Budimir, Sanja , Fontaine, Johnny R. J., Huijts, Nicole M. A., Haans, Antal , IJsselsteijn, Wijnand A. , Oostveen, Anne-Marie , Stahl, Frederic , Heartfield, Ryan , Loukas, George , Bezemskij, Anatolij (2024), We are not equipped to identify the first signs of cyber-physical attacks: emotional reactions to cybersecurity breaches on domestic Internet of Things devices. MDPI. In: , , , . MDPI, Applied Sciences, 14: 11855 (24) 2076-3417 (Online) (doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/app142411855).

Sani, Abubakar Sadiq , Yuan, Dong, Loukas, George, Dong, Zhao Yang (2024), UReum: a universally composable blockchain-enabled model for secure and privacy-preserving data awareness in energy internet. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). In: , , , . Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), IEEE Access 2169-3536 (Online) (doi: https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2024.3496258).

Vasalou, Asimina , Benton, Laura, Serta, Ana, Gauthier, Andrea , Besevli, Ceylan , Gill, Rea , Payler, Rachael , Roesch, Etienne , McAreavey, Kevin , Bauters, Kim (2024), Doing cybersecurity at home: a human-centred approach for mitigating attacks in AI-enabled home devices. Elsevier. In: , , , . Elsevier, Computers and Security, 148: 104112 ISSN: 0167-4048 (Print), (doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cose.2024.104112).

Vasalou, Asimina , Gauthier, Andrea, Serta, Ana, Beşevli, Ceylan , Turner, Sarah , Payler, Rachael , Gill, Rea , McAreavey, Kevin , Loukas, George , Liu, Weiru (2024), In pursuit of thermal comfort: an exploration of Smart Heating in everyday life. Elsevier. In: , , , . Elsevier, International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 186: 103245 . pp. 1-14 ISSN: 1071-5819 (Print), (doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2024.103245).

Aurangzeb, Sana , Aleem, Muhammad, Khan, Muhammad Taimoor, Loukas, George , Sakellari, Georgia (2024), AndroDex: Android Dex images of obfuscated malware. Nature Research. In: , , , . Nature Research, Scientific Data, 11 (212) . pp. 1-10 2052-4463 (Online) (doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-03027-3).

Huijts, N. M. A. , Haans, A., Budimir, S., Fontaine, J. R. J. , Loukas, George , Bezemskij, Anatolij , Oostveen, A. , Filippoupolitis, Avgoustinos , Ras, I. , IJsselsteijn, W. A. (2023), User experiences with simulated cyber-physical attacks on smart home IoT. Springer. In: , , , . Springer, Personal and Ubiquitous Computing ISSN: 1617-4909 (Print), 1617-4917 (Online) (doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-023-01774-5).

Parsons, Emily , Panaousis, Emmanouil, Loukas, George, Sakellari, Georgia (2023), A survey on cyber risk management for the Internet of Things. MDPI. In: , , , . MDPI, Applied Sciences, 13: 9032 (15) . pp. 1-44 2076-3417 (Online) (doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/app13159032).

Zhang, Yunxiao , Malacaria, Pasquale, Loukas, George, Panaousis, Emmanouil (2023), CROSS: a framework for cyber risk optimisation in smart homes. Elsevier. In: , , , . Elsevier, Computers and Security, 130: 103250 . pp. 1-15 ISSN: 0167-4048 (Print), (doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cose.2023.103250).

Nisioti, Antonia , Loukas, George, Mylonas, Alexios, Panaousis, Emmanouil (2022), Forensics for multi-stage cyber incidents: survey and future directions. Elsevier. In: , , , . Elsevier, Forensic Science International: Digital Investigation, 44: 301480 2666-2817 (Online) (doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsidi.2022.301480).

Odeleye, Blessing , Loukas, George, Heartfield, Ryan, Sakellari, Georgia , Panaousis, Emmanouil , Spyridonis, Fotios (2022), Virtually secure: a taxonomic assessment of cybersecurity challenges in virtual reality environments. Elsevier. In: , , , . Elsevier, Computers and Security, 124: 102951 ISSN: 0167-4048 (Print), (doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cose.2022.102951).

Panda, Sakshyam , Rass, Stefan, Moschoyiannis, Sotiris, Liang, Kaitai , Loukas, George , Panaousis, Emmanouil (2022), HoneyCar: a framework to configure honeypot vulnerabilities on the internet of vehicles. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). In: , , , . Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), IEEE Access, 10 . pp. 104671-104685 2169-3536 (Online) (doi: https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3210117).

Nisioti, Antonia , Loukas, George, Rass, Stefan, Panaousis, Emmanouil (2021), Game-theoretic decision support for cyber forensic investigations. MDPI. In: , , , . MDPI, Sensors, 21: 5300 (16) ISSN: 1424-8220 (Print), (doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/s21165300).

Budimir, Sanja , Fontaine, Johnny, Huijts, Nicole MA, Haans, Antal , Loukas, George , Roesch, Etienne (2021), Emotional reactions to cybersecurity breach situations: A scenario-based survey study. JMIR Publications. In: , , , . JMIR Publications, Journal of Medical Internet Research, 23: e24879 (5) 1438-8871 (Online) (doi: https://doi.org/10.2196/24879).

Kasnesis, Panagiotis , Heartfield, Ryan, Liang, Xing, Toumanidis, Lazaros , Sakellari, Georgia , Patrikakis, Charalampos , Loukas, George (2021), Transformer-based identification of stochastic information cascades in social networks using text and image similarity. Elsevier B.V.. In: , , , . Elsevier B.V., Applied Soft Computing, 108: 107413 ISSN: 1568-4946 (Print), (doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asoc.2021.107413).

Nisioti, Antonia , Loukas, George, Laszka, Aron, Panaousis, Emmanouil (2021), Data-driven decision support for optimizing cyber forensic investigations. IEEE. In: , , , . IEEE, IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security, 16 . pp. 2397-2412 ISSN: 1556-6013 (Print), 1556-6021 (Online) (doi: https://doi.org/10.1109/TIFS.2021.3054966).

Heartfield, Ryan , Loukas, George, Bezemskij, Anatolij, Panaousis, Emmanouil (2020), Self-configurable cyber-physical intrusion detection for smart homes using reinforcement learning. IEEE. In: , , , . IEEE, IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics & Security ISSN: 1556-6013 (Print), 1556-6021 (Online) (doi: ).

Budimir, S. , Fontaine, J., Huijts, N., Haans, A. , Loukas, G. , Ras, I. , Roesch, E. (2020), Emotions, personality, and psychopathology of cybersecurity breach victims. Elsevier. In: , , , . Elsevier, Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 133: 110059 ISSN: 0022-3999 (Print), 1879-1360 (Online) (doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychores.2020.110059).

Chen, Jiahui , Ling, Jie, Ning, Jianting, Panaousis, Emmanouil , Loukas, George , Liang, Kaitai , Chen, Jiageng (2020), Post quantum proxy signature scheme based on the multivariate public key cryptographic signature. SAGE. In: , , , . SAGE, International Journal of Distributed Sensor Networks, 16 (4) . pp. 1-16 ISSN: 1550-1329 (Print), 1550-1477 (Online) (doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/1550147720914775).

Loukas, George , Patrikakis, Charalampos Z., Wilbanks, Linda R. (2020), Digital deception: Cyber fraud and online misinformation. IEEE. In: , , , . IEEE, IT Professional, 22 (2) . pp. 19-20 ISSN: 1520-9202 (Print), 1941-045X (Online) (doi: https://doi.org/10.1109/MITP.2020.2980090).

Theodorakopoulos, George , Panaousis, Emmanouil, Liang, Kaitai, Loukas, George (2020), On-the-fly privacy for location histograms. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). In: , , , . Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing, 19 (1) . pp. 566-578 ISSN: 1545-5971 (Print), 1941-0018 (Online) (doi: https://doi.org/10.1109/TDSC.2020.2980270).

Book section

Ivory, Dennis , Loukas, George, Gan, Diane (2024), Enabling the Human-as-a-security-sensor paradigm in the Internet of Things. Springer. In: , , In: Nikolaos Pitropakis, Sokratis Katsikas (eds.), Security and Privacy in Smart Environments. Springer, Cham, Switzerland , 14800 (1st) . pp. 75-97 . ISBN: 9783031667077; 9783031667084 (doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-66708-4_4) NB Item availability restricted.

Panda, Sakshyam , Panaousis, Emmanouil, Loukas, George, Laoudias, Christos (2020), Optimizing investments in cyber hygiene for protecting healthcare users. Springer. In: From Lambda Calculus to Cybersecurity Through Program Analysis, , In: Alessandra Di Pierro, Pasquale Malacaria, Rajagopal Nagarajan (eds.), From Lambda Calculus to Cybersecurity Through Program Analysis: Essays Dedicated to Chris Hankin on the Occasion of His Retirement. Springer, , 12065 . pp. 268-291 . ISBN: 9783030411022 (doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41103-9_11).

Conference proceedings

Yekovie, Anthony , Sani, Abubakar Sadiq, Dong, Yuan, Samakovitis, Georgios , Loukas, George (2025), ASAVA: Autonomous Safety and Security Validation system for Internet of Things application. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE). In: 2025 IEEE Globecom Workshops (GC Wkshps): Workshop on Enabling Security, Trust, and Privacy in 6G Wireless Systems - Workshop on Enabling Security, Trust, and Privacy in 6G Wireless Systems, Taipei, Taiwan, 8–12 December 2025, 8–12 December 2025, Taipei, Taiwan , 2025 IEEE Globecom Workshops (GC Wkshps): Workshop on Enabling Security, Trust, and Privacy in 6G Wireless Systems - Workshop on Enabling Security, Trust, and Privacy in 6G Wireless Systems, Taipei, Taiwan, 8th – 12th December 2025. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE), Piscataway, New Jersey (doi: ) NB Item availability restricted.

Zou, Junyi , Bovo, Riccardo, Hamza, Ali, Loukas, George (2025), A mixed-methods investigation of XR security warnings: lessons learned. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). In: IEEE Content-Based Multimedia Indexing, , Ireland , International Workshop on Content-Based Multimedia Indexing, CBMI. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Piscataway, New Jersey (doi: ) NB Item availability restricted.

Sani, Abubakar Sadiq , Yuan, Dong, Lawal, Yahaya, Loukas, George , Dong, Zhao Yang (2025), A sustainable dispositional and situational security awareness model for Smart Grids. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). In: , , , 2024 Global Energy Conference (GEC). Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), New Jersey, USA . pp. 135-140 . ISBN: 9798331532628 (doi: https://doi.org/10.1109/GEC61857.2024.10880948).

Akhter, Lal , Khan, Muhammad Taimoor, Loukas, George, Sakellari, Georgia (2024), Towards integration of syntactic and semantic vulnerability patterns. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). In: , , , 2024 IEEE 21st International Conference on Software Architecture Companion (ICSA-C) DOI: 10.1109/ICSA-C63560.2024, 4th - 8th June 2024. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Piscataway, New Jersey (1st) . pp. 260-264 . ISBN: 9798350366259; 979850366266ISSN: 2768-4288 (Print), 2768-427X (Online) (doi: https://doi.org/10.1109/ICSA-C63560.2024.00054).

Panda, Sakshyam , Panaousis, Manos, Loukas, George, Kentrotis, Konstantinos (2023), Privacy impact assessment of cyber attacks on connected and autonomous vehicles. Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). In: , , In: ARES 23 Conference Committee (ed.), ARES 2023, the 18th International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security. Proceedings. 29th August 2023 - 1st September 2023. Benevento, Italy. Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), New York (93) (1st) . pp. 93:1-93:9 . ISBN: 9798400707728 (doi: https://doi.org/10.1145/3600160.3605073) NB Item availability restricted.

Scott, Emma , Panda, Sakshyam, Loukas, George, Panaousis, Emmanouil (2022), Optimising user security recommendations for AI-powered smart-homes. IEEE. In: , , , 2022 IEEE Conference on Dependable and Secure Computing (DSC). IEEE, . ISBN: 9781665421416 (doi: https://doi.org/10.1109/DSC54232.2022.9888829).

Odeleye, Blessing , Loukas, George, Heartfield, Ryan, Spyridonis, Fotios (2021), Detecting framerate-oriented cyber attacks on user experience in virtual reality. VR4Sec. In: , , In: Stefan Schneegass, Mohamed Khamis, Florian Alt, Uwe Gruenefeld, Karola Marky, Alia Saad, Jonathan Liebers, Jonas Auda (eds.), VR4Sec: 1st International Workshop on Security for XR and XR for Security. VR4Sec, (doi: https://vr4sec.hcigroup.de/proceedings/VR4Sec_paper_3.pdf).

Parsons, Emily Kate , Panaousis, Emmanouil, Loukas, George (2020), How secure is home: assessing human susceptibility to IoT threats. ACM. In: , , , PCI 2020: 24th Pan-Hellenic Conference on Informatics. ACM, . pp. 64-71 . ISBN: 9781450388979 (doi: https://doi.org/10.1145/3437120.3437277).

Siniosoglou, Ilias , Efstathopoulos, Georgios, Pliatsios, Dimitrios, Moscholios, Ioannis , Sarigiannidis, Antonios , Sakellari, Georgia , Loukas, George , Sarigiannidis, Panagiotis (2020), NeuralPot: an industrial honeypot implementation based on convolutional neural networks. IEEE. In: , , , 2020 IEEE Symposium on Computers and Communications (ISCC). IEEE, . ISBN: 9781728180878ISSN: 1530-1346 (Print), 2642-7389 (Online) (doi: https://doi.org/10.1109/ISCC50000.2020.9219712).

Kasnesis, Panagiotis , Heartfield, Ryan, Toumanidis, Lazaros, Liang, Xing , Loukas, George , Patrikakis, Charalampos Z. (2020), A prototype deep learning paraphrase identification service for discovering information cascades in social networks. IEEE. In: , , , IEEE International Conference on Multimedia and Expo. IEEE, . pp. 1-4 . ISBN: 9781728114859 (doi: https://doi.org/10.1109/ICMEW46912.2020.9106044).

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