معرفی
Dr Darren Hurley-Smith serves as a Senior Lecturer in the School of Computing at the University of Kent, specializing in cyber physical systems, network security, and autonomous platforms including unmanned aerial, ground, and submersible vehicles. His work bridges critical infrastructure protection with cutting-edge security research.
Education
- PhD in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks, MANET Security, and Distributed Task Allocation Algorithms from the University of Greenwich (2015)
Research Focus
His pioneering work spans ransomware ecosystem analysis—developing cryptocurrency tracking tools and Ethereum blockchain attack mitigation—and transport security innovation including Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) communications. He has engineered secure MANET routing protocols for 5G-connected drone networks and investigates privacy harms from unregulated data harvesting by AI developers.
Key Projects
- National Highways (2024): Project Lead for CCTV network dataflow simulation in transport systems
- Omnidrome Facility (2022-2024): Technical Manager for Royal Holloway's UAV/UGV/ROV research infrastructure
- RAMSES2020 (2016-2020): Horizon 2020 Research Associate tracking ransomware financial flows
Academic Leadership
Dr Hurley-Smith teaches Digital Forensics (COMP8230), Information Security Management (COMP6644/8340), Network Security, and Ethical Hacking. He actively supervises postgraduate research in autonomous vehicle security and decentralized network integrity, emphasizing public safety applications. His lab work focuses on simulating cyber-physical attack scenarios for critical infrastructure resilience testing.
