Dr. Francisco J. Aparicio Navarro serves as Associate Professor in Cyber Security and Programme Leader for BSc/MSc Digital Technology Solutions Degree Apprenticeships at De Montfort University's School of Computer Science and Informatics. An expert in Computer Network Security and Intrusion Detection Systems, his research develops novel unsupervised detection frameworks integrating Contextual Information and Situational Awareness for cyber-attack identification in networked environments. His research spans Network Security, Machine Learning, and Cyber Situational Awareness with specialized expertise in Penetration Testing, Cyber Threat Intelligence, and Incident Response. Key contributions include statistical approaches for multi-stage attack detection, data fusion techniques for anomaly identification, and security solutions for Connected Autonomous Vehicles developed in partnership with Airbus. His work bridges theoretical advances in cryptographic protocols with practical defense mechanisms for critical infrastructure. Recent publications demonstrate evolving focus from foundational wireless intrusion detection (2017-2018) toward sophisticated APT prediction using machine learning correlation analysis (2018-2019), vehicle cybersecurity (2019-2020), and emerging areas like medical imaging watermarking (2023) and lightweight cryptographic solutions (2024-2025). Cross-cutting themes include contextual information integration, IoT privacy compliance, and distributed authentication mechanisms. Scientific recognition includes: Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) He currently supervises PhD candidates Tareq Ahmad Alhajahjeh (Cyber Threats Intelligence using BRNN-LSTM) and Ademola Elijah Owaraye (Zero-Trust Security in Fog Computing), following successful completion of Dr. Raphael Martin Juergen Riebl's thesis on Vehicular AdHoc Networks. Research funding includes Innovate UK projects SACRED (Co-Investigator), INSURE Phases 1-2 (Principal Investigator), and FLOURISH (Co-Investigator with Airbus), alongside EPSRC/Dstl collaborations on networked battlespace security. As Director of the Cyber Security Academic Startup Accelerator Programme, he fosters industry-academia partnerships while maintaining active consultancy in penetration testing and incident response for commercial clients.






