Ángel Jesús Varela Vaca, PhD Full-time Lecturer (Profesor Titular de Universidad)
E.T.S. Ingeniería Informática
Dpto. Lenguajes y Sistemas Informáticos
Avda. Reina Mercedes S/N, 41012 Sevilla (Spain)
Room: I0.69
Tel: +34 954 556 238
Education
- PhD (2013) in Software and Technology Engineering, University of Seville. Title: “OPBUS: A framework for improving the dependability of risk-aware business processes“. Supervisor: Rafael M. Gasca.
- MSc (2009) in Software and Technology Engineering in Intelligent Techniques speciality from, Computer Languages and Systems Department, University of Seville. Master Thesis: “Formalización de un modelo independiente de computación basado en análisis de riesgos de seguridad para una arquitectura guiada por modelos”.Supervisor: Rafael M. Gasca.
- Computer Engineering (2008) degree from the University of Seville. Master Thesis: “Transformación de políticas de seguridad de alto nivel con MDA”.Supervisor: Sergio Pozo Hidalgo.
Research Areas
- Domain-specific modelling and formalization of Security.
- Security in declarative and artifact-centric business process models.
- Automation of risk management in business process models.
- Monitoring and analysis of security events of business processes.
- Dependable and autonomos business process driven systems and services.
- Applications of Model Driven Development paradigm to IT Security.
Research Profiles
International Collaborations / University of Cambridge
A recently emerging topic of research interest is the examination of hardware-based security mechanisms.
A technology of particular interest is the Morello Board released by ARM in 2022 in collaboration with the UKRI (UK Research and Innovation Council) within the context of the Digital Security by Design (DSbD) program. The Morello Board is an experimental prototype that resulted from the extension of the standard ISA offered by the ARMv8-A architecture, with additional instructions to support the cheri-capabilities – a set of instructions developed by researchers of the University of Cambridge to protect access to memory at low-level of granularity.
We are interested in conducting practical experiments to evaluate the strengths and limitations of the Morello Board and other hardware-based security technologies like Intel SGX, trust zone and Amazon Nitro. We aim to determine how they compare against each other and whether they obviate or complement traditional software-based security defences.