Associate Professor Sushmita Ruj
School of Computer Science and Engineering, UNSW Sydney
Defence Trailblazer Information Warfare & Advanced Cyber Technologies Theme
Associate Professor Sushmita Ruj is the Faculty of Engineering Lead at the UNSW Institute for Cybersecurity (IFCYBER). With expertise in cryptography and privacy enhancing technologies, her interest in research for Defence developed organically.
“Through my involvement with Defence Trailblazer, I am building stronger relationships with defence organisations and exploring options to develop sovereign capabilities for Australian defence,” said Associate Professor Ruj.
Cryptography for security
The purpose of cryptography is to provide confidentiality, integrity and authentication of data through encryption. This protects data by making it unreadable to all but authorised entities.
“Defence requires secure communication and deals with data security for most of its operations. Cryptography is at the heart of secure communication, and data storage and sharing,” said Associate Professor Ruj.
Her primary research interests are in applied cryptography, cybersecurity, and data privacy. She also carries out work in the growing field of post-quantum cryptography, which anticipates the cybersecurity risks presented by quantum computers.
“As the world builds stronger capability in quantum technology, I am trying to design quantum safe algorithms to transition to a safer Internet.”
Demonstrating security solutions
Associate Professor Ruj is currently working with data security innovator GuardWare on a collaborative project to protect and encrypt unstructured data, which includes engineering files and source code.
“My research is shaped by real world problems. I am interested in designing functional solutions for the defence industry, specifically practical, efficient and demonstrably secure protocols that can be deployed in real-life applications.
This includes protecting critical infrastructure: smart grids and cloud, ad hoc networks and data sharing frameworks.”
Cyber capabilities at UNSW
“Researchers at the Institute for Cybersecurity (IFCYBER) and the School of Computer Science have broad expertise across cryptography (both design and cryptanalysis) and secure application design.
They are carrying out research into attacks on software and hardware systems and applications, designing secure communication protocols, detecting and preventing malware attacks, fraud, fake content and illegal activities. All these fields are very useful for Defence.
Though it is widely believed that fundamental research and applications are different, I think applications shape the fundamental research. So, working with Defence will not only help solve real problems, but also identify and solve many fundamental problems that will be useful for applications beyond Defence – across the whole cybersecurity sector.”
The Defence Trailblazer approach
“From the academic perspective, Defence Trailblazer creates avenues to work on real-world and practical problems which can also be commercialised. Its programs also improve connections with defence industry and suppliers, and enables researchers to contribute to important and contemporary problems.
For industry, Defence Trailblazer is helping to achieve long-term impact through its research and development programs. Connecting industry and academics facilitates knowledge transfer about the state-of-the-art research in the field, which helpsventures steer their goals and products.”
Background
Associate Professor Ruj joined the UNSW School of Computer Science and Engineering in 2022. She has previously worked within CSIRO Data61 as a Senior Research Scientist, and has held research roles at the Indian Statistical Institute, the Indian Institute of Technology, University of Ottawa and Lund University.
She is a senior member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and IEEE and has been awarded several competitive grants, including from the Australian Research Council, Samsung GRO Award, NetApp Faculty Fellowship, Cisco Academic Grant and IBM Research. She was a winner of the NSW iAward Merit Award 2022 for her leading work on a Data Sharing project, and a receipt at of the Australian Women in Security Award 2025
Associate Professor Ruj is on the editorial boards of IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security (TIFS). She has served as a member of the working group on “Blockchain For Cybersecurity” working group of the National Blockchain Roadmap of Australia and the first Blockchain Working group set up by the Reserve bank of India, and was a member of the Trans-Tasman Initiative on Post Quantum Cryptography research.
