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About

About

João P. Vilela is a professor at the Department of Computer Science of the University of Porto and a senior researcher at INESC TEC and CISUC. He was previously a professor at the Department of Informatics Engineering of the University of Coimbra, after receiving the Ph.D. in Computer Science in 2011 from the University of Porto, Portugal. He was a visiting researcher at Georgia Tech, working on physical-layer security, and at MIT, working on security for network coding. In recent years, Dr. Vilela has been coordinator and team member of several national, bilateral, and European-funded projects in security and privacy. His main research interests are in security and privacy of computer and communication systems, with applications such as wireless networks, Internet of Things and mobile devices. Specific research topics include wireless physical-layer security, security of next-generation networks, privacy-preserving data mining, location privacy and automated privacy protection. https://www.dcc.fc.up.pt/~joaovilela/

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Details

Details

  • Name

    João Paulo Vilela
  • Role

    Researcher
  • Since

    01st March 2020
002
Publications

2023

Poster: Privacy-Preserving Joint Communication and Sensing

Authors
Martins, O; Vilela, JP; Gomes, M;

Publication
2023 IEEE 24TH INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON A WORLD OF WIRELESS, MOBILE AND MULTIMEDIA NETWORKS, WOWMOM

Abstract
With the recent advancements in wireless networks, Joint Communication and Sensing (JCAS) has become a growing field that is expected to be included in next-generation standards. However, not only is the current performance of the sensing ability still lacking to be used in real-world scenarios, proper security of such privacy-invasive technology has not been fully explored. To this end, we propose the creation of a more robust framework, capable of cross-domain detection and long-term analysis for improved detection, which will also serve as the basis for a security and privacy analysis of the threat landscape and solutions in this field.

2023

Velocity-Aware Geo-Indistinguishability

Authors
Mendes, R; Cunha, M; Vilela, JP;

Publication
CODASPY 2023 - Proceedings of the 13th ACM Conference on Data and Application Security and Privacy

Abstract
Location Privacy-Preserving Mechanisms (LPPMs) have been proposed to mitigate the risks of privacy disclosure yielded from location sharing. However, due to the nature of this type of data, spatio-temporal correlations can be leveraged by an adversary to extenuate the protections. Moreover, the application of LPPMs at collection time has been limited due to the difficulty in configuring the parameters and in understanding their impact on the privacy level by the end-user. In this work we adopt the velocity of the user and the frequency of reports as a metric for the correlation between location reports. Based on such metric we propose a generalization of Geo-Indistinguishability denoted Velocity-Aware Geo-Indistinguishability (VA-GI). We define a VA-GI LPPM that provides an automatic and dynamic trade-off between privacy and utility according to the velocity of the user and the frequency of reports. This adaptability can be tuned for general use, by using city or country-wide data, or for specific user profiles, thus warranting fine-grained tuning for users or environments. Our results using vehicular trajectory data show that VA-GI achieves a dynamic trade-off between privacy and utility that outperforms previous works. Additionally, by using a Gaussian distribution as estimation for the distribution of the velocities, we provide a methodology for configuring our proposed LPPM without the need for mobility data. This approach provides the required privacy-utility adaptability while also simplifying its configuration and general application in different contexts. © 2023 Owner/Author.

2023

Towards Privacy-First Security Enablers for 6G Networks: The PRIVATEER Approach

Authors
Masouros, D; Soudris, D; Gardikis, G; Katsarou, V; Christopoulou, M; Xilouris, G; Ramón, H; Pastor, A; Scaglione, F; Petrollini, C; Pinto, A; Vilela, JP; Karamatskou, A; Papadakis, N; Angelogianni, A; Giannetsos, T; García Villalba, LJ; Alonso López, JA; Strand, M; Grov, G; Bikos, AN; Ramantas, K; Santos, R; Silva, F; Tsampieris, N;

Publication
Embedded Computer Systems: Architectures, Modeling, and Simulation - 23rd International Conference, SAMOS 2023, Samos, Greece, July 2-6, 2023, Proceedings

Abstract
The advent of 6G networks is anticipated to introduce a myriad of new technology enablers, including heterogeneous radio, RAN softwarization, multi-vendor deployments, and AI-driven network management, which is expected to broaden the existing threat landscape, demanding for more sophisticated security controls. At the same time, privacy forms a fundamental pillar in the EU development activities for 6G. This decentralized and globally connected environment necessitates robust privacy provisions that encompass all layers of the network stack. In this paper, we present PRIVATEER’s approach for enabling “privacy-first” security enablers for 6G networks. PRIVATEER aims to tackle four major privacy challenges associated with 6G security enablers, i.e., i) processing of infrastructure and network usage data, ii) security-aware orchestration, iii) infrastructure and service attestation and iv) cyber threat intelligence sharing. PRIVATEER addresses the above by introducing several innovations, including decentralised robust security analytics, privacy-aware techniques for network slicing and service orchestration and distributed infrastructure and service attestation mechanisms. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023.

2022

Blockchain-based Device Identity Management with Consensus Authentication for IoT Devices

Authors
Mukhandi M.; Damiao F.; Granjal J.; Vilela J.P.;

Publication
Proceedings - IEEE Consumer Communications and Networking Conference, CCNC

Abstract
To decrease the IoT attack surface and provide protection against security threats such as introduction of fake IoT nodes and identity theft, IoT requires scalable device identity and authentication management. This work proposes a blockchain-based identity management approach with consensus authentication as a scalable solution for IoT device authentication management. The proposed approach relies on having a blockchain secure tamper proof ledger and a novel lightweight consensus-based identity authentication. The results show that the proposed decentralised authentication system is scalable as we increase number of nodes.

2022

Effect of User Expectation on Mobile App Privacy: A Field Study

Authors
Mendes, R; Brandao, A; Vilela, JP; Beresford, AR;

Publication
2022 IEEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON PERVASIVE COMPUTING AND COMMUNICATIONS (PERCOM)

Abstract
Runtime permission managers for mobile devices allow requests to be performed at the time in which permissions are required, thus enabling the user to grant/deny requests in context according to their expectations. However, in order to avoid cognitive overload, second and subsequent requests are usually automatically granted without user intervention/awareness. This paper explores whether these automated decisions fit user expectations. We performed a field study with 93 participants to collect their privacy decisions, the surrounding context and whether each request was expected. The collected 65261 permission decisions revealed a strong misalignment between apps' practices and expectation as almost half of requests are unexpected by users. This ratio strongly varies with the requested permission, the category and visibility of the requesting application and the user itself; that is, expectation is subjective to each individual. Moreover, privacy decisions are most strongly correlated with user expectation, but such correlation is also highly personal. Finally, Android's default permission manager would have violated the privacy of our participants 15% of the time.

Supervised
thesis

2017

Operation and reconstruction of signals based on integrate-and-fire conversion using FPGA

Author
Guilherme Luis Leitão Teixeira Guia de Carvalho

Institution
UP-FEUP

2017

Estimating wind turbine generators failures using machine learning

Author
João Miguel Guimarães Fidalgo Roque

Institution
UP-FEUP

2016

flexible design of fire management systems

Author
Abílio Carlos Pereira Pacheco

Institution
UP-FEUP

2016

Hyperspectral Imaging for Real-Time Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Maritime Target Detection

Author
SARA COSTA FREITAS

Institution
IPP-ISEP

2015

A influência das Redes de Conhecimento no compartilhamento e criação do conhecimento em projetos de Inovação Social

Author
Michele Andréia Borges

Institution
Outra