Viktor Engström

I'm a PhD student in my final year at the the Center for Cyber Defense and Information Security (CDIS) and the Division of Network and Systems Engineering (NSE). My research topic is primarily cyber attack computer simulations with attack graphs. Before KTH, I finished my MSc in information security at Stockholm University in the spring of 2019.

I'm currently working on developing and finalizing the Dynamic Meta Attack Language (DynaMAL), an extension and re-interpretation of the original Meta Attack Language. DynaMAL simulations lets adversaries add and remove objects during the simulations as events unfold. This makes DynaMAL flexible enough to replicate how malware could wipe systems or how resources in the cloud might move around, for instance. When finished, DynaMAL will come with a set of tools, including:

• Dync - A lightweight compiler
• Dynm - A CLI modeler
• Dynp - A simulation platform

The current DynaMAL publications are:

• A Metalanguage for Dynamic Attack Graphs and Lazy Generation

My computer science interests are a mixed bag of topics but an excerpt is: working with graphs, network science, general modeling and simulation, agent-based simulation, designing languages, design science, ethical hacking, complexity science, and dabbling in functional programming.

Previously worked on:

• A systematic literature review about cyber attack simulations.
• Automated security assessments of cloud environments hosted on Amazon Web Services using the Meta Attack Language in collaboration with foreseeti.

Supervisors

• Mathias Ekstedt (2019 - present)
• Pontus Johnson (2022 - present)
• Robert Lagerström (2019 - 2022)
  • Paused his research to join Google when they acquired the spin-off company Foreseeti.)

Other:

• 2022
  • Demonstrated how to hack a smartphone to the European Commission with Fredrik Heiding.
  • Joined forces with the NSE hacking lab to demonstrate how to hack a smartphone to the Royal family when they visited KTH.