David Llamas

Introduction

I have been employed in the Information and Communication Technology -ICT- industry since 1982, involved in a wide range of projects. I have focused my research interest on the art and science of hiding information and its implementation in the real world, working on this from an historical perspective, from ancient ages to the present, and considering a wide range of disciplines, techniques and technologies.

Work Experience

Some of my former roles and employment:

2002 - 2010 ♦ Inchcolm LTD (Edinburgh, Scotland, UK)
Sector: IT Consultancy, Strategic Organisation, Security. Position: Founder & Managing Director.
1999 - 2001 ♦ KPNQwest (Madrid, Spain / Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
Sector: Internet Services Provider. Position: Web Solutions Director.
1997 - 1999 ♦ Siemens (Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain / Manchester, UK)
Sector: Automation Division. Position: Senior Project Architect.
1986 - 1996 ♦ Abacus BBS - Abaforum (Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain)
Sector: Internet Services Provider. Position: Original Sole Founder & Managing Director.

Education

2005 - 2010 ♦ University of St Andrews (St Andrews, Scotland, UK)
Doctoral studies at the School of Computer Science. My website at the University of St Andrews is here. The Kruptos project is about "Information Hiding / Steganography & Covert Channels in Internet Protocols". Director of studies: Dr Colin Allison. Second supervisor: Dr Alan Miller. Research groups: Centre for Privacy, Security & Trust, Systems Engineering and Networks Distributed Systems. This advanced security research project is sponsored by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory -DSTL- a part of the Ministry of Defence -MoD- of the UK.
2001 - 2004 ♦ Edinburgh Napier University (Edinburgh, Scotland, UK)
Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Software Technology, Class 2.1. My website at Edinburgh Napier University is here. The honours project is about "Covert Channels Analysis and Data Hiding in TCP/IP", 1st Class!. Supervisor: Professor William Buchanan. Second marker: Professor Peter Ross. Modules studied: Computer Networks and Distributed Systems, Evolutionary Computing, Real-Time Software Engineering, Software Architecture, Software Project Management, Computer Games Software Engineering and others.

Papers Published in Proceedings

2006 ♦ "Using IPv4 ID Field for Passive OS Fingerprinting"
David Llamas, Colin Allison and Alan Miller. In proceedings of the 7th Annual Postgraduate Symposium about the Convergence of Telecommunications, Networking and Broadcasting -PGNET 2006- at the School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University (Liverpool, UK).
2005 ♦ "An Evaluation Framework for the Analysis of Covert Channels in the TCP/IP Protocol Suite"
David Llamas, Alan Miller and Colin Allison. In proceedings of the 4th European Conference on Information Warfare and Security -ECIW 2005- at the University of Glamorgan (Pontypridd, UK).
2005 ♦ "Covert Channels in Internet Protocols: A Survey"
David Llamas, Colin Allison and Alan Miller. In proceedings of the 6th Annual Postgraduate Symposium about the Convergence of Telecommunications, Networking and Broadcasting -PGNET 2005- at the School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University (Liverpool, UK).
2004 ♦ "Covert Channel Analysis and Detection with Reverse Proxy Servers using Microsoft Windows"
Buchanan, William J. and David Llamas. In proceedings of the 3rd European Conference on Information Warfare and Security -ECIW 2004- at Royal Holloway, University of London (London, UK).

Articles Published in Journals

2006 ♦ "Network Forensics and Covert Channels Analysis in Internet Protocols"
David Llamas, Colin Allison and Alan Miller. In selected papers from Symposium on Intelligence in Security and Forensic Computing at the Centre for Mobile Computing and Security, School of Computing, Edinburgh Napier University (Edinburgh, Scotland, UK) by British Computer Society, The Specialist Group on Artificial Intelligence. Special issue of Expert Update.

Presentations, Posters and Lectures

2008 ♦ "Network Forensics and Covert Channels Analysis in Internet Protocols"
David Llamas. Presentation at the IT Professionals Summer Conference at the University of Edinburgh (Edinburgh, Scotland, UK).
2007 ♦ "Information Hiding: Covert Channels & Steganography"
David Llamas. Lecture to the Computer Security module class at the School of Computing Science, University of St Andrews (St Andrews, Scotland, UK).
2006 ♦ "A Distributed-System Approach to the Analysis of Covert Channels in IP Protocol Implementations at Planetary Scale"
David Llamas. Research talk at the School of Computer Science, University of St Andrews (St Andrews, Scotland, UK).
2006 ♦ "Covert Channels & Steganography in Distributed Systems Communication and Networks"
David Llamas. Research talk at the School of Computer Science, University of St Andrews (St Andrews, Scotland, UK).
2005 ♦ "The Silent Threat of Covert Channels"
David Llamas. Presentation at the Postgraduate Reading Party (Kingussie, Scotland, UK).
2005 ♦ "Covert Channels & Steganography Analysis in the Internet Protocols"
David Llamas. Presentation at the 7th Information Hiding Workshop -IH 05- (Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain).
2005 ♦ "Covert Channels & Steganography in Public Communication Networks"
David Llamas. Research talk at the School of Computer Science at the University of St Andrews (St Andrews, Scotland, UK).
2005 ♦ "Information Hiding Systems: Covert Channels & Steganography"
David Llamas. Research talk at the Distributed Systems & Networks research group at the School of Computer Science, University of St Andrews (St Andrews, Scotland, UK).
2004 ♦ "An Evolutionary Intelligent Agent Approach to the Prevention of Covert Channels in the TCP/IP Protocol Suite"
David Llamas. Presentation at the Symposium on Mobile and Complex Agent Systems at Merchiston Campus, Edinburgh Napier University (Edinburgh, Scotland, UK) by British Computer Society, The Specialist Group on Artificial Intelligence.

Publications Review

2008 - 2010 ♦ "Wiley Handbook of Science and Technology for Homeland Security" (Wiley Press)
The "Wiley Handbook of Science and Technology for Homeland Security" is an essential and timely collection of resources designed to support the effective communication of homeland security research across all disciplines and institutional boundaries.

Awards

2009 - 2010 ♦ Steering committee of the International Workshop on Network Steganography
2007 ♦ Session Chair (Information Hiding) of the 6th European Conference Information Warfare and Security at the Defence College of Management and Technology (Shrivenham, UK)
2004 - 2007 ♦ Steering committee of the European Conference on Information Warfare and Security
2004 ♦ Second Prize Winner at the Scotland Software Engineer of the Year
Sponsored by Vision Consulting and Scottish Enterprise. Organised by ScotlandIS.

Research Areas of Interest

Information Hiding: Covert Channels & Steganography. Secret communications based on absurdity. Prevention of detection. Operation in high performance environments. Biosteganography.
Computer Networks: Design of protocols. Aerial and underwater acoustic networks.
Swarm Intelligence: Architectures for collective behaviour of decentralised, self-organised systems.
Evolutionary Computing: Learning Classifier Systems.

Computing Skills

These skills are the result of previous experiences:

Operating Systems: Linux/Unix, Apple OSX/IOS, Android, MS Windows ...
Server Services: Bind, Apache, Postfix, Dovecot, IIS, Exchange ...
Programming Languages: PHP, Python, Java, C/C++, VBasic, C# ...
Frameworks: Symfony, .NET ...
Databases: MySQL, SQLServer, Oracle, MS Access ...
Communications: Routers, Firewalls, TCP/IP ...
Internet: Drupal, Web design, HTML, XHTML, XML, CSS, JavaScript ...
Development Environments: Netbeans, MS Visual Studio, ARTiSAN Real-time Studio ...
Projects Management: CMMi, PRINCE 2, MS Project ...
Software Design & Management: Git, Subversion, Visual SourceSafe, CVS, Rational Rose UML ...
Distributed Systems: SOAP , COM/DCOM, CORBA, EJB/J2EE, RMI ...
Embedded Systems: Micro-controllers and DSPs, I/O Interfaces, Maxims TINI and Imsys SNAP boards ...
Other: Apple & MS Office, MS Visio ...