The PhD defence will be partially digital, in Kristen Nygaards sal (5370), Ole Johan Dahls hus, and streamed directly using Zoom. The host of the session will moderate the technicalities while the chair of the defence will moderate the disputation.
Ex auditorio questions: the chair of the defence will invite the attending audience at Kristen Nygaards sal (5370), Ole Johan Dahls hus to ask ex auditorio questions.
Trial lecture
“Post-Quantum Security: Merkel Tree Certificates, Certificate Transparency and Trust Anchoring”
Time and place: June 22, 2026 1:15 PM. Kristen Nygaards sal (5370), Ole-Johan Dahls hus/ zoom.
Main research findings
Threat hunting is the work of actively investigating a network for signs of attackers. It can be approached in many ways, but these approaches share a common need: analysts must piece together meaning from large volumes of scattered, low-level data, often relying on personal expertise and painstaking manual work.
A common starting clue is an "indicator of compromise," such as a suspicious file or internet address. But these clues are easy for an attacker to change, and on their own they say little about what an intruder is actually trying to do.
This thesis adds the missing context. Instead of focusing on isolated clues, it describes attacker behaviour - what the adversary is trying to achieve and captures it in a structured knowledge graph. Using semantic-web technology, it links many small events into meaningful behavioural patterns and reasons about how they connect, with explanations a human can follow.
The result gives threat hunters richer, semi-automated context: they can see not just what happened, but why and how supporting better-reasoned investigations while keeping the human analyst in charge.
Adjudication committee
- Professor Geir Myrdahl Køien, University of South East Norway, Norway
- Dr. Desiree A. Beck, MITRE, USA
- Professor Paal Engelstad, University of Oslo, Norway
Supervisors
Associated Professor Laszlo Tibor Erdodi, Department of Informatics, University of Oslo, Norway
Dr. Martin Eian, Mnemonic AS, Norway
Professor Audun Jøsang, Department of Informatics, University of Oslo, Norway
Chair of defence
Professor Antonio Martini, Department of Informatics, University of Oslo,
Contact information at Department: Mozhdeh Sheibani Harat