• Predoctoral researcher Rubén Pérez Jove completes a research stay with the kclip group at King’s College London

Rubén Pérez Jove, an FPU-funded predoctoral researcher at the CITIC of the Universidade da Coruña, has recently completed a research stay with the King’s Communications, Learning and Information Processing (kclip) group at King’s College London. Led by Prof. Osvaldo Simeone, this group is internationally recognized as a benchmark in digital communications, information theory, machine learning, optimization, and signal processing.

The research stay was funded through the INDITEX–UDC grant programme, with additional support from the RNASA-IMEDIR research group.

Operational reliability: more robust decision-making in cybersecurity

During his time in London, Rubén Pérez explored the application of a statistical framework known as conformal prediction to his research on operating system fingerprinting—that is, techniques aimed at identifying the operating system used by a device solely through the analysis of its network communications. This approach goes beyond traditional prediction methods by enabling decisions that are supported by mathematical guarantees regarding their reliability. As a result, security operators can access an objective measure of the uncertainty associated with each decision, a critical factor in reducing false positives in high-stakes and mission-critical environments.

This research is part of his doctoral thesis, which focuses on the development of foundational models for network traffic—an emerging research area with significant scientific relevance. Although this line of work holds strong potential for application in network security, existing studies in this domain remain limited, further underscoring the innovative nature of the research carried out, which can be consulted here.

Rubén Pérez is pursuing his PhD under the supervision of CITIC researchers and professors José Vázquez Naya and Alejandro Pazos, supported by an FPU contract. His research activity is fully aligned with two of CITIC’s strategic research lines: artificial intelligence and cybersecurity.