What topic to choose for a diploma (subsequently a Ph.D. thesis) in information security?

Question

IT education

Good afternoon, I'm in my fifth year in the field of information security, I need to choose the topic of my diploma, and subsequently my PhD thesis. Advise an interesting and relevant (for the next 5-6 years) topic, possibly related to machine learning. I myself am still leaning towards detecting network attacks using ML, however, it seems that this topic is also quite hackneyed (and in each article / abstract they use the old NSL KDD data set). Enlighten me, please, how relevant this direction is and throw more ideas, if any. IMPORTANT: Cryptography is completely excluded, due to local specifics.

Answer 1

Look towards the behavioral analysis of processes in the OS for illegal and malicious activities with continuous learning in the process. The topic is relevant, really working products on the market - as many as one, so there will be where to turn around

Answer 2

Information security in automated process control systems is also a very relevant topic, and not very covered at the moment. Especially in terms of parsing industrial protocols.

Answer 3

I propose to make software for detecting passwords in plain text and critical strings for connecting to databases in files (txt, doc, xlsx, rtf, etc.) placed by stupid users in public folders and file storages. You can search on web resources, parse the site, and then search by text. Come to some office, with permission, start it and there will be an excellent recommendation. + traffic analysis can be cheated. I drank one myself, it was fun.