Threat Intelligence & Applied Research Lab
Generating Africa’s Primary Cyber Threat Data
The Institute operates a distributed network of student‑managed honeypots across West African cloud infrastructure. Advanced learners monitor, analyse, and document attack vectors targeting these honeypots in real time. The output is a quarterly, student‑co‑authored African Threat Intelligence Report — the first of its kind generated from primary, locally collected data.
In partnership with the Defensive (Blue Team) track.
Adversarial AI & Defensive LLM Research Modules
Benchmarking AI Robustness for Emerging Markets
Through the AI & Autonomous Security track, the Institute runs advanced modules in Adversarial Machine Learning and Agentic AI Security. Students develop prompt injection attacks against mock security AI agents, then design and test defensive guardrails. Successful bypass techniques and mitigation strategies are documented in a public Robustness Benchmarks for Defensive AI in Emerging Markets repository.
In partnership with the AI & Autonomous Security track.
Research Archive — Capstone White Papers
From Capstone Projects to Publishable Research
Advanced certification candidates (Professional and Architect tiers) complete a structured, IEEE/ACM‑style white paper as their capstone. Topics are drawn from real‑world problems — for example, ‘Mitigating Ransomware in Low‑Bandwidth West African Financial Institutions’ or ‘NDPA Compliance Auditing in Containerised Environments.’ The best papers are peer‑reviewed by the Institute’s faculty and published in the open‑access SCI Research Archive.
Forthcoming publications
- African Threat Intelligence Report — Q2 2026In peer review
- Mitigating Ransomware in Low-Bandwidth West African Financial InstitutionsForthcoming Q3 2026
- NDPA Compliance Auditing in Containerised EnvironmentsForthcoming Q4 2026
- Practical Obstacles to Decentralised Threat Sharing under the NDPAForthcoming Q1 2027
Sovereign Privacy & RegTech Study Group
Testing Privacy‑Enhancing Technologies Under the NDPA
A dedicated research focus group investigates the intersection of Privacy‑Enhancing Technologies (PETs) and regional regulations. Using Nigeria’s NDPA as a living legal framework, the group runs simulated stress‑tests on how financial institutions can share localised Indicators of Compromise without violating data protection laws. The output is a framework paper: ‘Practical Obstacles to Decentralised Threat Sharing under the NDPA.’
In partnership with the GRC track.
Multi-Cloud Honeypot Network & Sovereign Infrastructure
Cloud Threat Intelligence & Sovereign Infrastructure
The Institute operates a network of cloud‑based honeypots deployed across AWS, Azure, and Oracle Cloud regions serving West Africa. Student researchers analyse attack patterns targeting cloud workloads—exposed S3 buckets, vulnerable APIs, and misconfigured IAM roles—and publish a bi‑annual African Cloud Threat Report. Simultaneously, the Sovereign Infrastructure working group tests the feasibility of federated threat detection across multiple cloud tenants, using ShieldSense’s own multi‑cloud architecture as a testbed. This research directly informs SCI’s cloud security curriculum and provides open data to the global security community.
In partnership with the Cloud Technology & Security track.
