RHUL Cyber CDT Blog

Since the turn of the 21 st Century, the subject of information security has experienced growing diversification both at a practice (industry and government) and at an academic level. This move towards increased diversity is reflected in the funding calls, the interests of our MSc and PhD students and in the research challenges presented by many of our key stakeholders. Whilst information security still maintains a strong information and technology protection focus, this now sits alongside a broader mission of securing people, technology and society in a digital world. This process of extending both the scope of, and the approach to, our research and teaching, whilst upholding a strong connection with our data and technology protection roots, is illustrated particularly clearly in the story of our Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Cyber Security. This year, with our first CDT having just taken its final cohort, we were delighted to be successful in the latest round of funding for

The same team who won the Cyber 9/12 competition continued their victorious journey by scooping another prestigious prize with leading cyber security publication, SC Magazine. The all-female team, from our Centre for Doctoral Training in Cyber Security, picked up the award for Cyber Security Students of the Year at the 2018 SC Europe Awards ceremony in London on 5 June 2018. The Cyber Security Students of the Year award celebrates current students pursuing degrees in cyber-security and cyber-security related fields. Robert Carolina, of Royal Holloway’s Information Security Group and the team’s coach said: “I am immensely proud of Team CDT. Their victory in this year’s London Cyber 9/12 Competition was a testament to their dedication and teamwork. Their achievement should send a signal to the entire cyber security community about the power of using interdisciplinary teams to attack cyber security problems. I’m grateful that their achievement has been recognised with this prestigious

In February 2018, a team from the CDT took part in the first Cyber 9/12 competition based in the UK, competing over three rounds and eventually winning the competition. The multi-disciplinary team, with backgrounds in small-medium business and IT management, cryptography, Philosophy, Politics, Economics (PPE) and Psychology was made up of Amy Ertan, Angela Heeler, Georgia Crossland and Lydia Garms.  For the first round, several weeks before the event, the team were provided with an intelligence pack consisting of a collection of sources on a potential threat to the UK, involving a vulnerability to UK airports, manipulation of aviation financial markets, a new internet of things botnet, and a social media botnet. The team were tasked with preparing a 500-word brief summarising the scenario and a decision document to outline three potential policies in responses to this situation including a preferred option. On the first day, the team gave a ten-minute presentation on their policie