RHUL Cyber CDT Blog

When I think back to my time as a PhD student at the Royal Holloway CDT in Cyber Security, my overriding feeling is of being thankful for the opportunities that I was presented with. I am not just referring to being given the chance to conduct research in an Information Security department that is internationally renowned for conducting high-quality research. The PhD program provided me with a range of skills that helped to shape my own personal development, and the path that I will follow in the future. My undergraduate background was in maths, though I worked for a short period of time as a software developer before I started on the PhD program. While I initially began with intentions of carrying out research in the area of game-theoretic modelling of cyber security situations, I altered course in my first year to studying theoretical cryptography (and secure computation). The flexibility of the program was instrumental in me finding an appropriate research topic. Being passionate...

Professor Keith Martin writes about how academic and business collaboration is crucial to cyber security, and how the government is tackling this with a number of new initiatives. Much has been said about the need for academic, business and government to work together to address the future cyber security challenges that society faces. This is a sensible proposition since cyber security affects everyone, and each sector brings different strengths and capabilities. Grand words and aspirations are one thing, but making such partnerships work is something else entirely. Full credit must be paid to the UK Government for setting the ball rolling with a number of constructive initiatives, most of which stem from the UK National Cyber Security Strategy. For example, the Academic Centre of Excellence in Research (ACE-CSR) scheme has made it simpler for external partners to identify academic institutions with a critical mass of cyber security research capability and experience. The National Cy...

The CDT programme has been for me much more than a PhD scholarship: it allowed me to train my personal and technical skills, it offered me the opportunity to network with industry partners and to intern with great companies, and it gave me a sense of community.  Also, the CDT funding gave me enough support to attend several conferences around the world,  thanks to which my research could flourish. My journey as a CDT student begun right after I completed my MSc in Machine Learning at RHUL.  I had always had a passion for Information Security, which until then I had only pursued in my spare time.  For the following four years, the CDT allowed me to work on this full-time, alongside with my main interest, Machine Learning. The CDT gave me the great privilege to attend workshops and conferences, even when I did not have a paper to present there.  This was invaluable, particularly during the first years: it helped me both to select a research topic and to find i...