Great things have been happening in Oxford!  It is my pleasure to announce the launches of several new initiatives, as well as a job opportunity at the University.

The Oxford Cyber Risk for Leaders Programme

The Cyber Studies Programme

The Cyber Security Capacity Portal

Centre for Doctoral Training in Cyber Security

New Online Presence

The Oxford Cyber Risk for Leaders Programme at the Saïd Business School is an intensive two-day programme covering all the key questions necessary to understand and manage cyber risks in a large organisation. It is the only executive education offering that looks at cyber security issues from a leadership rather than a technical perspective and will equip senior leaders with the ability to:

• talk with authority on issues related to cyber security and risk,
• demonstrate an awareness of the kinds of threat their business is likely to be facing,
• know what questions to ask of security specialists,
• be able to plan operationally for attacks that now seem inevitable, and
• most importantly, have the knowledge and understanding of how to respond and how to lead their organisation through this turbulence.

Enrolment is now open for the first programme, 8-10 June 2015. Contact: dean.worthington@sbs.ox.ac.uk, +44 (0)1865 422 767.

The Cyber Studies Programme at the Department of Politics and International Relations is a major new research and teaching initiative on various aspects of cyber security and e-government. The programme has a wide substantive remit, ranging from issues of government and governance to questions of security, defence, and conflict. It is the first – and so far the only – systematic programme dedicated to cyber issues within political science at any of the world’s major universities. The programme’s mission is to produce scholarly works that integrate cyber studies into the core intellectual agenda of political science and its various subdisciplines; and to apply this new knowledge in the analysis of pressing policy problems affecting the security and welfare of states and citizens. In addition, affiliated faculty and researchers will actively engage with the wider world. They will work closely with practitioners in public and private industry to identify, clarify, and explore emergent policy challenges. They will also hold training sessions on these issues in Estonia. We hope you will join us in future events.

The Cyber Security Capacity Portal is a new resource for delivering effective cyber security both within the UK and internationally. It contains information for policy-makers and those with responsibility in this area and has been created by the Global Cyber Security Capacity Centre.  The Capacity Centre is now putting the Capacity Maturity Model to the test, with pilots in Jamaica, Colombia, Armenia and Kosovo in the past six weeks.  The Centre also advised the Government of Jamaica on its new National Cyber Security Strategy, launched at the end of January 2015.

 Centre for Doctoral Training in Cyber Security: The final deadline for applications to this year’s DPhil in Cyber Security, starting in October 2015, is Friday 13th March. Further information can be found on our Admissions pages.  There is still time for companies to provide nine-week mini-projects for our current CDT students this summer: please see our mini-project site for further information. The deadline for students to submit their proposals is Monday 9th March.

We’re online!

Our new website provides a window into Cyber Security research across the University of Oxford.  Learn more about our people, research projects, and a host of other resources that the Centre is able to bring together.

See our seminars and events pages for listings of coming attractions: you can have the latest updates sent directly to your diary from our Google Calendar*.  We also tweet @Ox_CyberSec.

Job opportunity: the University’s Network Security Team is looking for a Security Specialist. Closing date: 9 March 2015

* Follow these links to get the calendar to appear on your phone, Microsoft Outlook, or Mozilla Thunderbird (Lightning). The iCalendar address for the Cyber Security Centre calendar is: https://www.google.com/calendar/ical/fg56lmvbg5cd7dne58gssm9ido%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics