The Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Cyber Security has been awarded £3.5m in government funding, starting from October 2016.
The Centre admits up to 16 students each year to undertake advanced study and research in cyber security. Students come from all over the world to study on this four-year programme, and graduate with a DPhil degree, having made a significant research contribution towards addressing one of the many challenges which arise in this fast-moving area of study. The Government funding, together with University funding, supports 12 of these students, paying their full fees and a stipend.
The Centre was established with a similar grant in 2013, and presently has around 45 students in progress, undertaking research in areas ranging from cryptographic and internet protocols through to international cyber policy and the laws around computer misuse. It is formed from a collaboration of several University Departments, including Computer Science, the Oxford Internet Institute, and the Department of Politics and International Relations. The work is strongly academic, but the CDT has regular interactions with leading businesses which create or use cyber security solutions.
Centre Director, Professor Andrew Martin, said, ‘Cyber Security affects everyone’s lives today. It is crucial that the leading thinkers of the next generation are well-versed in its challenges, and able to pre-empt new problems before they arise. The renewal of our funding is a great endorsement of our inter-disciplinary approach to education in this area.’
The new grant was awarded after a review from industry leaders and academics from outside the University. It is part of the funding for the UK Government’s new Cyber Security Strategy launched today by The Right Honourable Philip Hammond MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Notes
- The CDT website is here: www.cybersecurity.ox.ac.uk/cdt. Applications from well-qualified individuals for entry in 2017 are welcome, with a deadline early in 2017 – see the website for details.
- The Cyber Studies Programme in the Department of Politics and International Relations is here: http://www.politics.ox.ac.uk/centre/cyber-studies-programme.html It is supported by the European Social Fund.
- The University is one of 13 recognised by EPSRC and GCHQ as Academic Centres of excellence in Cyber Security Research. Research in Cyber Security is carried out across around a dozen Departments of the University.
In a university-wide student survey the Department’s Centre for Doctoral Training in Cyber Security has top marks for student satisfaction. This year’s Student Barometer shows very high levels of satisfaction across all aspects of student life and across the student career: learning and teaching, accommodation, social life, welfare and support services.The annual Student Barometer surveys all full-time students at all levels of study, and all nationalities (except final-year undergrads). It surveys all aspects of life as a student at Oxford.
The CDT scored 100% in categories including expertise & teaching ability of staff, opportunities for work experience and quality of lab space.
Read more about the Centre for Doctoral Training in Cyber Security here:
https://oxfordcyber1.wpengine.com/education/cdt
and look at the Student Barometer here: http://goo.gl/6VfPCH
The newly formed Oxford Capture the Flag team “Ox002147” faced tough competition at the annual flagship CTF competition conducted by SDSLabs and InfoSecIITR. They finished an impressive 6th place out of 429 teams, many of whom are vastly more experienced. The team consisted of Ilias Giechaskiel (CDT2014), David Korczynski, Rodrigo Carvalho (CDT2013), Alastair Janse van Rensburg (CDT2014), Louise Axon (CDT2014) and scored a total of 2280 points completing 15 puzzles over the 24 hour event.
The team plans to continue their impressive form at future events.
Bushra Alahmadi’s (CDT 2013) work on ‘Malware Classification using Network Flow Sequence Mining’ has been recognised by the Computer Antivirus Research Organisation at the 10th CARO workshop held in Romania May 19th – 20th. The annual award was presented by well-known researcher Vessellin Bontchev as part of the two day workshop focussing on “War of the Machines”. Bushra relished the opportunity to present her findings to worldwide leaders in cybersecurity and continues to work on cutting edge research.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Strategic Technologies Program will host its first-ever cyber policy hackathon. The event, Cyber DiploHack 2015, will take place at CSIS headquarters on March 26th and 27th and a team of DPhil students will be representing Oxford.
Six teams drawn from universities in the United States and Europe will participate in an intensive, scenario-based policy hackathon to develop new approaches to cyber security and cyber capacity building. With facilitation from CSIS and outside experts, teams will apply creative ideation processes commonly used in technology design to solve a cybersecurity policy challenge. Cyber DiploHack will utilize cutting-edge technology to enhance collaboration between international teams, facilitators, and judges.
Created with the support of the Embassy of the Netherlands and the Dutch Ministries of Justice and Foreign Affairs, Cyber DiploHack 2015 will identify ways to bring principles into practice for cooperation and capacity building in cyberspace. Resulting concepts and ideas will serve as input for the Global Conference on Cyberspace (www.gccs2015.com), organized April 16-17 in The Hague.
For the latest news, visit www.csistech.org/cyber-diplohack and on Twitter with @CSISCyber.
