Centre for Cyber Security
and Resilience
A Newcastle University Centre of Research Excellence
Protecting the fabric of society
Emergent systems have a profound impact on society. They affect society’s interaction with those technologies in unprecedented ways.
This holds for the individual’s experience of the digital realm, as well as for society as a whole. We:
- research and innovate in cyber security and resilience
- look at key emergent systems
- support individuals and society to guard safety, progress and prosperity
We aim at collaborating across faculties to create research opportunities. These include work in:
- core cyber security and resilience techniques
- key emergent application areas, meaningful for society
The Centre is led by its Director, Prof Thomas Gross, the Professor of System Security of the School of Computing, and a dedicated steering group, the members of which represent designated research themes introduced below.
Our research themes
The initial research themes are designed to build bridges between Newcastle research strengths and yield cross-disciplinary value.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a pervasive technology. It can aid all areas of our lives. Cyber security and resilience is no exception.
We can develop systems which learn to make systems more secure. AI can also benefit from cyber security and resilience. We can make AI more robust and less susceptible to attacks.
Theme lead: Dr Stephen McGough
Our research theme will look at all aspects of bio/nano cyber security. We must secure the entire supply chain of nano-bio products and processes as:
- DNA synthesis becomes cheaper
- sophisticated molecular and genetic engineering tools become more widespread
This includes securing:
- the design process of nano-bio products (cells lines, plasmids, organoids, etc)
- their deployment (e.g. in the food supply, environment or body)
- final decommissioning
Our theme is keen to engage with a gamut of stakeholders. They represent experts on nanotechnology, biotechnology, cybersecurity.
They include industrial, government and public organisations and individuals. We gather all relevant perspectives on the future of bio/nano cyber security. That includes responsible innovation.
Theme lead: Prof Natalio Krasnagor
We will pursue innovations in inter-connected cyber-physical systems. We'll render them secure, resilient and safe on all abstraction layers.
We will aim at developing automated and scalable techniques for this purpose. They will be applicable to industrial size systems.
Finally, we will investigate the links between security, resilience and safety. We'll more broadly look at the connections with artificial intelligence and ethics.
Theme lead: Dr Sergiy Bogomolov
Many service firms (accounting, legal and financial) embrace big data and data analytics.
Research on Fintech applications and the effects of cyber-crime is sparse. So we're unclear about the impact on various stakeholders and firms’:
- financial performance/risk
- social commitments
- governance
Under this theme, research and targeted grants will cluster around various sub-themes.
We'll investigate Fintech firms and financial institutions, looking at:
- cyber risk assessment/mitigation models
- governance systems/social responsibility
- human interactions/behaviours
We aim to present international insights and key policy implications. They will reflect cross-country comparisons.
We'll use inter-disciplinary research designs, new methods and unique datasets for cyber security. They will address both conceptual and empirical contexts.
Theme lead: Dr Marwa Elnahass
This theme will investigate the end-to-end protection for medical systems to:
- safeguard patients’ lives, health and treatment success
- ensure informed privacy for their data
It will not only consider the cyber security and resilience of such systems. It will also investigate privacy preservation and disclosure risk mitigation on identifying or sensitive personal information.
Its scope covers:
- medical, clinical and public-health systems
- the sharing and analysing of health data
- the challenges of ethics and governance vis-à-vis evolving healthcare technology
Theme leads: Dr Jaume Bacardit and Patricia Ryser-Welch
We focus on the broader governance and regulation of cyber security threats. This theme explores cyber-facilitated harms such as:
- online disinformation
- self-harm promotion
- technology-facilitated intimate partner violence
- ‘traditional’ cyber security
It considers the governance of technological solutions to new forms of insecurity. It looks at the debate around these at national and international level.
Theme lead: Dr Ben Farrand
We look at citizens' routine engagements with AI-driven communication technologies. We assess their online cyber security encounters.
It studies how people navigate online decisions and negotiate online identities and interactions. It aims to address and combat cyber security risks in the context of:
- work
- education
- entertainment
- interpersonal/group communication
Theme lead: Prof Deborah Chambers
Complex harms tend to happen to citizens. In most cases, they are not purposely caused or easily controlled by users.
Design must safeguard users and include:
- digital ethics
- responsibility
- inequalities for new technologies
User-centred technologies/tools should enable a sense of:
- control
- ownership
- security
This will build trust and assurance in online activities and prevent unforeseen harm.
Theme lead: Dr Karen Elliott
About us
Newcastle University founded its cyber security research initiative in 2010. We responded to increasing global cyber crime and the need for resilient systems. We became an Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Research (ACE-CSR) in 2013.
We pursue a holistic research vision in this area. We look at a wide range of applications, including:
- protection of cyber systems supporting society
- socio-technical aspects of cyber security
The NUCoRE in Cyber Security and Resilience includes members with a wide range of expertise across faculties. Core cyber security topics are also investigated in the group Secure and Resilience Systems (SRS) of the School of Computing.
Breadth of expertise
Our Centre builds on world-leading research in dependability and formal methods. It's underpinned by rigorous quantitative and evidence-based data. But we also incorporate research in social sciences, arts and culture, business and law.
This NUCoRE benefits from Newcastle's growing strength in data science. It collaborates with NUCoRE Data, the National Innovation Centre for Data and partners with the Alan Turing Institute.
Highlighted recent projects
Newcastle Cyber Security and Resilience hosts a number of exciting research projects:
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PETRAS - investigating privacy, ethics, trust, reliability, acceptability and security of IoT devices, systems and networks
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CASCAde - enabling the security assurance of evolving topologies, while preserving confidentiality
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FinTrust - infusing trust in the growing FinTech industry, especially focusing on automation and machine learning algorithms
Facilities for fighting cyber crime
Cyber Security and Resilience benefits from a number of integrated, purpose-built labs and associated assets:
- Cyber Security Incident Simulation Room - this lab aims at hosting ethical hacking and capture the flag exercises
- Psycho-Physiological Measurement and Eye Tracking Lab - aims at complex experiments with precise, synchronized measurement of eye gaze, skin conductance, heart-rate variability, and human affect
- Smart Building Lab - enables experiments on a well-controlled smart building environment including experiments on ethical hacking of such infrastructures under safe circumstances
Join us
We offer an opportunity to collaborate with colleagues across the University. You'll benefit from the rich tapestry of expertise.
Join us to connect to colleagues, for example, from:
- computing
- engineering
- social sciences
- law
- arts and cultures
- the business school
We have interest in cyber security and resilience in the widest sense. You are welcome, no matter whether you are a:
- seasoned academic
- early career researcher
- research associate
- PhD student
To join us, please contact our operations support, Jade Wears.