Warwick recognised as centre of excellence for cyber security research

Warwick University has been recognised by the UK Government’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) as an academic centre of excellence for cyber security research.

The recognition, announced by Minister for the Cabinet Office Ben Gummer, covers researchers from a number of departments including Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG), Politics and International Studies, Computer Science and Warwick Business School among others.

The fourteen universities chosen must meet criteria set by the NCSC including leadership that “support and invest in the university’s cyber security research capacity and capability”. Secondly, academic staff should be engaged in leading-edge cyber security research and, thirdly, universities have to record the high-impact of cyber security in “academic journals and conferences”.

They should also provide funding “from a variety of sources” to maintain the financial sustainability of the research team’s activities.
Academic centres of excellence should work on how they could improve cyber security techniques.

Chris Ensor, Deputy Director for Cyber Security Skills and Growth at the NCSC, commented: “These universities conduct world class cyber security research and this initiative will improve the way academics, government and business work together – benefiting the whole of the country.”

Director of WMG’s Cyber Security Centre, Professor Tim Watson, added: “Together with our partners in academia, government and industry we are developing the developing the tools, techniques and underlying research that help to protect the digitally-controlled physical spaces”.

Cyber-security has become increasingly important for universities in recent years, especially in light of a cyber attack on Queen Mary University of London by the group known as Anonymous in 2014, which led to the theft of internal communications and allegedly student details.