During the five year period (2011-2016) of the UK’s first National Cyber Security Programme (NCSP), the Trustworthy Software Initiative (TSI) was established and funded to coalesce ad hoc activity across five facets of Trustworthy Software (Safety – Reliability – Availability – Resilience – Security [SRARS]) into a single management focus, and address aspects of Multinational Trustworthy Software Roadmap of the highest priority to the UK.

Major milestones have included the publication of BS PAS754:2014, and development of Reference Curricula and supporting materials for education and training.

WMG at the University of Warwick is to play a significant role in a new £23 million interdisciplinary Research Hub designed to drive forward UK research in the Internet of Things (IoT). Ed Vaizey, Minister of State for Culture and the Digital Economy has today (Wednesday 6^th January 2016) confirmed that the University of Warwick is one of nine leading UK universities in the PETRAS consortium which will work together over the next three years to explore critical issues in privacy, ethics, trust, reliability, acceptability, and security.

Funding for the Hub includes a £9.8 million grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) which will be boosted by partner contributions to approximately £23 million in total.

Professor of Cyber Systems, Carsten Maple will be representing WMG, University of Warwick at the International Conference on Cyberlaw, Cybercrime and Cybersecurity in New Delhi this Thursday (19 November).

Delegates from across the world will come together to hear experts in the field discuss the key issues including the need to create awareness of the new emerging kinds of #cybercrimes that are impacting all stakeholders in the digital and mobile ecosystem as well as current cyber law jurisdiction across world.

WMG will be joining colleagues from the University of Warwick this Friday (16 October) and Saturday (17 October) to showcase its fascinating work as part of the University’s Festival of Imagination. The Festival has been organised to mark the University of Warwick’s 50^th anniversary.

We are currently putting the finishing touches to a state-of-the-art solar tree which will be unveiled at the Festival. Solar trees are artificial sculptural structures that convert the sun’s energy into electric current using photovoltaic (PV) cells. The tree has been created using CAD and brought to life through 3D printing. Once in position in the Butterworth Hall, Warwick Arts Centre, the tree will reach an impressive 6ft in height.

The Trustworthy Software Initiative, based in WMG’s Cyber Security Centre at the University of Warwick, has produced a set of videos to raise awareness of the risks businesses run when they put off installing patches for existing software.

Disregard for patching represents a significant and growing problem for businesses of all sizes. According to the latest figures, untrustworthy software is responsible for over 90% of data breaches worldwide, with 99.9% of these vulnerabilities being exploited more than a year after details were made public.

The videos were commissioned in a partnership between government agencies and some of the world’s leading technology companies including IBM, Microsoft, Intel, Oracle, and Dell Secureworks, for the Technology forum. The key messages are: leaving software unpatched amounts to gambling away business; seemingly time-consuming preparation is essential for secure performance; and stressing the importance of trustworthy software to the successful operation of any modern business.

The WMG Cyber Security Centre, at University of Warwick has just gained provisional certification from GCHQ for its Cyber Security Management MSc course and its planned Cyber Security Engineering MSc. The certification is a government benchmark which ensures that students are being educated to the highest standards in cyber security.

These MSc programmes are designed for those wishing to develop a career as a cyber security professional, or to take a leading technical or managerial role in an organisation dependent upon technology in its business processes. Typically the students will be from a computer science or information technology education background or from Undergraduate courses with a significant component of either.

A consortium of industry, academia and government bodies have created cyber security learning guidelines which are to be embedded into BCS accredited UK Computer Science and IT-related degrees.

Cyber security understanding and knowledge is necessary to securely build the digital future and the IT infrastructure upon which the UK economy relies. These new guidelines directly address objective four of the Government’s National Cyber Security Strategy: “to equip the UK to have the cross-cutting knowledge, skills and capability it needs to underpin all our cybersecurity objectives”, the initiative will also address a severe skills shortage by introducing more people to the opportunity of pursuing a career within the cybersecurity profession.

A total of 50 students took part in the inaugural 24 hour hackathon on Saturday (20 June) to mark the start of a new partnership between WMG’s Cyber Security Centre and digital identification company Callsign.

Eight teams ‘hacked’ for 24 hours to produce a varied number of new applications for the Callsign platform. They were challenged with finding new ways to interact with the Internet of Things and given access to Callsign’s mobile app with the aim of improving the security and convenience of identity based transactions and activities.

A 24 hour hackathon is to mark the start of a new partnership between WMG’s Cyber Security Centre at the University of Warwick and the digital identification company Callsign.

The WMG Cyber Security Centre will partner with Callsign to work on the future security of digital identities.

In particular they will work together to develop and support cyber security talent. This supports the government’s own strategy for cyber security and is an area that Professor Tim Watson and Professor Carsten Maple, both from WMG’s Cyber Security Centre, have significant national and international reputations – they both sit on national bodies in this field and are key influencers in cyber security policy.

WMG, at the University of Warwick, and BAE Systems have signed a memorandum of understanding for the delivery a new post-graduate programme in Cyber Security.

The programme has been developed in cooperation with WMG’s Cyber Security Centre and Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia (UPNM) to offer a three-year MSc in Cyber Security and Management. Both universities formally agreed to the programme during a signing ceremony at the House of Lords in London.

The extensive programme will offer ten specifically designed Cyber Security and Management modules delivered at UPNM each year of the programme. Up to a total of 72 students will study the programme over three years.

The partnership with BAE Systems also extends through to research with BAE’s Applied Intelligence.