Blog » Scholars to Probe Cyber Security in New Study

Scholars to Probe Cyber Security in New Study

28th January 2015

BY CLAIRE CRAIG

A NEW initiative to explore the growing area of cyber security will provide 30 doctoral students with three-year scholarships.

The Leverhulme Interdisciplinary Network on Cybersecurity and Society (LINCS) will bring together researchers from two of Queen’s University’s world class centres of excellence, the Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT) and the Institute for the Study of Conflict Transformation and Social Justice (ISCTSJ), to examine cyber security and the knock on effects on society – legal, ethical and cultural.

A grant of over Elm from the Leverhulme Doctoral Scholarships scheme, matched by funding from Queen’s, will provide 30 doctoral students with three year scholarships for LINCS over the next eight years with the group of researchers commencing work this September.

The first cohort of researchers will look at 10 different areas of study; for example, how increas-ingly stringent border controls and information sharing between different jurisdictions may impact on people’s mobility.

Other areas of focus will include the use of surveillance such as drones and how it affects an individual’s right to privacy and the trust and authentication threats posed by the `internet of things’.

Director of ISCTSJ, Professor Hastings Dorman FBA said: “This project will offer a challenging, stimulating and integrated academic environment within which a new generation of scholars can pursue truly interdisciplinary  research on pressing issues of global significance.

“It’s a precondition of Leverhulme that research must be groundbreaking and it’s a measure of its confidence in this project that Queen’s has matched the Leverhulme funding?’ Secure Digital Systems director at CSIT Professor Sakir Sezer said: “Researchers in CSIT recognise the social, legal and ethical implications of the future technologies they are developing and of their likely impact on social relations.

“Researchers in ISCTSJ similarly appreciate that interdisciplinary collaboration with scientists is essential if they are to anticipate the ethical, legal, political and psychological challenges raised by emerging technologies.

“LINCS will provide an integrated academic network for the next generation of scholars working in this area”

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