Following the conviction that cyber security does not arise from protecting systems alone, we complement core systems security research with studies in human, organisational and socio-technical aspects of cyber security.  Overall, we pursue a vision of ‘Protecting Society’s Fabric’.  

In our systems security work, we investigate cryptographic protocols and their applications, distributed systems security, authentication, authorisation, and accountability, complemented by interests in malware, adversarial behaviour, and forensics. 

In this research, we are interested in systems, big and small. Benefiting from the Newcastle Urban Observatory and our purpose-built and sensor-instrumented Urban Sciences Building, we pursue research in the cyber security and privacy of smart buildings and smart cities as well as of cyber-physical systems, in general. At the same time, we have a keen interest in the security and privacy of the Internet of Things (IoT) and its manifold devices. 

When it comes to human and organisational aspects of cyber security, we research risk management and governance - for instance, in FinTech. We study privacy and online rights with a range of topics, including privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) and human behaviour and decision making in face of privacy. We are interested in data protection, transparency and regulatory aspects, especially as applied to AI and algorithms. Finally, we investigate human dimensions of cyber security, in general, especially as manifested in our contributions to the UK Research Institute in Sociotechnical Cyber Security (RISCS).

We benefit from Newcastle’s tradition of world-leading research in dependability and formal methods, as well as from rigorous quantitative and evidence-based underpinnings in the research of the human aspects of security and privacy. Our cyber security research is reinforced by Newcastle’s growing strength in data science: Newcastle University is home to the National Innovation Centre for Data and partners with the Alan Turing Institute.