EPSRC DTP Studentship in Cyber Security Analytics: Modelling Multi-Agency International Cooperation to Mitigate Cyber Threats

APPLICATION PROCESS
1. Covering Letter: Please address to Professor Matthew Williams. The covering letter must name the studentship being applied for. It must set out your reasons and motivation for applying to study at Cardiff University; your understanding, and expectations of doctoral study; and your academic interests generally, and particularly how these relate to the description of the project supplied. The covering letter should be no more than two pages and in this applicants should:
o Describe any experience of research
o Write a short statement on what you understand the topic of cyber security analytics to be and what excites you about it
o Write a short statement on how your experience fits to the project to which you have applied, and how you would approach the project
o Write a short statement on why you would like to undertake PhD research in a multi-disciplinary cohort, and how you think the experience will benefit your career in comparison with studying as an individual student.
2. Academic / Professional Qualifications Where appropriate, this should also include proof of English Language Competency (7.0 IELTS minimum).
3. References Two Academic References. Candidates must approach referees themselves and include references with their application.
4. Curriculum Vitae. It should be no longer than two pages.
5. Research Proposal. The proposal should build directly on the studentship description that has been supplied. The proposal should be up to a maximum of 1000 words, not including bibliographic references. We suggest that you use the following five headings in your research proposal:
o Your reflections on the title, aims and purpose of the research;
o An overview of some key research literature relevant to the study;
o Your proposals for developing the design and methods of the study;
o A description of potential outcomes of the project for understanding, knowledge, policy and practice (as appropriate to the topic);
o Bibliographic references
This program is available in English only. To request information in Welsh, please contact the Postgraduate Recruitment Team (postgradmarketing@cardiff.ac.uk).
ABOUT THE EPSRC DTP HUB IN CYBER SECURITY ANALYTICS
The area of focus for this hub is cybersecurity analytics – the fusion of AI, cybersecurity and risk – which considers the applications and implications of new and emerging technologies across these three lenses from both a human and algorithmic perspective. Here at Cardiff University, we are one of the foremost authorities in this area. Future industrial leaders in this area will need to be critical and innovative in designing new technology-driven systems, recognising that cybersecurity and AI are human-centred challenges that cannot be achieved with technology alone. They will need to be trained early on in their career as reflexive practitioners who understand the limits of AI, the challenges of ethical integration into socio-technical systems, and the potential for misuse.
Our unique programme provides a holistic training perspective that aims to develop future leaders who can communicate (and debate) the best ways to address the challenge of fusing cybersecurity, AI and risk, to the benefit of future generations. Without this cohort-based training environment, we argue that future leaders will miss opportunities to co-create a world with a much richer interdisciplinary understanding of AI and cyber threats from a systems and human perspective. This would result in new technologies containing inherent exploitable vulnerabilities that will have an exacerbated impact as we become more dependent on interconnected autonomous systems. The interdisciplinary co-creation of new research that leads the way in addressing these topics sits at the core of the research goals in the hub.
We expect our graduates to take up employment across a range of sectors where the cybersecurity of new technologies such as AI is critical. Expected roles include:
• strategic research directors
• legal and governance practitioners
• social policy officers
• technology developers
• data scientists
• human factors experts.
These are just a few roles from an increasing number of areas where the advancements of new technologies are vital.
Research Environment in the EPSRC DTP Hub in Cyber Security Analytics:
We offer fully-funded PhDs that are all supervised across three different Schools within the University:
• Computer Science and Informatics
• Psychology
• Social Sciences.
The core theme of Cyber Security Analytics will be delivered through two cross-cutting skills and knowledge-oriented pathways:
• Beneficial and Adversarial applications of AI in Cyber Security. This is the data science and most algorithm-focused AI pathway.
• Human Factors in cyber and new tech, and motivations of Cybercrime. This pathway draws on Human Factors, Cognitive Psychology, Neuroscience, Computer Science, Criminology, and Sociology.
The pathways align with an original set of training needs identified jointly by the academic team and external partners through regular engagement via existing collaborative research programmes, ideas exchange events, and advisory groups. We have extensive research excellence in these areas and the pathways act as a mechanism to maximise disciplinary overlap and develop a clear focus for the research challenges to be addressed within the hub, which relate to the UK Government vision for the industrial strategy. All students will have a supervisor from both pathways to ‘design-in’ interdisciplinary and cross-cutting challenges and thought development.
Why study cybersecurity analytics with us ?
Government and industry recognition for research excellence. We are recognised by EPSRC and NCSC as an Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Research (ACE-CSR). We are one of only 19 ACE-CSRs in the UK and seen as a leading institution for cybersecurity analytics. This is evidenced in industry by our recognition as Airbus' only Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Analytics in the world. Our academics are involved in significant internal research and development programmes at Airbus, leading both AI for cybersecurity technical programmes and human factors psychology programmes within Airbus’ Digital Transformation Office, thereby driving industrial uptake of these combined concepts. Social and technical aspects are considered equal within the hub.
World class facilities
We have invested millions in research infrastructure for this topic, including a state-of-the-art cyber range and immersive cyber-attack and defence lab shared across the School of Computer Science and Informatics, and the School of Psychology. The facilities in the lab underpin experimental research for human and technical aspects of cybersecurity and developing evidence-based knowledge and understanding of next-generation cyber threats including:
• vulnerability testing a range of large next-generation virtualised infrastructures by threat hunting to identify where cyber-attacks could impact them
• determining the optimum approaches for ensuring security by design - ie. ensuring the threats are mitigated before the digital environment is rolled out in the real-world
• developing and testing novel automated cyber-attack and defence solutions
• training and skills development in both technical cyber-attack and defence methods, and human factors surrounding susceptibility to attack and communication / decision making responses to attack stimuli and cyber intelligence under stress while exposed to attack.
For more information, please contact the Hub’s Academic Lead, Professor Pete Burnap (BurnapP@cardiff.ac.uk)