Cardiff University has been named as an Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Research by the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), becoming the first institution in Wales to be given this status.
The award is in recognition of the internationally excellent research developed at the University over a number of years, and will allow academics to feed directly into the UK Government’s strategy of making the country more resilient to cyber-attacks.
Furthermore, as a Centre of Excellence the University will nurture more young talent and foster a pipeline of the next generation of cyber security professionals.
Launched in 2016, the NCSC was set up as part of GCHQ to help protect the UK’s critical services from cyber-attacks, manage major incidents, and improve the underlying security of the UK Internet through technological improvement and advice to citizens and organisations.
Since then it has prevented thousands of attacks, provided vital support for the UK’s Armed Forces and managed hundreds of incidents.
Cardiff joins a prestigious list of academic institutions helping to support the NCSC’s mission, including the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Bristol and University College London.
As part of the scheme, Cardiff University will specifically focus on how artificial intelligence can be used to monitor, identify and ultimately tackle cyber-attacks.
Prof. Pete Burnap, Principal Investigator of the Centre of Excellence and Professor of Data Science & Cybersecurity in the School of Computer Science and Informatics, said: “We are delighted to receive this recognition as it evidences our long track-record of research excellence in cyber security.
“Our core identity is the interdisciplinary fusion of artificial intelligence and cybersecurity, a concept we call Cyber Security Analytics. AI is at the heart of the UK government’s industrial strategy and our aim is to innovate with AI to improve automated cyber threat intelligence and support decision making and policy responses to make the UK more secure for individuals, business and the government.
“We are proud to be the first Welsh university to be recognised by NCSC for our cyber research capability, and we hope to build on the impressive expertise that already exists across the region between academia, government and business.”
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