Posted: 2nd April 2018

A team of four cyber security DPhil students made the semi-finals at Cyber 9/12, an Atlantic Council policy competition held in London in February. Erin Chapman, Mariam Nouh, Jantje Siloman, and Andrew Dwyer, all from the Centre for Doctoral Training in Cyber Security, also won the award for the best policy brief which outlined cyber security policy recommendations.

Fifteen teams from universities across the UK, law enforcement, and the Ministry of Defence were briefed on a crisis scenario at BT tower in London, and had to deliver policy recommendation to a mixed panel of decision makers including expert representatives from academia, government and industry. At the end of two gruelling days, the final few teams had just 20 minutes to prepare and present their final ideas to the judges.

The event saw a gathering of industry professionals across sectors who acted as judges in competition panels and a fantastic pool of young talent from across the country.  Congratulation to Royal Holloway’s team on winning the overall competition!

This event would not have been possible without a strong organisation team, including four Oxford DPhil students from the Centre for Doctoral Training in Cyber Security, Arianna Schuler Scott, Monica Kaminska, Jack Sturgess, and Martin Kraemer.

‘It was inspirational to see such diverse and enthusiastic talent coming together to tackle issues our world where technologies continue to evolve, and the speed at which we have to regulate for and respond to cyber incidents increases’ said Arianna, Deputy Director of Cyber 9/12

Cyber 9/12 also included an exciting cyber crisis simulation, designed by Oxford group cynario (www.cynario.co.uk). In a collaborative exercise, seven teams set out to attribute a cyber attack. This was won by the University of Warwick.