Our societies are critically dependent on computer software. Electronic systems are everywhere, and governments, financial and transport organisations, or telecommunication companies all possess and manage huge amounts of sensitive information concerning all of our everyday activities.

With the emergence of new systems and services such as: electronic IDs and passports, electronic payment systems and loyalty schemes, electronic tickets, and telecommunication systems, every aspect of our life is relying on / recorded by some computerised system. As such, we have been witnessing a significant increase in attacks targeting computing infrastructure. The cyber security threat has been characterised as serious as terrorism by the GCHQ, therefore a need for graduates with highly specialised training in this area is ever-growing.

Cyber security and privacy is the study of the computational principles, methods and mechanisms for safe-guarding these sensitive applications. Graduates of the programme will learn how to evaluate, design, and implement secure and trustworthy systems in complex distributed systems.

Many research areas have tackled parts of this problem – students on this degree will experience training from academic experts in a uniquely broad combination of theory and practice:

Secure Software
Cryptography
Secure Hardware
Verification
Post Quantum
Data Privacy
Usability
Fintech
Health
Smart Contracts
Distributed Ledgers
Privacy Preserving Data Mining
The overall programme delivers intellectual and practical experience in all aspects of cyber security, privacy, and trust: dealing with real-world applications; applying and extending state of the art defence mechanisms; engineering end-to-end secure and trustworthy systems; communicating results through oral and written reports.