Strathclyde Cyber Security Group (StrathCyber)

We carry out world-leading interdisciplinary cybersecurity research. We make impactful connections, delivering solutions that focus on people, and that make a difference in the world.

In the Cybersecurity Group, we aim to build resilience for future societies in cybersecurity contexts. We take problem-driven approaches, working to understand people and organisations - their behaviours, experiences, and challenges online - in the face of current and future threats to identity, privacy, and security. We strive to design solutions that enable legitimate citizens and organisations to operate safely and securely online to achieve their desired goals, and to protect them from online harms. We consciously consider the needs of those who are disenfranchised.

To achieve this vision, we engage in world-leading research and make impactful connections that deliver solutions that focus on people first not systems, and that make a difference in the world. We carry out primary research with people, with organisations and through existing datasets, collaborating within and across disciplines as the task requires.

Our research

Our multi-million pound research portfolio extends across a diverse range of cutting-edge cybersecurity challenges, and is reflected in our internationally leading publications. Our MSc Cyber Security is accredited by GCHQ’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).

We have internationally visible expertise and track records in both human factors and technical aspects of cybersecurity and privacy. Interdisciplinary research is the norm in the group.

Our ongoing research covers a wide range of topics as follows.

  • Human factors and human behaviours in security and privacy
  • Cybercrime, measurement, and policy
  • Security economics, law, and regulation
  • Botnets, malware, and intrusion analysis
  • Side channels
  • Cyber Physical Systems
  • Internet of Things
  • Network and communication systems
  • Resilience of software-defined networks and critical Infrastructures
  • Trust, identity, and anonymity
  • Digital forensics
  • Applied crypto and cryptanalysis
  • Cyber safety and diplomacy
  • Cybersecurity and Society

Join us

We welcome applications to join us throughout the year from world-leading professors and talented early career academics under Strathclyde’s Global Talent Programme. Initial enquiries should be sent to Professor Wendy Moncur wendy.moncur@strath.ac.uk.

We welcome applications to undertake PhDs in Cybersecurity with us. PhD scholarships are advertised on an ad-hoc basis, on Mastodon @StrathCyber and on the jobs.ac.uk website. Self-funded students should contact their preferred supervisor in the first instance. Our PhD students undertake a wide range of cybersecurity research, ranging from the very technical (e.g., side channels, adversarial machine learning) to human-oriented (e.g. blame cultures in corporate security). Students come from a wide range of backgrounds, including Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, economics, law, psychology, and journalism.

More details on how to apply are available here.

Our team

11 members of the StrathCyber research group posing for a group photo in the sunshine.

Above research group away day photo August 2022. Photo by Musa Bello. Top row: Jeff Yan, Tochukwu Umeasiegbu, Ryan Shah, Ryan Gibson, Wendy Moncur, Karen Renaud, Rose English, Diane Morrow. Bottom row: Mujeeb Ahmed, Daniel Thomas, Juraj Sikra. Also attending: Amin Sahebi, Rufai Ahmad.

Our group lead and human factors lead is Wendy Moncur, our deputy group lead and technical lead is Daniel ThomasKaren Renaud runs the reading group. Sotirios Terzis is director of our Graduate Apprenticeship MSc in Cyber Security.