On 6^th November 2020, a new research cluster within RHUL’s DOS Research Centre was launched. The new research cluster on ‘Cybersecurity, Design and Human Behaviour’ aims to offer a welcoming environment for idea exchange, a platform for researchers from different research areas at RHUL and beyond to connect and work together on interdisciplinary projects, and an opportunity for collaborations on interdisciplinary funding applications. The new cluster is led by Dr. Nisreen Ameen, Lecturer in Marketing in the School of Business and Management, and Dr. Elizabeth Quaglia, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Information Security , who have reached out to researchers at RHUL from various disciplines to discuss ideas in developing the interdisciplinary area of research.

The identified areas of interest include:

• Technology design and human interaction
• Security and privacy in the digital society
• Design narratives and narratives of security
• User experience and advanced digital technologies
• Accountability and ethics in the digital experience

The launch event

The launch event had a great attendance and started with an introduction from Dr. Nisreen Ameen, Dr. Elizabeth Quaglia and the Co-Director of DOS, Professor Gillian Symon. The main part of the event consists of two fascinating keynotes from Professor Jason Bennet Thatcher and Professor Ivan Visconti.

We heard first from Professor Jason Bennet Thatcher, Temple University, delivering the talk ‘Protecting a whale in a sea of fish: cybersecurity and top executives’.

Professor Thatcher explained that whaling is one of the most financially damaging, well-known, effective cyberattacks employed by sophisticated cybercriminals but yet there is little research on this phenomenon.He explained how important it is for researchers to consider the industry and context when conducting research on cybersecurity. In particular he argued for the importance of focusing on top executives in such research as they play a significant role in increasing cybersecurity awareness in organisations. Professor Thatcher highlighted the need for different types of research such as econometrics and qualitative research in this area to understand the drivers and problems, in addition to archival work on vulnerabilities and breaches. Such issues have arguably become even more important after the major shock of the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused a significant increase in the number of cybersecurity threats and attacks. It is vital to build further collaborations between academics and industry practitioners when planning and providing cybersecurity training. Such steps are important to protect data, jobs, people and society as a whole.

Professor Ivan Visconti, University of Salerno delivered a talk on ‘Blockchain Technology and Decentralized Contact Tracing: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’.

In a very interesting journey through the promises and shortcomings of each technology, we learned that blockchain has not yet managed to find the right balance between transparency and confidentiality, and that creating a digital twin of a physical asset is still a challenge. As for digital contact tracing, a plethora of issues were identified (from the imprecision of distance measuring to the false alarms such systems can cause), and the reactions of the security, big tech and policy communities, demonstrating how truly interdisciplinary real-world technological solutions are.

The two keynotes generated connections to some of the themes covered by the new DOS cluster. After the talks, Dr. Elizabeth Quaglia and Dr. Nisreen Ameen presented some of the topics of research interests on which the research cluster is focusing on in more depth and the importance of these areas. Examples include: challenging traditional narratives of security; balancing the requirements of user privacy and accountability in the digital experience; security and privacy issues that arise in a post-COVID-19 world; and ethical concerns in the adoption of advanced technologies.

The new DOS cluster will remain active for the rest of the academic year. Upcoming events in the planning include a round table meeting for members of the cluster and a workshop on interdisciplinary research projects and funding.  Researchers who are working on related areas and wish to join the research cluster please email the cluster co-leaders Dr. Nisreen Ameen and Dr. Elizabeth Quaglia to express their interest. We are very much looking forward to the next steps of this cluster!