Digital Trust and Security Seminar Series: Prof Rob Black

Join Digital Futures and Prof Rob Black for a free event on 18th November to explore the concepts of a proactive cyber defence strategy, through weaponising their trust and utilising deception techniques, and taking tactics from other domains to create more challenging defences for our attackers to face.

This event invites participants from all disciplines and backgrounds to come together, fostering interdisciplinary connections and discussions.

Talk Abstract: Weaponising Digital Trust to Better Defend Our Networks

Too often our cyber security posture is designed around passive defence protection measures to secure our networks. In today’s age of increasing cyber threats, we need to continue to enhance our cyber security measures taking a layered approach to defending our networks and fighting our attackers. The solution lays in weaponising the very tools that we as a society to ensure the security of our networks – that of Digital Trust.

By undermining and exploiting an attacker’s trust in the network they are operating on, the tools they are using and even their colleagues, we can significantly disrupt and degrade their effectiveness. All of this can only be done through the use of Cyber Deception to confuse and bamboozle our attackers and get them to believe all is not as it seems. This talk will explore the concepts of a proactive cyber defence strategy, through weaponising their trust and utilising deception techniques and taking tactics from other domains to create more challenging defences for our attackers to face so as to keep our networks safe. This lecture aims to be thought provoking, amusing and, most importantly it aims to be enlightening as to how best we can bring social sciences to the front line of our cyber fight!

Biography: Rob has taken up a role as a visiting Professor at the University of Manchester in 2024 following quite a varied career across a range of different cyber roles. Rob left the UK government in 2014 after over a decade supporting the development capabilities for British and allied military and cyber operations. Since then, Rob has been a Lecturer in Information Activities at Cranfield University, part of the UK Defence Academy where he taught on the UK MoD’s Cyberspace Operations MSc. From 2020 to 2024, Rob was the Director of the UK Cyber 9/12 Strategy Challenge leading on the development of the next generation of cybersecurity leaders and is now Director of the UK Cyber Leaders Challenge. He was also Deputy Director of the UK National Cyber Deception Laboratory since its inception in 2019 to 2022, where he encouraged the development of a proactive approach to cyber defence through the use of deception techniques and other novel measures to confuse and disrupt cyber attackers. He remains involved in shaping policy dialogue on issues such as national security, cyber and intelligence through his role as an Associate Programme Director at Wilton Park, part of the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office. In addition to this, Rob also acts as a senior advisor to KPMG’s International Information Integrity Institute (i-4), a strategic cyber security ‘think tank’ and peer-to-peer knowledge exchange for CISOs and cyber security leaders of global corporations and acts as a Cybersecurity Events Host for RANT where he shapes and facilitates invaluable conversations between vendors and CISOs.

At the 2024 National Cyber Awards, Rob was crowned the UK Cyber Citizen of the Year for being an ‘incredibly passionate cyber citizen in the UK and well respected by so many within the community, especially when advocating for the next generation of cyber security professionals coming through. Rob is a great example of high-impact leadership and role modelling with vision and impact.”

Photography will take place at this event. If you do not wish to be photographed, please speak to an event organiser upon event registration.

Connect with the Centre for Digital Trust and Society

The Centre for Digital Trust and Society organises the DTS Guest Seminar Series and is a focal point for research across the University of Manchester that explores aspects of trust and security in our digital world. The Centre is part of Digital Futures, a highly interdisciplinary network which operates across the whole range of the University of Manchester's digital research.

About Digital Futures:

Digital Futures is a highly interdisciplinary network that operates across the whole range of the University’s digital research. We aim to present a coherent overview of The University of Manchester's digital research activity to external stakeholders and bring together research communities to explore new research areas and address strategic opportunities.

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