Critical Infrastructure Protection & ICT Gender Equality (Women in IT) Guest Speaker's Travel Grant

Project Description

1st event: a speaker for the Cyber Security Conference (Critical Infrastructure Protection) (200 words):

Industrial Control Systems(ICS) are widely used in critical infrastructure such as nuclear power plants, water, and transportation industries and nations are highly dependent on their continuity and operations. However, despite the importance, their cybersecurity issues have been underdeveloped. Recent security incidents identify that threats in such environments appear to be growing.

This talk is part of the applicant’s ongoing collaborative research work between ENU-Computing and ENU-Engineering departments on anomaly detection and response in a water treatment system. Therefore, this event aims to address the ICS cybersecurity issues with a focus on a MPS Clean Water Supply System which is a scaled down version of a one of a kind water treatment system.

The event will be held in collaboration with ENU and TheCyberAcademy at SEE-IT-Summit-2018 with an approximate number of 2,000 delegates from industry and academia. Given that the ICS cybersecurity have taken up an important position on the agenda of European Research Council and key research themes of Horizon2020 to protect the security of Europe, through this talk we are seeking collaborators from industry and academia for the next Horizon2020 cybersecurity call. Additionally, this event will further improve the centres’ research profile ICS in regard to cybersecurity and countermeasures.

2nd event: a speaker for ICT Gender Equality - Women in IT [the applicant’s talk will address: Women in: Cybersecurity & Cybersecurity Management Positions] (200 words):

The recent figures revealed women comprise only 11% of the global cybersecurity workplace. Additionally, they rarely reach management positions in the sector and most women in Europe have decided against a cybersecurity career by the time they reach 16.

The lack of women in cybersecurity is something that Europe, the UK government, industry and universities are keen to address. Therefore, this event aims to inspire more women into cybersecurity roles by bringing together people in IT from across Europe in the form of a summit. The talk will discuss topics such as: gender gap in cybersecurity (e.g. Scotland vs. Europe), the impact of terminology (e.g. ‘hacker’), and gender role models to promote cybersecurity careers.

The event will be held in collaboration with Edinburgh Napier University, TheCyberAcademy and in parallel with SEE-IT-Summit-2018. Having this event held in parallel with this summit, not only connects males and females in cybersecurity to leading industrial and academic experts but also provides for greater collaboration amongst universities and leading industries. The applicant’s talk is part of her proposed gender equality talk series planned to be presented across Scottish universities and the Scottish Parliament following this summit to fight the shortage and to close the gap.