Royal Holloway, University of London, has partnered with UMBC, Keio Research Institute (KRIS) in Japan to collaborate on a new research initiative focusing on cybersecurity for critical national infrastructures, including information technology, public transit, and financial services.
Left to right: Paul Madden CMG, British Ambassador to Japan; Keith Mayes, Head of the School of Mathematics and Information Security, Royal Holloway, University of London; Jun Murai, Dean and Professor, Graduate School of Media and Governance, Keio University; Karl V. Steiner, Vice President for Research, UMBC; Akira Haseyama, President, Keio University; Satoru Tezuka, Director, Cyber Security Research Center, Keio University.
Royal Holloway and UMBC, Keio Research Institute (KRIS) in Japan will partner to investigate the use of common system simulation tools for modelling critical national infrastructure. This partnership is part of a broader international collaboration, the International Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (INCS-COE). It will also involve Hitachi, an international operator in power systems, telecommunication, railways, and other core infrastructure areas.
The partners in this research see the modelling of system security as increasingly vital for industry and government, for both training purposes and vulnerability analysis. Working with a common toolset will enable mixed nationality teams to run simulations together. This will help cybersecurity experts learn how to more effectively address human factors, including cultural differences, in predicting how attacks and responses to those attacks might play out across different geographies.
“This initiative creates many future opportunities including, for example, the opportunity to address the impact on critical national infrastructure security of the exponential growth of the internet of things, and for potential exchanges of expert staff and students,” explains Keith Mayes, head of the Information Security Group (ISG) at Royal Holloway.
University leaders signed the three-nation agreement in a ceremony at the sixth International Cybersecurity Symposium in Japan
