The internet of things: Opportunities and threats

Professor Hugh Durrant-Whyte FRS, Chief Scientific Adviser, UK Ministry of Defence

Hugh Durrant-Whyte is Chief Scientific Advisor at the UK Ministry of Defence. He is on leave from his position as a Professor and ARC Federation Fellow at the University of Sydney. From 2010-2014, he was CEO of National ICT Australia (NICTA), and from 1995-2010 Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Autonomous Systems and of the Australian Centre for Field Robotics (ACFR). He has published over 300 research papers in the area of robotics, autonomous systems, networked data fusion and machine learning. He has graduated over 70 PhD students, and has won numerous awards and prizes for his research work. In his career he has also worked with many major companies, implementing some of the first large-scale autonomous systems in applications including mining, cargo handling and defence. He has co-founded three successful start-up companies in these areas. He is an honorary fellow of Engineers Australia (HonFIEAus), a fellow of the IEEE (FIEEE), fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (FTSE), fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (FAA), and a fellow of the Royal Society of London (FRS).

Professor Julie McCann

Imperial College London

Julie A. McCann is a Professor in Computer Systems with Imperial College London. Her research centres on decentralized and self-organizing scalable algorithms and protocols for spatial computing e.g., Wireless Sensor systems, Internet of Things, or Cyber-physical systems. She leads the Adaptive Embedded Systems Engineering Research research group, directs the pan-Imperial Smart Connected Futures Centre of excellence. She is the principal investigator in substantive international research collaborations with China (Digital Oceans), with Singapore (Eco-Cities), and co-directed the Intel Collaborative Research Institute for Sustainable Cities.

Prof McCann has received significant funding though national and international bodies such as the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, EU FP7/H2020 funding and Singapore NRF, where she has a sub-lab with I2R and HDB. McCann is an Elected Peer for the EPSRC. She serves on/chairs international conference committees, and is a Fellow of the BCS and Chartered Engineer.

Professor Sadie Creese, Professor of Cybersecurity, University of Oxford

Sadie Creese is a Professor of Cybersecurity in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Oxford. She is a Fellow of Worcester College, Oxford where she is a member of the Governing Body. She is a Director of the Global Cyber Security Capacity Centre at the Oxford Martin School and a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Council on Cyber Security. She was the founding Director of Oxford’s Cybersecurity network launched in 2008 and now called CyberSecurity@Oxford.  Her current portfolio of cyber-security research includes cybersecurity capacity models for nations and organisations, cyber-harm modelling, situational awareness, visual analytics for cybersecurity, risk propagation logics and communication, threat modelling and detection, network defence and resilience strategies, and privacy. Since 2003 she has been involved in research collaborations with other disciplines which include working with psychologists, sociologists, economists, political scientists, engineers, lawyers, mathematicians, business operations management experts, and criminologists. Her interest in interdisciplinary research spans policy, science and creativity. She supervises and teaches at all levels, including undergraduate Computer Scientists, graduate students at Oxford’s Centre for Doctoral Training in Cybersecurity and on cyber-risk for the MBA and executive programmes at the Saïd Business School.  Creese has a background in philosophy, mathematics and computer science and has worked professionally in commercial, government and academic organisations. Prior to joining Oxford in October 2011, Creese was Professor and Director of e-Security at the University of Warwick’s International Digital Laboratory. Creese joined Warwick in 2007 from QinetiQ, where she most recently served as Director of Strategic Programmes for their Trusted Information Management Division.

Professor Derek McAuley, Professor of Digital Economy, University of Nottingham

Derek McAuley is Professor of Digital Economy and Director of the Horizon Digital Economy Research Institute at the University of Nottingham. His computing research interests span ubiquitous computing, computer architecture, networking, distributed systems and operating systems, while his interdisciplinary interests include issues of ethics, identity, privacy, information policy, legislation and economics within a digital society.

Professor Bashir Al-Hashimi FREng, Professor of Computer Engineering, University of Southampton

Bashir M. Al-Hashimi is Professor of Computer Engineering and the Dean of the Faculty of Physical Sciences and Engineering, University of Southampton, where he is holds an ARM Professorship. Prior to becoming an academic, he worked in the UK electronics industry for eight years. He is FREng, FIEEE, FIEE, and FBCS.

Professor Al-Hashimi is a well-established national and international leader in the theory and practice of energy-efficient computing, undertaking fundamental and experimental research on hardware-software co-design for energy efficiency. He has received a number of international awards for his research. He published 360 technical papers; five research books, and graduated 35 PhD students.

Professor Al-Hashimi is currently the Project Lead of the EPSRC Programme PRiME (Power-Efficient, Reliable, Many-core Embedded systems). In 2013, he led a research consortium funded by EPSRC investigating Battery-Free Electronics, one of the themes of the UK Microelectronics Design Grand Challenges.

Professor Chris Hankin, Director of the Institute for Security Science and Technology and Professor of Computing Science, Imperial College London

Professor Hankin is a Professor of Computing Science at Imperial College London.  He is Director of the College’s Institute for Security Science and Technology.  His research is in data analytics and cyber security. He leads multidisciplinary projects focussed on developing advanced visual analytics and providing better decision support to defend against cyber attacks.  He is Director of the NCSC/EPSRC Research Institute on Trustworthy Industrial Control Systems. He chairs the Academic Resilience and Security Community (Academic RiSC), a network of 30 universities, and serves on the Security and Resilience Growth Partnership oversight group.

Robert Hayes, Senior Executive, Global Engagement, root9B

Robert has a portfolio of Non-Executive Director & Strategic Advisory roles, supporting public & private sector organisations through complex change programmes, with a particular focus on cybersecurity.

Robert spent 30 years working in senior positions in the UK Government including as Head of the UK  National Technical Assistance Centre. This was followed by ten years as a Senior Fellow of the Microsoft Institute for Advanced Technology in Governments, and latterly as Microsoft’s Executive Cybersecurity Advisor for Europe, Middle East & Africa. 

Robert holds a B.Sc. in Psychology, is a Fellow of the British Computer Society and a Freeman of The City of London. He also holds the rank of Major (V) in the Staff Corps of the British Army.

Dr Irina Brass, Lecturer in Regulation and Public Policy Department of Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy, UCL

Irina Brass is a Postdoctoral Research Associate of the EPSRC-funded PETRAS IoT Research Hub, investigating the privacy and cybersecurity challenges of the Internet of Things (IoT) and its implications for standards development, policy and wider governance mechanisms. Irina’s expertise is in the regulation of information technologies and communications systems, with application across several issue areas such as radio frequency management, data protection, cybersecurity governance and risk management in critical infrastructures. Dr Brass has over seven years of teaching experience in regulation, policy-making and international political economy. Dr Brass has been recently appointed Chair of the BSI IoT-1 Technical Committee.

Caroline Gorski, Head of IoT, Digital Catapult

Caroline is a commercial leader with a background in strategy consulting, market development and commercial decision-making at FTSE 100 board-level. She is Head of Internet of Things (IoT) at the Digital Catapult.

The Digital Catapult works to accelerate UK competitiveness in the digital economy. As Head of IoT Caroline and her team develop and drive innovation in the IoT. She is responsible for overseeing the IoTUK programme.

Previously, Caroline was Head of Business Development - IoT for Telefonica UK and Managing Partner for Telefonica UK’s Retail and Leisure practice, delivering customer engagement technologies into businesses in the UK.

She has worked as a Strategy Consultant with clients in the Leisure, Financial Services, Media and FMCG sectors, helping develop products and strategies that embrace digital possibilities. She began her career in technology consulting at Forrester Research, working with Global 2500 clients to help them to use technology to transform their businesses.

Elizabeth Linder, Founder and CEO, The Conversational Century

Elizabeth advises leaders at the senior-most government and corporate levels in over forty countries on how to understand their place as role models in the old and new media landscape, harnessing the ability to have conversations at scale. 

Elizabeth founded The Conversational Century in 2016 to redefine conversation at the global leadership level against the backdrop of her background at Facebook.  In 2017 she coined the term “primary source revolution” to describe changing patterns in the spread of information.  Elizabeth is a Senior Consulting Fellow at Chatham House, where she leads the Connectivity Initiative, and is a regular commentator on BBC, Sky, Newsweek, and CNN.  

After graduating from Princeton, Elizabeth started her career at Google. In 2008 Facebook recruited Elizabeth to join its original offices. In 2011 Elizabeth founded Facebook’s Politics & Government division for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and moved to London in 2011. Elizabeth is frequently referred to as “The Facebook Lady.” 

Charlie McMurdie, Former Head of Law Enforcement National Cyber Capability, Met Police

Charlie McMurdie – Former head of the UK national police cyber crime unit and senior cyber crime advisor to PwC

Charlie served for 32 years in Law enforcement where she established and led a world-class national cyber crime capability for the United Kingdom. She led the cyber crime and cyber terrorism response for numerous international investigations including delivering the 2012 Olympics cyber response whilst delivering over £1.8 billion harm prevention. She is an acknowledged cyber crime and security expert and internationally acclaimed authority and advisor on issues within government and industry in relation to the Internet, computing fraud and security sectors. As the senior cyber crime advisor to PwC Charlie has led on a range of global strategic and operational cyber security programmes as well as leading the cyber crime response within Breach Aid, PwC’s critical incident multidiscipline response team.

Dr Mike Short CBE FREng, Vice President, Telefonica

Dr Short has held positions in Electronics and telecommunications for 40 years. He has had experience with 5 generations of Mobile technology and mobile data services including the establishment of a new 5G innovation centre based at Surrey University.   He has been involved in mobile licence bids, network launches and in recent years Innovation for business development in areas as diverse as Mobile TV, connected cars, smart metering, smart cities and emergency services. 

He is a former elected Chairman of the global GSM Association and UK Mobile Data Association, and a former President of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET - 2011/2012).

Maria Farrell, Internet policy consultant and writer

Maria Farrell is an Irish writer and consultant, based in London. From 2014 – 2016, she was a Senior Consultant at InterConnect Communications, delivering consulting and training on Internet governance and cyber-security policy. 

Previously, Maria was deputy head of corporate affairs and policy officer at ICANN, based in Brussels, Los Angeles and Washington D.C. Maria led communications and a government advisory project at infoDev, the World Bank/IFC program on technology and development. She was Internet policy analyst at the International Chamber of Commerce, Paris, the UK's Confederation of British Industry and The Law Society of England and Wales. 

A graduate of University College Dublin, the Dublin Institute of Technology and the London School of Economics, Maria teaches politics and policy on Oxford University’s doctoral programme in cyber security. 

Maria is a Board Director of the Open Rights Group, has written for The Guardian and Slate, and blogs at www.crookedtimber.org. Twitter: @mariafarrell

Professor David De Roure, Oxford e-Research Centre, University of Oxford, UK

Focused on advancing digital scholarship, David works closely with multiple disciplines and has extensive experience in hypertext, Web Science, Linked Data, and Internet of Things. He is a speaker and writer on digital scholarship and the future of scholarly communications.

David has strategic responsibility within The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH). He is a member of Cyber Security Oxford, and an Oxford Martin Senior Fellow. He was previously Director of the Oxford e-Research Centre, and Professor of Computer Science at University of Southampton. He was involved in the UK e-Science programme; serving as the UK National Strategic Director for Digital Social Research for the UK Economic and Social Research Council, and Strategic Advisor for emerging forms of data and real time analytics.

He is a Fellow of the British Computer Society and the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications, visiting professor at Goldsmiths, University of London, and Supernumerary Fellow of Wolfson College.

Emily Taylor, Chief Executive Officer, Oxford Information Labs

Emily Taylor is an Associate Fellow of Chatham House and is Editor of the Journal of Cyber Policy.  She is CEO of Oxford Information Labs. Emily’s research publications include The Internet in the Gulf; ICANN: Bridging the Trust Gap and Privatization of Human Rights; annual World Report on Internationalized Domain Names (lead author); studies for ICANN on the Domain Name Marketplace in Latin America and Caribbean and Middle East.  She is Co-Chair of ICANN’s Security and Stability Review Team. Previous roles have included Chair of ICANN WHOIS Review Team, Internet Governance Forum Multistakeholder Advisory Group, Global Commission on Internet Governance, Director of Legal and Policy for Nominet. She has written for the Guardian, Ars Technica, Wired and the Slate, and has appeared on the BBC Now Show.

Professor Laura DeNardis, Professor at American University Washington D.C., Author and scholar of internet governance and infrastructure

Laura DeNardis, M.Eng, Ph.D., is a Professor of Internet architecture and governance and Faculty Director of the Internet Governance Lab at American University in Washington, D.C. With a background in information engineering and a doctorate in Science and Technology Studies, her books include The Global War for Internet Governance (Yale University Press 2014), Protocol Politics: The Globalization of Internet Governance (MIT Press 2009), and others. Dr. DeNardis served as the Director of Research for the Global Commission on Internet Governance and is an Adjunct Senior Research Scholar at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. She previously served as the Executive Director of the Yale Information Society Project from 2008-2011.  Dr. DeNardis holds an AB in Engineering Science from Dartmouth College, a Master of Engineering degree from Cornell University, a PhD in Science and Technology Studies from Virginia Tech, and was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship from the Information Society Project at Yale Law School.

Marina Kaljurand, Chair of Cybersecurity Commission, Dutch Government

Marina Kaljurand served as Estonian Foreign Minister from 07/2015 – 10/2016, and has been Chair of the Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace since 03/2017.

She began her career at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1991 and was Undersecretary for: Legal and Consular Affairs (Legal Adviser); Trade and Development Cooperation; and Political Affairs. She served as Ambassador of Estonia to the State of Israel, the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Canada and the USA. Kaljurand was a member of Estonian Governmental delegation in negotiations with Russia Federation on withdrawal of Russian troops from Estonia and Border Agreements between Estonia and Russia. Kaljurand headed the legal working group at the Estonian accession negotiations to the EU and was Chief Negotiator in Estonian accession negotiations to the OECD.  

Marina served twice as the Estonian National Expert at the UN Group of Governmental Experts on Developments in the Field of Information and Telecommunications in the Context of International Security (GGE), in 2014-2015 and in 2016-2017. 

Kaljurand graduated cum laude from the Tartu University (1986, LLM). She has a professional diploma from the Estonian School of Diplomacy (1992) and MA from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University (F95).