Nine grant winners are the latest recipients in the UK Government’s Digital Security by Design programme. Its aim; to help the tech infrastructure of UK organisations and digital devices be more resilient to cyber attacks.
The winning research teams that will share the £10m include the University of Southampton’s HD-Sec solution, which aims to speed up the process and reduce errors and security vulnerabilities in software design that could have been exploited by hackers.
The University of Glasgow-led AppControl will also receive a share of the fund to use microprocessors, developed earlier, to make sure vital systems that could be used in cars, medical robots or nuclear power plants remain digitally secure.
And the University of Birmingham has been awarded funding for leading the digital solution CAP-TEE, which will use prototype microchips to protect systems that shield sensitive, personal data from hackers.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) says that Digital Security by Design, launched last year, has the potential to prevent hackers from remotely taking control of digital systems such as autonomous cars, personal computers or smart home security systems as well as cyber attacks and data breaches.
Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden said: “We have a world-class cyber security sector and together we are working hard to make sure the UK is the safest place to work, connect and live online. With government support these projects will build cutting-edge, secure technologies that will give people and businesses further confidence in our digital services and help weaken the threat of cyber attackers.”
AppControl project
The University of Essex is part of Glasgow’s AppControl research. Prof Klaus McDonald-Maier, who will lead a team at Essex’s School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, said: “Our AppControl Project is poised make an important contribution to future mission critical digital systems that are based on this key Government funded Digital Security by Design programme. This project will enable taking embedded systems security to an entirely new level and we are delighted to contribute our expertise in resilient architecture, debug support and analytics of embedded systems to this major research programme.”
