Two University of Wolverhampton staff recently spoke at a prestigious international cyber security conference in the United States.
The CyberMaryland 2017 conference brought together leading people in the field of cyber security across the US and further afield from federal government, law enforcement, business and education.
Held at the Baltimore Convention Centre, the two-day conference on October 11 and 12 featured keynote speakers from the National Security Agency, US Navy Cyber Command, the Department of Homeland Security and firms such as MacAfee.
Katie Wood, a Senior Lecturer in Computer Science, was joined by at the conference by Knowledge Transfer Business Development Director Nigel Birch to talk about how businesses can become more cyber aware and resilient to attack.
Speaking before heading out to the US, she said: “CyberMaryland is an internationally renowned conference so it is a great honour to be asked to go and present at it. It is certainly the biggest stage I will have spoken on.
‘We want the University and the Midlands region to become a national and international player in this field.’
“It provides a great opportunity for the University and the wider Midlands region to demonstrate our expertise and capabilities and try to encourage US partners to work with us in the future.
“There is a real appetite to grow cyber security as an industry in the UK. The University has invested significantly in this area recently in new courses like the BSc Cyber Security. We are also working with partners to establish a new Centre for Cyber Security in Hereford which will benefit the defence and security sector in the region and as well as generating employment opportunities for University graduates.
“We have already established some strong relationships in the US and want the University and the Midlands region to become a national and international player in this field.”
The University is part of a wider initiative within the Midlands Engine Cyber Programme, which undertook a visit to Maryland in 2016 and welcomed a delegation to the region from the US earlier this year.
The state of Maryland is the centre of cyber security for the US federal government and is home to the National Security Agency’s US Cyber Command. It is also home to a number of universities and colleges that have cyber security expertise.