Digital Trust and Security

Given our increasing dependence on digital technology, the issue of whether we can trust the systems we use and the people we interact with has become critical.

Theme lead

Professor Nicholas Lord

Scope of theme

Digital Trust and Security underpins a broad range of societal challenges and is profoundly multidisciplinary.

It encompasses the security and resilience of the underlying technology, work practices and processes, law and regulation, human behaviour, social norms and context, regulation, governance and standards, more traditional security concerns, such as cryptography, access control and verification to the societal and sociological concerns that emerge from big-data analytics, intrusion, cloud computing and the internet of things.

An apt starting point might be to clarify what cyber security is intended to achieve. For instance, taking the objectives of the UK’s National Cyber Security Strategy (defending systems, data and services, deterring hostile actors and developing capability) as a starting point highlights a set of research areas of potential relevance.

The University of Manchester's Centre for Digital Trust and Society was created to act as an access point to the University’s expertise in digital trust and security, and facilitate interactions between researchers and problem holders, and will deliver sustainable support for the wider community.

The Centre leads and delivers activity for the Digital Trust and Security theme within the University’s Digital Futures platform.

Levels of Analysis:

Valuable research on digital security spans several different levels of analysis, from individuals to the international community.

Researchers working at any one or more of these levels can help shed light on or provide a different perspective on what digital security means in their particular context.

• Individuals (e.g. as citizens, as employees, as members of different generational/identity groups)
• Communities (e.g. local/regional networks, cities, identity groups)
• Organisations/sectors (e.g. critical national infrastructure, SMEs, manufacturing industry, healthcare, financial, third sector, tech, education)
• Government (e.g. local, regional, national)
• International partners and communities (e.g. EU, NATO, UN)

Research Clusters:

Using these criteria, we've established six key research clusters within the Digital Trust & Security theme:

• Advanced Mathematics led by Dr. Ines Henriques-Cadby
  
• Democracy and Trust led by Prof. Peter Knight 
• Digital Technologies and Crime led by Dr Joseph Lee
• Privacy and Trust led by Prof. Mark Elliot
• Trusted Digital Systems led by Dr. Mustafa A. Mustafa
  
• Workplace and Organisational Security led by Prof. Nadia Papamichail