An Amazing Year in The Cyber Academy ... We Don't Do Ordinary!

As we head for the Christmas break, we reflect on an amazing year in The Cyber Academy. We have engaged with so many companies and our spin-outs are having such a great impact, and we thank everyone who has helped us along the way.

We started the year on a high with a data loss conference [here]:

And where data breaches were top of the agenda:

And, with Payfont, we won at the Interface awards for the Knowledge Exchange Innovation of The Year:

In March, it was a Cyber Insight Camp [here]:

And a bit of malware:

And created British Broadband CTF [here]:

In April, it was Scot Secure 2016:

and we hosted the Big Data in Cyber Security conference:

with a whole range of presentation, with Harry McLaren from ECS, presenting one of the most watched presentations:

In May, our third spin-out - Cyan Forensics (based on work with Phil Penrose, Bruce Ramsay, Dr Owen Lo, Richard Macfarlane, Ian Stevenson and myself) - was pitched at EIE 2016, and they eventually spun-into Codebase in the Autumn time):

And for an SDN conference:

and then an invited talk at CRESTCOM 2016:

In June it was a few awards:

The Cyber Academy hosted a fun day out for 100 school girls from across Scotland, getting an insight to a career in cyber security:

and:

In July, we were involved with the Honorary Degree for David Lanc:

On the first day of September, things really started to ramp-up, with an invited talk at in the Glasgow Science Museum for Venturefest Scotland 2016 on the Innovation and "The Wonderful Interface" (note: Interface Online help create partnerships between SMEs and academia):

We pushed forward with our international collaboration network, with new partnerships with Bretagne, Canada, and the US:

And our collaboration with CM2000, continues to show great benefits with our e-Health work and was outlined at a hosted event in Sept 2016:

Then, for our public engagement, we are cracking crypto:

With the amazing Prof Alan Woodward:

and the cracking of 128-bit AES live:

In September, we did some Magic:

With the help of Bob, Alice and Eve, Dr Owen Lo did his crypto magic on some AES cracking:

In Sept, we showcased our Big Data analytics at Telehealth 2016:

And at the end of September 2016, it was off to Dynamic Earth for the Holyrood Connect Data Forum 2016 to share a stage with an Innovation Centre who have helped us so much over the year (The Data Lab):

The semester continued to see the development of the Edinburgh Napier Security society:

And DefCon:

And Peter, Charley and Sean being invited to submit to The Economist Cyber Challenge [here]:

and some award winners, of course:

Then there was some Data Analysis in Health and Social Care:

which saw the presentation of our collaboration with CM2000:

And we were all ready for a Big Data Masterclass, hosted by The Data Labs:

Our second spin-out - Symphonic Software - too, just goes from strength-to-strength, making a real impact in London:

On 26 Oct, it was off to Glasgow for a Law Society presentation:

Our spin-out, led by Dr Jamie Gaves, continued to make waves, with a nomination at the Scottish Finance awards:

As Edinburgh showed off its beauty in November, we started one of the our busiest months ever:

November has been a crazy time for us. At the start of the month it was off to STV to present alongside Dr Jessica Barker:

Munich was calling for an invited keynote at IEEE e-Health 2016, and which gave us the opportunity to showcase the work that we have done within health and social care, and the work that Symphonic Software has taken forward:

Then it was award time for Zonefox (one of our amazing spin-outs, and the amazing Dr Jamie Graves, who should inspire a whole lot of up-and-coming researchers on how to take a vision and create a world-leading product):

and we were so proud that one of our amazing graduates - yes ... Harry McLaren, again - won the Best New Cyber Talent 2016:

We also received another award (Highly Commended) with Payfont:

and with some of our great team (Lynn, Phil, Peter, Charley and Naghmeh):

In November, it was Capture The Flag time with Zonefox:

Then off to Belfast, to attract students to come to Edinburgh to study, with a bit of Cayla cracking:

Then, with Adrian Smales, at DemoFest in Glasgow:

And even Professors get vished:

In November, we were off to London for a presentation to 500 Security Professionals at ESRM:

In December we had a STEM event for Primary 7 Girls, and we started the move into our Castle (well it's John Napier's Castle Room):

Three spin-outs ... all doing very well ... a whole range of collaborations coming up ... and a whole lot of new research projects ... and the building of an advanced SoC training centre ... 2017 is going to be amazing!

Our partnerships with a wide range of companies thrived through the year, especially with Payfont, as we collaborate in building world-leading security products:

with RSA on security operations center training:

With Hutchinson Networks who have contributed so much:

and CM2000 and DHI on health and social care:

And Keysight:

And, we would not have The Cyber Academy without the collaboration with Police Scotland (and especially Eammon Keanne):

Along with Prof Woodward's presentation, a fantastic highlight for me was watching Dr Owen Lo cracking 128-bit AES, with the usage of a scope:

So, if you think we made an impact in 2016, you have seen nothing yet.

If you want to be part of it, and help us build the future, you can contact Lynn ([email protected]):

and thank you to this wonderful city, which inspires us every single day: