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Latest - IT Sector: Cyber security

Professor Ross Anderson

Ross Anderson was Professor of Security Engineering at Cambridge and at Edinburgh University. A pioneer in his field, he devoted his career to developing security engineering as a discipline: building systems to remain dependable in the face of malice, error or mischance.

Throughout his career as an academic and an industry consultant he received important distinctions and awards. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering, a fellow of the Institute of Physics, a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications, as well as the recipient of the 2015 Lovelace Medal, awarded by British Computer Society.

Dr Andrew Rogoyski

Dr Andrew Rogoyski is Innovation and Partnership Director of the AI Institute at the University of Surrey. He has experienced several winters where interest in AI has nearly evaporated but is excited to now be in a summer of interest as big tech pours fortunes into development, some fruitful and some futile. 

In March 2023 he tried to co-sign the letter from 1,000 people calling for the suspension of development in the AI tool ChatGPT but couldn’t as the server crashed. Among those who did manage the sign the letter were Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak.

Iain Johnston and Chris Hurst

Iain Johnston and Chris Hurst are the top team of Blackwired, which brings a military philosophy to defending nations and enterprises against threats from the Dark Web. Chris brings a lifelong interest in computers and lessons learned as CSIO in BT, while Iain contributes the experience of a military career more recently applied to Cyber.

In this interview they describe the fundamentals of the Dark Web and the activities within its industrial complex before moving on to illustrate its significance to the critical activities of commerce and Government. The interview illustrates, with examples, the potency of the threat from the Dark Web and what the emerging industry of cyber countermeasures can do to protect us all.

Pamela Cook

The youngest of six children, Pamela Cook was born in a Birmingham slum with no electricity or indoor sanitation. But the family was re-housed when she was three and she describes her childhood as very happy.

Her lack of enjoyment at school and the need to earn money from her early teens, gave her an understanding of the working world and a will to survive. But she also inherited her parents’ strong sense of moral ethics, making her determined to try to do good in the world.

Pamela has achieved that goal as CEO of Infoshare, a data technology company which creates accurate single views, for example, of people, places, addresses and objects. When she took the helm in 2010 she re-mortgaged her house to fund a major company restructure. Since then, she has tried to re-shape the business to use its technology and position to benefit vulnerable people, from children at risk and victims of crime to those likely to be most badly affected by Covid-19.

“What I have discovered is being able to make a real impact on people’s lives,” she says, whether they are at risk, need early intervention or are trying to disguise their true identities.

Pamela is also a magistrate in Thames Valley, and sits on the Cabinet Office SME Panel, fighting for the rights and fair treatment of small businesses in the UK. She is a popular speaker on successful information sharing, protecting citizens and the implication of legislation on data sharing and analysis.

She was named the Female Entrepreneur of the Year in the 2019 Enterprise Awards, and listed on the 2020 DataIQ 100 people in data, and on the 2020 Global Top 100 Data Visionaries.

Geoff Squire OBE

Geoff Squire OBE spent 50 years in the UK IT industry, from machine code to $Bn companies.  Geoff learnt arithmetic and the value of pounds, shillings and pence at an early age doing sums upside down over his father’s shoulder.  University was never an option but interest in numbers led on to jobs in programming and thence to growing roles in ICL.

He is perhaps most famous for establishing Oracle in the UK with an opportunistic pitch to Larry Ellison.  Subsequently Geoff led Veritas to a Y2K $75Bn market cap.  In recent years Geoff has focused, with his wife Fiona, on their grant giving charity and he serves as Chairman of Give as You Live Ltd, a technology company dedicated to raising money for UK charities.

Portrait photograph of a man in a suit jacket and tie wearing glasses

Tom Ilube CBE

Tom Ilube CBE is a serial entrepreneur, philanthropist and was named as the most influential British person of African-Caribbean origin by the Powerlist 2017.  After working for big consultancy companies, he was CIO of the innovative Internet bank Egg and founded a series of companies in personal identity and cybersecurity. In 2005 Tom launched a project to found the Hammersmith Academy, focusing on tech and creative skills, and he is the founder of the African Gifted Foundation, a UK education charity focused on science and technology in Africa.

Professor Michael Mainelli

Professor Michael Mainelli’s life story is a fascinating journey from 1958 Seattle to Alderman and Sheriff of the City of London.  His Irish mother and Italian father came from lines of engineers and his experience spans computer scientist, accountant, and management consultant.  His education reflects expansive interests, including a Doctorate as a mature student, alongside his busy professional assignments. 

He established City think tank and venture firm Z/Yen in 1994 and Michael has advised on and managed a host of challenging projects, for a multitude of clients from the first complete digital map of the world; to the UK Ministry of Defence commercialising its £100M technology business; and setting up City indices. He recommends small teams to solve big problems and his mass of publications includes bestselling books.

Professor Nick Jennings

Professor Nick Jennings is an internationally recognised authority in the areas of artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, cybersecurity and agent-based computing.

He is the Vice-Provost for Research and Enterprise and Professor of Artificial Intelligence at Imperial College London. He was the UK’s first Regius Professor of Computer Science (a post bestowed by the monarch to recognise exceptionally high quality research) at the University of Southampton and the UK Government’s first Chief Scientific Advisor for National Security. 

Eva Pascoe

Eva Pascoe was co-founder of Cyberia, the first Internet café in London, in1994. During her career, Eva pioneered women’s participation in online business, online secure payments, e-commerce fashion solutions, and electronic customer relationship management. She is currently the chair of Cybersalon.org, a non-profit digital think tank she co-founded in 1997. She works with a retail practice, developing strategies for large and small international retail companies supporting young fashion brands with women founders, like Bluebella.com and Thefoldlondon.com. In 1995, jointly with Gene Teare, she was awarded the Sunday Times Technology Award.