The ISG have recently been awarded a grant by Intel to deliver a new module as part of the MSc in Information Security. The proposed course, likely to be offered from the 2013-14 academic year, will inform future security professionals, on one hand, about the economic tools that address some of the needs for quantitative methodologies; and on the other hand about methods to include security into economic and business analyses. The need for such methods is increasingly felt among the security practitioners and stakeholders, and the course is hoped to fill a gap in the current security curricula. The beneficiaries thus include the users and the providers of computing services and infrastructure at large, including the leaders like Intel, who depend on maintaining a stable and capable work force.

In December 2011, Professor Fred Piper gave a keynote address to the 6th International Conference for Internet Technology and Secured Transactions (ICITST 2011).

The conference is Technical Co-sponsored by IEEE UAE Computer Chapter. The ICITST is an international refereed conference dedicated to the advancement of the theory and practical implementation of secured Internet transactions and to fostering discussions on information technology evolution. The ICITST aims to provide a highly professional and comparative academic research forum that promotes collaborative excellence between academia and industry.

The 22nd Hewlett-Packard Colloquium on Information Security was held at Royal Holloway on 19th December 2011. This annual event brings together the Information Security Group's partners from academia, industry and government in an informal and relaxed environment, to enjoy informative and entertaining talks, to network, and to properly start the wind-down to Christmas.

Every day we communicate online, buying goods, emailing friends or using instant messaging. We trust that the data we share, such as our credit card details, our home address or private conversations, are being kept safe from hackers, attackers and online thieves.

Academics from Royal Holloway, University of London have been recruited into a network run by British intelligence agency, GCHQ, to combat new waves of security breaches and cyber crime.

As part of the Government’s Cyber Security Strategy, which was launched today (25 November), GCHQ has approached academics from the Information Security Group (ISG) at Royal Holloway to use their expertise to help solve operational problems - such as how to stop an attack before it is triggered - and also to offer long-term strategic analysis.