New multi-million-pound centre to protect citizens online

Published by

Nicky Godding

The University of Bristol is to lead a team of the UK’s world-leading cyber security experts in the creation of a new £8.6 million centre to protect citizens online.

The interdisciplinary team includes experts from the Universities of Bristol, Bath, Edinburgh, King’s College London and UCL, across a wide range of fields including Computer Science, Law, Psychology and Criminology.

The digital sector is worth £400 million a day to the UK economy (7.7% of GVA) - growing six times faster than all other sectors combined. However, alongside the many positive benefits of a data-driven economy, serious challenges, such as privacy violations, micro-targeting of individuals, online abuse/victimisation, fraud and disinformation, have emerged.

REPHRAIN - Research Centre on Privacy, Harm Reduction and Adversarial Influence Online - will consolidate the UK’s considerable academic, industry, policy and third sector capabilities, and led by Bristol, will provide a single body to engage with government, industry and citizens.

Awais Rashid, Professor of Cyber Security at the University of Bristol and Director of REPHRAIN, said: “The Internet has provided a range of innovative ways to come together, share information and engage with each other across the globe. However, this large-scale information sharing has also highlighted a range of harms – from child abuse to hate campaigns and the spread of disinformation.”

“The urgency of new scientific advances to protect citizens from a variety of harms without stifling data-driven innovation is highlighted by the COVID-19 crisis. We have a pressing need for data-sharing to track and contain the pandemic, whilst preserving privacy and preventing spread of disinformation through global scale social networks.”

“It’s a challenge that spans all areas of our lives and one that we are ready to tackle, by bringing together the greatest minds in the country, across a whole range of disciplines,” said Professor Rashid.

Nicky Godding

Nicky Godding is editor of The Business Magazine. Before her journalism career, she worked mainly in public relations moving into writing when she was invited to launch Retail Watch, a publication covering retail and real estate across Europe. After some years of constant travelling, she tucked away her passport and concentrated on business writing, co-founding a successful regional business magazine. She has interviewed some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs who have built multi-million-pound businesses and reported on many science and technology firsts. She reports on the region’s thriving business economy from start-ups, family businesses and multi-million-pound corporations, to the professionals that support their growth and the institutions that educate the next generation of business leaders.