Academic background

My undergraduate degree is a BSc in Psychology and my dissertation focused on deception detection in translated police interviews. From there I went on to do an MSc in Criminology and Social research methods (Cybercrime and Cybersecurity) in which my master’s thesis scraped Twitter posts after two ideologically different terror events in order to qualitatively analyse the two responses for hate speech.

What made you apply for the CDT?

I wasn’t fully sure that I wanted to do a PhD, but I had applied for a similar PhD and came second on that one. That spurred me on to apply for the CDT (which turns out to have been a far better fit for my background). The multidisciplinary aspect was a really attractive part of the course because it reflects the real world setting of cybersecurity.

What has been the best thing so far in the CDT?

There are so many things to choose from, but personally I really enjoy having a cohort to share experience and help each other through areas that our back grounds have not previously covered. It’s given me a chance to learn far more about computer science and technical areas than I ever would have on my own. On top of that, there are so many opportunities to take advantage of, so really hard to pick just one!

What excites you about cybersecurity?

I think the speed in which the nature of technology and therefore cybersecurity is developing is really exciting. The field is a fast moving one which can be challenging from a threat perspective, but it also gives you so many opportunities to learn new skills and meet new people.

Where do you want to be in 10 years time?

I’d really like to be working in a role that attempts to tackle cybercrime, either through government or industry, but I’m also very open to working in academia. So I think it really depends on how my PhD and industry placements influence my decision making. I’d be quite happy with any of them