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Industrial Fellowship enables University programmer to continue vital work against hackers

Dr Andy King, Reader in Program Analysis at the Computing Laboratory, University of Kent, and an expert on computer security, has been awarded a £112,237 Royal Society Industrial Fellowship that will enable him to continue his research on using program analysis techniques to detect security holes in software.

The Industrial Fellowship, the primary aim of which is to enhance knowledge transfer in science and technology between those in industry and those in academia, will also allow Dr King to continue his collaboration with Portcullis Computer Security Limited, a UK-based company specialising in IT security services and solutions, for another four years. His Fellowship will begin in October 2008.

Dr King is an authority on theoretical computer science and computer security issues. His recent work aims to support ethical hackers ('white hats') in automating the search for security vulnerabilities, the main objective being to discover bugs before they are exploited by malicious hackers ('black hats').

Dr King said: 'This Fellowship represents a great opportunity to apply theoretical techniques to locate security holes in commercial software. Our work is pioneering the automated discovery of such faults.'

Professor Simon Thompson, Director and Head of the Computing Laboratory at the University of Kent, added: 'Security has become one of the major concerns for governments, companies and individuals, and computer security is at the heart of this. Try to imagine a world without computers: the prospect is terrifying; transport, food, energy and communication all depend on computer systems.

'It is therefore vital to use the most advanced research in the defence of our computing infrastructure. Dr King's Industrial Fellowship will take 'blue skies' mathematical techniques and focus them for practical application to increase all our security.'

Contact: mediaoffice@kent.ac.uk

Story published at 12:00pm 7 April 2008