Rate My Professor Ryan Ko

Professor Ryan Ko is the Chair Professor of Cyber Security, Centre Director of the UQ Cyber Research Centre, and Director of Research in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science within the Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology at the University of Queensland. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Computer Engineering)(Honours) from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (2005), and a PhD from the same institution (2011). Earlier in his career, Ko worked as a systems engineer and founded two startups in Singapore. Prior to joining UQ in 2019, he was at the University of Waikato in New Zealand, where he was the highest-funded computer scientist, serving as Principal Investigator and Science Leader for the STRATUS cloud security project (NZ$12.2 million, 2014-2018), which received a 'Gold' rating from MBIE, was adopted by INTERPOL, and featured in New Zealand's Cyber Security Strategy. At UQ, he has held roles including Deputy Head of School (External Engagement) (2021-2022), Founding Discipline Leader of Cyber Security and Software Engineering (2020-2021), and Group Leader - Cyber Security (2019). Ko has established key interdisciplinary programs, including the UQ Cyber Research Centre (2019) involving over 60 academics across six schools and four faculties, UQ's postgraduate cyber security degrees (2019), New Zealand's first cyber security graduate lab (CROW, 2012), Master of Cyber Security, NZ Cyber Security Challenge (2014), NZ Institute for Security and Crime Science (2017), Oceania Cybersecurity Challenge (2020), and International Cybersecurity Challenge (2022), where he coached Team Oceania to 2nd place globally in 2023. Over his career, he has secured A$20+ million in grants as lead Chief Investigator and A$40+ million as co-investigator.

Ko's research specializes in cyber security, encompassing data provenance, cloud security, industrial control systems security, privacy-preserving technologies, and situational crime prevention for cybercrimes. Notable publications include 'Privacy-preserving and fairness-aware federated learning for critical infrastructure protection and resilience' (2024), 'SCP-BP framework: situational crime prevention for managing data breaches in business processes' (2024), 'A framework for user-centric visualisation of blockchain transactions in critical infrastructure' (2023), and his editorial role in ISO/IEC 21878 'Security guidelines for design and implementation of virtualized servers' (2018). He has contributed to standards as Head of Delegation for Singapore in ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 27, editor of ISO/IEC PWI 5181 Data Provenance Reference Model, and co-chair of Singapore TR 106:2022 Tiered cybersecurity standards. Ko serves on the ORCID Audit and Risk Committee, has advised INTERPOL, governments of Tonga and New Zealand, and Australian law firms in litigations. He is a registered expert for TEQSA and ACS Accreditation Committee member. Awards include Fellowships from the Australian Computer Society, Queensland Academy of Arts and Sciences, and Cloud Security Alliance (2016); Singapore Young Professional Award (2018); inaugural CSA Ron Knode Service Award (2012); (ISC)² Information Security Leadership Award (2015); UQ Awards for Excellence - Leadership (Commendation, 2023); and multiple teaching excellence awards. Ko is a frequent keynote speaker at events like OECD, INTERPOL, and TEDx, and appears in media on cyber security topics.