Digital infrastructures are at the heart of our societal fabric. They range from traditional critical infrastructures, for example, water, power to emerging ones such as smart cities, intelligent transportation, Fintech and future banking, through to large social and business interaction platforms.
Cyber security is a hard challenge in any system. The ever-increasing interconnectivity and dependencies across the boundaries of such infrastructures make it an even harder one. Legacy (often insecure) and contemporary (secure or with hitherto undiscovered vulnerabilities) hardware, software and services are connected together, often on-the-fly, due to millions of user interactions. This is compounded by complex and changing supply chains with varying levels of security assurances and trust.
This next frontier in cyber security requires highly skilled professionals to proactively anticipate and address the implications for security and resilience through innovative fundamental research that will underpin future infrastructure architectures and products and services therein. However, there continues to be a major shortage of skilled cyber security professionals.
PhD-level graduates are key to addressing this major shortage as they are the future research leaders with the capability to anticipate the challenges and develop innovative solutions.
Career Opportunities
Graduates will be prepared for a variety of careers all over the globe, including world-leading research. Others could work as consultants or as part of large-scale engineering industries, software development organisations, telecommunication and infrastructure providers.
Programme Structure
Courses include:
- Cyber threats and risks
- Human and Organisational Factors
- Security of Industrial Control Systems
- Internet of Things (IoT) and Industrial IoT (IIoT)
- Secure Software Engineering
- Futures Thinking and Responsible Innovation
Admission Requirements
Academic Requirements
GPA: Upper Second Class
English Requirements
- TOEFL iBT: 95
- PTE Academic: 71
- IELTS: 7
Other Requirements
- Applicants must hold/achieve a minimum of an upper-second class honours degree (or international equivalent) in a relevant discipline.
- Cyber security is an interdisciplinary challenge, and the CDT focuses on both social and technical aspects of trust, identity, privacy and security in large-scale infrastructures.
- Applications are welcome from those with a range of disciplinary backgrounds including (but not limited to): computer science, psychology, management, electrical and electronics engineering, civil engineering, criminology, and social sciences.
- Candidates should be willing to work across disciplinary boundaries and inform their research from different disciplinary perspectives.
Fees and Funding
Tuition Fees
- International: 51,957 AUD / year (≈ 27,500 GBP / year)
- Domestic: 9,647 AUD / year (≈ 5,106 GBP / year)
- Home part-time: £2,553 per year
Living Costs
Bristol, United Kingdom: 1,417–2,381 AUD / month
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