The University of Waterloo launched its Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute today
The University of Waterloo launched its Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute today.
The interdisciplinary Institute has the mandate to uncover new approaches to security and privacy and educating Canada’s future leaders to be able to understand and respond to emerging online threats.
The Institute will also work closely with corporations and government to advance their cybersecurity and privacy protection capabilities.
“The global economy relies on safe and secure digital systems,” said Charmaine Dean, Vice-President, University Research at Waterloo. “The launch of the Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute comes at a critical time when we need concerted efforts in developing new cryptographic methods and in training highly skilled personnel who can support communities in the mission-critical nature of cybersecurity and privacy.”
The Institute will access the expertise of 88 researchers across six faculties. Areas of expertise include:
"The saying, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link is as true in cybersecurity and privacy as it is anywhere. With key ingredients ranging from mathematical theorems to human elements, the challenges are inherently interdisciplinary," said Stephen M. Watt, Dean of Mathematics at Waterloo. "Our research strengths position Waterloo uniquely to make Canada a global leader in the research, development and deployment of cybersecurity and privacy solutions."
Florian Kerschbaum, professor in the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science, leads the institute. Kerschbaum’s research focuses on data security and privacy, and he recently developed a security protocol for blockchain auction with a collaborator from Airbus.
Symcor is proud to be the founding partner of the Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute at the University of Waterloo. The sponsorship is part of Symcor’s commitment to Business-to-Industry (B2I) solutions facilitated through a powerful and collaborative network. Symcor is a change accelerator helping customers effect their digital transformations with products like COR.IQ that enables financial institutions to respond rapidly to the changing face of fraud.
RBC has four large cybersecurity research projects underway at Waterloo which total more than $2.2 million, and they are creating an RBC lab for cybersecurity and partnership collaborations on campus. They have supported the CryptoWorks21 graduate program for cryptography, including quantum safe cryptosystems.
