Computer security has been among our research interests for many years, along with related topics such as privacy, safety and maintainability. We research the technologies used by security engineers including access controls, protocols, cryptology, formal methods, hardware design, biometrics and usability; we also study the dependability of whole systems, which involves the economics of information security and spills over into policy.
We have established groups collecting data on cybercrime and abuse for use by researchers worldwide (the Cambridge Cybercrime Centre); developing novel vulnerability-mitigation mechanisms that are now starting to appear in commercial CPU designs (the CHERI project); and studying hardware tamper-resistance and emission security (the Tamper Lab).
Much of our best research has been inspired by tackling real problems, and our funding comes from a wide range of sources; we collaborate with commerce and industry both in the UK and overseas. We are always happy to discuss potential projects, commercial sponsorship and consultancy assignments, as well as accepting graduate students at both the MPhil and PhD levels.