Professor Phil Legg

Phil Legg is a Professor of Cyber Security at the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol), UK, in recognition of "Advancing Teaching and Learning" (Primary domain) and for "Research with Impact" (Secondary domain). He is Co-Director of the UWEcyber Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Education (ACE-CSE), as recognised by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). He was Programme Leader for the NCSC-certified MSc Cyber Security at UWE since it launched in 2018, handing this role over in September 2024. As of 2024, he joined the Programme Leadership team for the BSc Cyber Security and Digital Forensics programme. He also serves as the Cyber Security research theme leader for the Computer Science Research Centre (CSRC).

 

My research interests address the intersections of cyber security, machine learning, visual analytics, and human-computer interaction, including improving interpretability and understanding of risk, and improving robustness and trust of modern security technologies. Previous research has addressed insider threat detection and cyber situational awareness, through to human-machine teaming for assessing confidence and trust of multiple agents, and active adversarial machine-learning for identifying security vulnerabilities in dynamic learning systems. 

 

I have led externally-funded research projects, supported by DSTL, NCSC, InnovateUK, CCAV, and also by industry. Example projects include "HASTE: Human-centric active learning for decision support in threat exploration" and "RicherPicture: Automated network defence through business and threat led machine learning". Other research activities include detecting IoT security threats (supported by the NCSC). I also work closely with industry partners on PhD research studentships in the areas of cyber, defence and national security, and I have worked on industrial consultancy projects, including penetration testing of commercial systems, and developing bespoke clinical systems for the NHS. I currently supervise PhD students and DPhil staff candidates.

 

I teach Cyber Security Analytics and Cyber Security Consultancy, whilst also supporting other teaching activities, and supervising undergraduate and postgraduate projects. Previous modules include Security Data Analytics and Visualisation, Security Management in Practice, and Principles of Computing.

 

I am co-founder of CSE-Connect (formerly CISSEUK), supported by the NCSC, that promotes sharing and collaboration to improve cyber security education across the UK and internationally. As part of this, I work to deliver outreach and external engagement to promote cyber security, working with schools and adult learners. Recently, I have been involved with the NCSC Cyber Schools Hub and the EmPowerCyber workshop, as well as the Unlock Cyber project, and the Bristol Festival of Learning.

 

I originally studied at Cardiff University for both my BSc Computer Science and my PhD Computer Science. After completing my PhD in 2010, I went on to post-doctoral research and teaching roles at Swansea University (2010-2013) and the University of Oxford (2013-2015), working with a variety of stakeholders in industry and government. I joined UWE Bristol in 2015. I hold a Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning for Higher Education (Distinction), and I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. I am a professional member of the IEEE and ACM, a Full Member of the Chartered Institute of Information Security (CIISec), a member of the Council of Professors and Heads of Computing (CPHC), and hold professional certifications for CompTIA SecurityX (formerly CASP+), PenTest+ Security+, Palo Alto Networks, and Microsoft Azure.

 

Web: https://pa-legg.github.io

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