Speaker Profile

Debi is Professor of Cyber Security and Human Behaviour at Deakin University and a Director of Industry Research for Deakin’s Centre for Cyber Security Research and Innovation (CSRI). In addition, Debi is Professor of Cyber Security at the University of Portsmouth (UK) and a visiting Professor at Royal Holloway, University of London (UK). She is Programme Director for Protective Security & Risk at CREST (the Centre for Research & Evidence for Security Threats - www.crestresearch.ac.uk) – a research hub funded by the UK’s security and intelligence community. Other current projects focus on understanding cyber security risk perceptions across the lifespan and exploring the conceptual foundations of algorithm design for AI/ML. Debi was previously Head of the Centre for Cyber Security at Cranfield University at the Defence Academy of the UK and was a member of the UK MOD’s Defence Science Expert Committee. She is an Academic Fellow at the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre.

Debi’s research interests are in the social and behavioural aspects of cyber security – particularly in finding ways of ‘patching with people’ as well as technology. She has worked extensively across the public and private sector for organisations such as UK MOD, GCHQ, Cabinet Office, Home Office, Euroclear, Prudential, Barclaycard, Reuters and Close Bros. She has had a number of articles on cyber security published, presented at a range of conferences and co-authored a book for Butterworth Heinemann, Risk Management for Computer Security: Protecting Your Network & Information Assets.