The Cyber Horizons event brought together experts and early-career researchers to explore the evolving landscape of cybersecurity and artificial intelligence

This two-day event, part of the CSIT Doctoral Training Programme Spring School, featured a series of insightful talks and interactive workshops aimed at addressing pressing challenges and fostering innovation in the field.

Day 1: Navigating Emerging Threats and Ethical Implications

Abeba Birhane opened the sessions by examining the societal impact of computer vision research. Through an analysis of three decades of research papers and patents, she highlighted how advancements in computer vision have inadvertently fueled mass surveillance technologies. Birhane emphasized the ethical responsibilities of researchers in mitigating these unintended consequences.​

Junqing Zhang discussed lightweight security solutions for the Internet of Things (IoT). He introducephysical layer security techniques, including radio frequency fingerprint identification (RFFI) and key generation from wireless channels, as effective methods for authenticating and securing low-power IoT devices without relying on traditional cryptography.​

Paul Smith delivered a compelling session on Digital Innovation in the Nuclear Sector, highlighting how technologies like AI, digital twins, and smart sensors are reshaping nuclear energy to support energy security and net-zero goals. While these advancements promise operational efficiencies, he cautioned that they also introduce significant cybersecurity risks. Smith argued for a systems-thinking approach to resilience—one that looks beyond the technology to address broader security challenges across digitalised critical infrastructure.

Roberto Doriguzzi Corin addressed the challenges of applying machine learning in dynamic cybersecurity environments. He focused on the "open-world" problem, where models must adapt to evolving threats and adversarial attacks. Corin proposed strategies for developing robust ML models capable of detecting novel threats and mitigating adversarial perturbations.​

Olivier Compagnon from Qualcomm delivered an engaging talk titled "Hardware Security Introduction – Do You Trust the Root?", focusing on the foundational role of hardware-based trust in cybersecurity. He highlighted how secure hardware elements, like roots of trust, underpin the integrity of digital systems but also come with their own challenges and vulnerabilities. The session emphasized the importance of verifying and securing the hardware layer as a critical component of building resilient, end-to-end security architectures.