The conference, organised by The Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT), Queen’s University Belfast, brings together academic and industry experts to address the most pressing hardware security issues.

Prof Mark M. Tehranipoor, Intel Charles E. Young Endowed Chair Professor in Cybersecurity and Dr Patrik Ekdahl, Manager of Platform Security Research at Ericsson delivered keynote talks. Delegates also heard project updates from key partners in the RISE project and early career researchers from across the UK presented posters and demos.

The cyber security breaches survey 2021, published by the Department for Digital, Media, Culture and Sport (DCMS) highlighted some hardware security challenges that have been prevalent since the COVID-19 Pandemic, including:

• Difficulty upgrading hardware, software and systems. With staff working at home, there are more endpoints for organisations to keep track of.
• It is more challenging for large organisations in particular to deal with legacy hardware and software – there are more endpoints for them to cover, upgrades have to be done remotely, and IT and cyber teams are dealing with competing priorities.
• Supplying and retrieving hardware (e.g. new laptops) to staff is an issue

_{(DCMS, 2021)}

During the pandemic people relied on their devices to work, shop and stay connected with family and friends. With this shift to online living also came an increase in criminal activity surrounding scams. Attackers are increasingly targeting unpatched devices to gain access to the victim’s network. _{(National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), 2021 )}

Professor Máire O’Neill, Director of RISE, commented: “This is the first in-person RISE conference since the COVID-19 pandemic. The demand for hardware security research and innovation is more important now than ever before with the lifestyle changes that came about as a result of the pandemic, including the shift to remote and hybrid working.

It is important to address security throughout a device’s lifecycle, from the initial design through to its operational environment. A strong hardware security foundation is essential in realising secure systems (such as IoT) and hardware-based security services.

This conference provides a great opportunity for collaboration between academic and industry experts to consider hardware security solutions to help deal with the global problem of cyber threats”

About RISE

The NCSC supports four UK academic Research Institutes, including RISE, to develop cyber security capability in strategically important areas.

RISE was launched in November 2017 and is a global hub for research and innovation in hardware security. The institute is hosted by Queen’s University Belfast and is jointly funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). Partners in the project include Universities of Cambridge, Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Manchester and Surrey. A key aim of RISE is to bring together the hardware security community in the UK and build a strong network of national and international research partnerships.