LOR Lecture

On 04 March 2014 the Laing O'Rourke Centre for Systems Engineering and Innovation held its 2nd Annual Distinguished Lecture

This years talk was delivered by Mr Mike St John-Green, a cybersecurity expert spanning policy and technology.  The talk on ‘Cybersecurity and the modern city – when our infrastructure goes online’ was well attended by Ray O’Rourke KBE and Bernadette O’Rourke, senior colleagues from Industry including Laing O’Rourke, the Rector & President, Provost and other senior academic staff from across the College, students and members of the public.  The lecture can be viewed on the Centre’s website.  This prestigious annual event was later followed by a special supper which was well  attended by senior colleagues from Laing O’Rourke, the College and the Centre’s guests at 170 Queens Gate.

Abstract

Cyberspace underpins the Information Age that will drive many of the industrial and social changes of the 21st Century. Some call it an information revolution. Cyberspace has already altered many aspects of our daily lives and the changes are rapid: the smartphone, now an essential everyday item, arrived in the past decade. With 2 billion people on-line and 2 billion more in the next decade, with the Internet of Things promising an IP address on objects we never anticipated and our buildings becoming 'smart', we have only seen the beginning. Yet our trust in the safety, security and resilience of this unique man-made environment has been undermined. Issues of security and privacy are in the headlines. The resilience of the critical infrastructure is now being questioned.

This lecture will argue that in order to get ahead of the wave, we must build more resilient, more intrinsically safe and secure systems rather than focusing ever more energy on defending poorly constructed and operated systems. The role of systems engineers is central to this work. Do we have the necessary tools and techniques for the complex systems of systems in the Built Environment of the 21st Century? Can we make the case that this security is worth the extra cost.

Speaker Biography

Mike St John-Green is cyber security subject matter expert spanning policy and technology. A professional engineer with 39 years in government, he was Deputy Director CESG within GCHQ and then Deputy Director in the Office of Cyber Security and Information Assurance in the Cabinet Office before retiring. He now works independently for a range of commercial clients as client’s friend, auditor and technical advisor. Well-known in the cyber security community: he writes and speaks on cyber security and is called upon to chair committees and conferences on the subject, including the chairing the IET’s committee on cyber security in the built environment.