MESSAGE FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
N. Asokan
The past year has been both eventful and successful for CPI. We began by successfully completing the renewal process: in December 2022, the University renewed CPI for another 5-year term. We launched several new initiatives, including the new Undergraduate Award program supported by our industry partners, which will recognize top-performing undergraduate students in cybersecurity/privacy courses, and two media projects, our CPI Spotlight Series and the Behind The Firewall videos, which shine a light on research achievements by CPI members and their backgrounds. We also continued successful on-going activities such as helping to stand up the National Cybersecurity Consortium (NCC), awarding Excellence Graduate Scholarships, and two rounds of our Seed Grant program administered jointly with other UWaterloo institutes. CPI played an active role in helping our members submit several proposals to the first call-for-proposals by NCC. We also made significant progress in the new strategic priorities we identified as part of our renewal process. For example, (1) Anindya Sen (CPI AD) organized a successful and very well-received workshop on health privacy where CPI experts explained the issues to an audience drawn from Health Canada and Statistics Canada (“Influence Public Policy”); and (2) Mastercard joins CPI as a CPI Partner, funding a significant research program as well as student scholarships and awards (“Build Partnerships”).
We recruited a permanent MD (Colin Russell). We also expanded our team by recruiting a communication specialist (Harminder Phull) and a business development manager (Ganna Bondarenko) on fixed-term bases. Their contributions are already evident in terms of increased visibility and engagement with new industry partners. With a complete team with the requisite skills in place, CPI will be well-positioned to deliver on its strategic priorities in the coming years.
CPI OVERVIEW
CPI plays a pivotal role in supporting our 69 faculty in their efforts to create leading-edge research in a variety of cybersecurity and privacy areas. In line with UWaterloo’s strategic plan, CPI builds on three intersecting themes for local and global impact:
CPI EXPERTISE AREAS
CPI members strive towards these stated goals by working across a broad front of cybersecurity and privacy topics. When CPI was founded, four CPI areas of expertise were identified (security, privacy, cryptography, quantum-safe communications). As the initial list was too coarse-grained, we initiated an exercise to refine and revamp the list, with input from CPI members. We began with a draft list and solicited feedback from several senior CPI members, as well as the members of the CPI Faculty Advisory Committee which has representation from every faculty.
The revised list identifies the following nine primary areas of expertise:
A detailed expansion of these areas may be found here.
Cryptography
Data Science – Security and Privacy
Human & Societal Aspects of Security and Privacy
Network Security
Operational Security
Privacy-Enhancing Technologies
Quantum-Safe Communication
Software, Hardware, and Systems Security
Legal and Policy Aspects of Security and Privacy
The list is intended to be descriptive rather than prescriptive and is used to find the right experts whenever an external partner approaches CPI with a request for proficiency and to facilitate internal interdisciplinary collaboration. These nine areas are also indicative of the importance CPI places on addressing global cybersecurity risks, as they encompass a comprehensive and interconnected approach to understanding and proactively addressing the spectrum of cybersecurity and privacy concerns of the global community. Additionally, these areas of expertise expand on the specific fields within which the cybersecurity talent gap exists; illustrating the wide range of interdisciplinary skills required to effectively engage with multilayered cybersecurity and privacy issues, e.g., implementing surveillance technology in the workplace requires hardware, software, legal, public relations, and ethics skillsets to be effective and responsible.