Tom Shaw, Lecturer

Tom Shaw

Lecturer

Tom is a Lecturer in Cyber Security and Ph.D. candidate with a keen interest in practical hacking challenges and software development.

Tom has studied and worked in various capacities at Leeds Beckett since he began his undergraduate study on the BSc. Computer Forensics & Security course in 2013. During this period he worked briefly for the university app studio as a software developer and security tester. In 2016 Tom started work on the SecGen project, a framework for automatically generating randomised computer security scenarios. This project laid the groundwork for his PhD research project, which involved the design and development of further innovations within the automatic problem generation space.

Tom has been part of the Cyber Security teaching team throughout his Ph.D. candidacy in 2017 and was recently hired as a full-time Lecturer in Cyber Security. Tom played a key role in the organisation of various Capture The Flag (CTF) events. Numerous events targeting students from introductory high-school level to university and graduate level competitions have been supported by practical challenges using SecGen.

 

Current Teaching

  • Digital Security Landscapes
  • Incident Response and Investigation
  • Advanced Digital Security
  • Advanced Exploitation
  • Production Project

Research Interests

Tom's research interests include the design and development of practical cyber security scenarios, applications of randomisation and automatic problem generation, the real-time detection of progress through cyber security scenarios and innovations in the integration between a game environment, which models cyber-physical security problems, and real virtualised systems.

Innovations in this area, including dynamic scenarios generated via the SecGen project, have been used across the computer security modules for teaching, assessments, and extra-curricular competitions and activities here, and by others at other institutions. The research outputs provide a framework for event organisers, educators and researchers interested in tool and challenge design.

 
Tom Shaw, Lecturer