SMU’s Professor Robert Deng, a leading global authority and award winning researcher in cybersecurity, has been conferred the prestigious AXA Chair Professorship of Cybersecurity.

Prof Deng is the first named Chair professor at SMU’s School of Information Systems, one of only six AXA Chairs selected for this honour worldwide and the only one from Singapore, as well as the only AXA Chair in Asia to undertake research in the Data & Technology risks cluster under the AXA Research Fund. As AXA Chair Professor of Cybersecurity, Professor Deng will undertake a research programme to systematically investigate a unified framework for protecting data in the new environment. The research is expected to yield new security models, algorithms, protocols, and analysis techniques which will provide new ways of protecting data security and privacy.

Prof Deng noted that the public and private sectors should continue to invest in cybersecurity research and training. Researchers at SMU School of Information Systems, for example, work on various aspects of cybersecurity, including applied cryptography, network security, data security and security management, often in collaboration with industry, he added. In addition, the School’s bachelors, masters and doctoral degree programmes all offer cybersecurity tracks. It will also be critical to raise awareness among the general public, he said. “Today, 90 percent of security incidents are due to a lack of user awareness. Internet users should be able to recognise danger signs – for example, we should have enough basic knowledge to verify that we are not transacting with a phishing site.”