Professor Ross Anderson FRS FREng has been named as the recipient of the 2015 BCS Lovelace Medal awarded by BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT. The award is presented annually to individuals who, in the opinion of BCS, have made a significant contribution to the advancement of Information Systems. It is the top award in computing in the UK.
Professor Anderson, Professor of Security Engineering at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Churchill College, has been awarded the medal in recognition of his many contributions to building security engineering into a discipline.
Professor Anderson’s work has opened up new subjects ranging from usability to security economics. His book, ‘Security Engineering – A Guide to Building Dependable Distributed Systems’, has become the standard text. He has worked on the development of Home-Plug AV, electricity meter mechanisms, peer-to-peer networks, and pioneered the study of API security.
He explains: “Security engineering is about building systems to remain dependable in the face of malice, error or mischance. It focuses on the tools, processes and methods needed to design, implement and test complete systems, and to adapt existing systems as their environment evolves.”
He has built up a security research team at the University of Cambridge working on topics ranging from physics to psychology. His team has collected large quantities of data on cybercrime, helping to explain a variety of online scams. However, the core of its work is understanding how to build systems that remain secure despite growing complexity and millions of users who may not just be in competition with each other, but even in conflict: in short, how we can engineer security at global scale.
"Ross Anderson is probably the world’s most distinguished academic in the field of practical computer security. He is certainly the most original. He is the person I would go to for the most thoughtful and well-informed opinion on any cybersecurity issue," says Turing Award winner Butler Lampson of Microsoft Research.
Professor Anderson's most significant recent achievement has been establishing security economics as a thriving academic discipline. He has also been a frequent contributor to policy debates on security, privacy and human rights.
Paul Fletcher, Group Chief Executive Officer BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, says: "I am delighted that we are awarding Professor Anderson the Lovelace Medal in recognition of his wide range of achievements. The impact he has made to the IT industry and security, and his contribution to academic research makes him a very worthy recipient of this award."
Professor Anderson says of being presented with the award: "I am delighted to accept the Lovelace Medal from BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT. It is particularly pleasing that this award recognises that computing is becoming ever more multidisciplinary as the systems we build become ever more complex, as well as ever more critical to the economy and to society."