USW student named national Cyber Student of the Year

A University of South Wales (USW) Computer Forensics student has won a national award for her work looking at the security of data in vehicles.

Angela Mison, was named the Cyber Student of the Year in Automotive by Techworks, at their annual awards and gala dinner in London.

The award recognises the work that Angela did whilst completing her MSc in Computer Forensics at USW.

This includes looking at the security of information transmitted from vehicles into the cloud, as well as cloud-based evidence for use in the criminal justice system.

Angela, who lives in Ferndale, is due to graduate from her MSc next month, and has just started her PhD, a KESS (Knowledge Exchange Skills Scholarship) partnership with Thales.

Angela said: “I was absolutely dumbfounded to receive this award, as I have really enjoyed doing this work. It was the culmination of my year of study and I never thought that anyone outside of the University would be interested in what I had done.

“I’m just starting my KESS PhD with Thales, investigating the defence of complex systems from cyber threats.”

Gareth Davies, a Senior Lecturer in Digital Forensics at USW, nominated Angela for the award after supervising her MSc project.

Gareth said: “Angela’s research has been discussed at the South Wales Senior Investigative Conference and is being requested by a number of organisations including the National Crime Agency. She worked tirelessly throughout her MSc and it is great that she has been recognised by Techworks for this.”