Andrew Jones

Professor Andrew Jones has a strong background of management and leadership within both large and small organisations. Following a military career, he moved to the Defence Research Agency where he was responsible for research into Information Security and the security aspects of the Digitisation of the Battlefield Initiative. Whilst there, he also gained considerable expertise on the criminal and terrorist issues that relate to information systems. During this period at DERA (subsequently QinetiQ), the depth and breadth of research expanded and the group that he led grew in size from 30 to 90 research scientists, but he remained directly involved in the research. He then took on the role of Business Manager for the Department and in his new role he developed a corporate intelligence service for QinetiQ, and devised a methodology for the measurement of the level of threat in an information environment. The underlying concepts of this methodology have subsequently been used as the basis for the new Infosec Standard 1 (IS1). Whilst in a management role within DERA/QinetiQ, he developed relationships with a number of academic institutes and was involved in the development of an MSc course in the Information Security area.

During his employment with DERA/QinetiQ, he gained an MSc (distinction) in Information Security and Computer Crime. In September 2002 he left QinetiQ for a role at the University of Glamorgan as a principal lecturer in information security and computer crime, where he created a computer forensics research laboratory to investigate the issues related to this increasingly important area and also developed two further MSc awards. He gained a Ph.D. in the measurement of Threats to Information Systems in July 2004.

In January 2005 he took up a post as a technical group leader in the Security Research Centre at British Telecommunications (BT) and in June 2006 was made Head of Security Research, then in 2008 was promoted to Chief Researcher and took on responsibility for setting the direction and managing the Information Security research programme within BT. While employed at BT he went on a sabbatical where he took up a post of the Programme Chair for the Information Security MSc at Khalifa University in the United Arab Emirates where he developed a Masters course and also created an information security research programme. To achieve this he worked with a number of government departments, defence contractors and organisations from the Oil and Gas industry and local businesses to develop an educational and research capability that met the regional requirements. In June 2013, with the research capability established and having completed the development and Ministry accreditation of the course he returned to the UK where he is now carrying out research into Information Security and Digital Forensics.

He is currently the Director of the Cyber Security Centre at the university of Hertfordshire where he has created a security and digital forensics research lab and is currently undertaking research into a number of related topics.

He has been involved in a number of information security projects for the Government, the police and a defence contractor. He has acted as the technical advisor for the then National Crime Squad Data Acquisition and Recovery Team and he is currently on the committee for five information security and computer forensic conferences. He currently holds posts as an adjunct professor at Edith Cowan University in Perth, Australia, the University of South Australia in Adelaide and as a visiting professor at the University of Derby, De Montfort University, the University of South Wales and The University of Suffolk in the UK. He has authored seven books in the areas of Information Warfare, Information Security and Digital Forensics and is regularly called upon to give keynote speeches at security conferences.