Professor Sadie Creese

Sadie Creese is Professor of Cyber Security in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Oxford. She teaches operational aspects of cybersecurity including threat detection, risk assessment and security architectures. In Computer Science she teaches the second year Computer Security course, and the Advanced Security course taken both by BSc undergraduates and MSc graduate students. Sadie is currently Chair of Examiners for the MSc in Computer Science. Elsewhere in Oxford, Sadie is a member of the faculty of the Blavatnik School Executive Public Leaders Programme, where she lectures on cybersecurity topics relevant to senior leaders in public policy from around the world. She also is a regular contributor to the leadership programmes and MBA teaching of the Saïd Business School.

Sadie is a Fellow of Worcester College, Oxford where she sits on the Governing Body, and a regular public speaker on cybersecurity and organisational challenges today and in the future. Prior to returning to academia she has worked as a cybersecurity expert in business and as a research scientist specializing in security for the UK’s Ministry of Defence. She has a DPhil in Computer Science from the University of Oxford, as well as an MSc in Computation and a BSc (Hons) in Mathematics and Philosophy.

Her current research portfolio includes: threat modelling and detection with particular interest in the insider threat and threat from AI, visual analytics for cybersecurity, risk propagation logics and communication, resilience strategies for business, privacy requirements, vulnerability of distributed ledgers and block-chains,  understanding cyber-harm and how it emerges for single organisations, nations and the potential for systemic cyber-risk, and the Cyber Security Capacity Maturity Model for Nations. She is Principal Investigator on the AXIS sponsored project “Analysing Cyber-Value-at-Risk, Residual Risk and models for Systemic Cyber-Risk” focused on developing a method for predicting potential harms arising from cyber-attacks. She leads the Oxford team’s collaboration with the World Economic Forum’s Shaping the Future of Cybersecurity and Digital Trust Platform, research sponsored by AXIS, which is considering the cybercrime challenges that world leaders will need to address in the near and far technology future – part of the Platform’s Futures Series – “Futures Series: Cybercrime 2025”. Sadie is also co-Chair of the Lloyds Register Foundation sponsored Foresight review of cyber security for the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), which is considering operational cybersecurity technology gaps in future IIoT environments.

Sadie is the founding Director of the Global Cyber Security Capacity Centre (GCSCC) at the Oxford Martin School, where she continues to serve as a Director conducting research into what constitutes national cybersecurity capacity, working with countries and international organisations around the world. She was the founding Director of Oxford’s Cybersecurity network launched in 2008 and now called CyberSecurity@Oxford. She was a member of the World Economic Forum’s Cyber Security Centre’s Strategic Advisory Board, and was a Technical Advisor to the Government of Japan (GOJ) and the World Economic Forum joint project on International Data Flow Governance ‘Advancing the Osaka Track’.