NZ Expert selected to Canadian Cybersecurity Board
21 December, 2016
A leading New Zealand academic has been appointed to Canada’s largest network security research group board. Professor
Hossein Sarrafzadeh, from Auckland’s Unitec Institute of Technology has been recruited to the Canadian Institute for
Cybersecurity (CIC), part of the University of New Brunswick’s Information Security Centre of Excellence (ISCX). He is
one of a number of respected world leaders in the field of cybersecurity selected to head up the Canadian Institute’s
board.
The CIC, a comprehensive multidisciplinary training, research & development, and entrepreneurial unit, will work with researchers in the social sciences, business, computing,
engineering, law, and science, and other national and international research centres. Its remit includes addressing
practical security problems such as enabling resilient infrastructure which performs well under malicious and uncertain
environments, conducting both research and commercialisation of cybersecurity solutions and training for the global
industry which is predicted to grow to $170 billion by 2020.
Professor Sarrafzadeh, an expert in many high-tech fields, is delighted to take up the North American position saying
the invitation to sit on the Canadian Institute for Cybersecurity is a great recognition of the cybersecurity work
happening in New Zealand.
Prof Sarrafzadeh holds a number of internationally connected positions working closely with international corporations
and governments on initiatives involving cybersecurity, machine learning, data visualisation, noise cancellation and
sentiment analysis. He recently secured and chaired the 14th International Privacy Security & Trust conference attracting international cyber security leaders, researchers and business people to New Zealand to
discuss the latest research, trends and novel applications.
He is the founder of the Centre for Computational Intelligence and Cyber Security Research, a collaboration with NICT,
Japan’s national research institute. He also founded the Centre for Computational Intelligence and Environmental
Engineering, a joint venture with NIWA and partners in China which uses sensing technologies, GIS mapping and the
Internet of Things to monitor and manage the built and natural environment.
ENDS