CRANE includes a number of Working Groups (WGs) and SIGs (Special Interest Groups). We expect this list to evolve throughout the lifetime of CRANE, and calls for proposals for new groups will be issued from time to time.

If you ware interested in joining or supporting any of the activities below, please complete our web form, and we will be in touch in due course.

Inclusive Careers WG

An important goal of CRANE is to help to enable and promote academic career development in cyber security, recognising the challenges of cross-disciplinary working and the imperative to include many voices in this dialogue. We will work to support members at all career stages, and from all disciplines, regarding EDI, by coordinating and implementing activities which support the development of a collaborative, collegiate and inclusive culture across the network. We seek to identify barriers to any member’s inclusion and career development. We will locate interventions to remove the obstacles and communicate best practices throughout the group.

Research Practices SIG

Cyber Security opens up particularly many questions about how to behave responsibly in the conduct of research. Alongside the classical concerns of research integrity, much security research will make use of personal data or monitor human behaviour. A lot of security research involves ‘trying to break things’, and both the way one goes about that, and the disclosure of vulnerabilities thereby discovered is the subject of ongoing dialogue. Such work brings researchers into contact with those who might wish to limit publication – for reasons of commercial protection, or for the defence of their own institution’s reputation. Finally, some research gives rise to concerns about international working – coded as ‘trusted research’ – both in the strength of defensive and protective technologies, and in the discovery of vulnerabilities (and methods for discovering more).

This group will develop an ethics approach for CRANE, inform ongoing activity, and develop a library of guidance for researchers and their institutions.

Learned Society WG

A learned society in Cyber Security Research is expected to emerge during the lifetime of CRANE. This group is making that happen.

Regional Focus

CRANE will support and develop regional groups and clusters of cyber research activity. Details will follow soon.