
Professor Alan Woodward
About
Biography
Professor Alan Woodward is an internationally renowned computer security expert with particular expertise and current research interests in cyber security, covert communications, forensic computing and image/signal processing.
Alan began his academic career as a physicist. However, he developed an interest in computing early on through signal processing for gamma ray burst detectors, and so switched to engineering after being an undergraduate at the Department of Physics & Astronomy. His post graduate research at the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research (ISVR), University of Southampton, was in adaptive filtering, and novel methods of recovering corrupted signals. Alan also worked on novel methods of noise cancellation, both passive and active.
After leaving the ISVR Alan worked for the UK government for many years. He continues to provide advice to governmental organisations such as Europol through the European Centre for Cyber Crime (EC3), as well as private sector organisations as an independent consultant.
Alan has been involved in some of the most significant advances in computer technology which have seen him elected as a Fellow of British Computer Society, Institute of Physics and the Royal Statistical Society. He is also a Chartered Engineer, Chartered IT Practitioner, and a Chartered Physicist.
In addition to his academic and government work, Alan has filled senior management roles in businesses focussed on various aspects of Information Technology (IT). In 2000 Alan was pivotal in the flotation of Charteris plc on the London Stock Exchange. He remained a director until 2008 at which point he began to focus back on his academic interests. Alan continues to be a director of businesses involved in IT.
Although Alan has been at the leading edge of technology development for many years, he is primarily a particularly good communicator. He is known for his ability to communicate complex ideas in a simple, yet passionate manner. He spends an increasing amount of his time on public engagement in STEM. Alan not only publishes in the academic and trade journals but has articles in the national press and comments on TV and radio.
Just a sample of the stories Professor Woodward has contributed to includes:
High-tech Cold War between China and the West can only end in conflict – The Times
Email Error ‘like handing over your keys’ – BBC
Security firm hijacks high-profile Twitter accounts – BBC
British Airways breach: How did hackers get in? – BBC
Hackers ‘targeting US mid-term elections’ – BBC
Decade-old flaw in Twitter allows hackers to spread ISIS propaganda using old accounts – The Telegraph
If you say your device is ‘unhackable’, you’re just asking for it – The Register
Is your computer slower than normal? – The Daily Mail
Affiliations and memberships
ResearchResearch interests
- Cyber Security
- Digital Forensics
- Cryptography
- Steganography
- Digital Watermarking
Research interests
- Cyber Security
- Digital Forensics
- Cryptography
- Steganography
- Digital Watermarking
Publications
- Alan Woodward. Crumpling Fails To Settle The Encryption Debate, Jane's Intelligence Review, June 2018
- Krzysztof Cabaj ; Luca Caviglione ; Wojciech Mazurczyk; Steffen Wendzel ; Alan Woodward. The New Threats Of Information Hiding, IEEE IT Professional , June 2018
- Alan Woodward. End-to-end Encryption Tests SIGINT Agencies, Jane's Intelligence Review, Feb 2018
- Alan Woodward. The Glitch that Stole Christmas, BBC Wesbite, Dec 2017
- Alan Woodward. Equipment Interference: A Way To Circumvent Encryption, Jane's Intelligence Review, Nov 2017
- William Buchanan, Scott Helme, Alan Woodward. Analysis of adoption of security headers in HTTP, IET Information Security, Oct 2017
- Contributing Author to Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment 2017, Europol, Sept 2017
- William Buchanan, Scott Helme, Alan Woodward. Cryptography Across Industry Sectors, Journal of Cyber Security Technology , June 2017
- Alan Woodward. Secret Signals, Jane's Intelligence Review, June 2017
- Alan Woodward. Smart homes haunted by the cyber-ghost of Christmas future, BBC, Dec 2016
- Alan Woodward. Equipment Interference: A Way To Circumvent Encryption, Jane's Intelligence Review, Nov 2018
- Contributing Author to Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment 2016, Europol, Sept 2016
- William Buchanan, Alan Woodward. Will quantum computers be the end of public key encryption? Journal of Cyber Security Technology, Sept 2016
- Alan Woodward. How to have a merry cyber-safe Christmas, BBC, Dec 2015
- Contributing Author to Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment 2015, Europol, Sept 2015
- Alan Woodward. Malware infecting hard disk firmware remained hidden for 15 years – but who’s responsible? The Conversation, Feb 2015
- Alan Woodward. No-well, No-well - keeping your Christmas gadgets safe , BBC, Dec 2014
- Alan Woodward. If South Korea’s nuclear plant staff are vulnerable, then so are the reactors, The Conversation, Dec 2014
- Alan Woodward. Cyber whodunnit: North Korea prime suspect but there are many potential culprits, The Conversation, Dec 2014
- Contributing Author to Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment, Europol, Sept 2014
- Alan Woodward. Don’t panic about Heartbleed but have a spring clean anyway, The Conversation, Apr 2014
- Alan Woodward. Password Tips, BBC, Apr 2014
- Alan Woodward. World wide web is going strong after 25 years, but the internet isn’t holding up, The Conversation, Mar 2014
- Alan Woodward. Demise of Mt Gox exposes the shaky foundations of Bitcoin , the Conversation, Feb 2014
- Alan Woodward. South Korean Cyber War Ambitions, The Conversation, Feb 2014
- Alan Woodward. The 12 Cyber Scams of Christmas, BBC Wesbite, Dec 2013
- Alan Woodward. Intelligence Chiefs Appear In public, The Conversation, Nov 2013
- Alan Woodward. Pick your battles when fighting financial spying, The Conversation, Sept 2013
- Alan Woodward. Analysis Of Webcam Vulnerability, BBC, Aug 2013
- Alan Woodward. Solar storms could lead to a global techno-meltdown , The Conversation, Aug 2013
- Alan Woodward. A Battle Has Been Won But The War On Piracy Is Far From Over , The Conversation, July 2013
- Alan Woodward. Treat NSA leaks with care – national security is on the line, The Conversation, June 2013
- Alan Woodward. Cyber-security a key issue for US-China presidential summit, The Conversation, June 2013
- Alan Woodward. Preventing piracy at the cost of your privacy, The Conversation, May 2013
- Alan Woodward. Is It Quantum Computing Or Not? Scientific American, May 2013
- Alan Woodward. The Real Phone Hacking Scandal Is In Your Pocket, The Conversation, May 2013
- Alan Woodward. Unintended Consequences Of Interconnecting Infrastructure , Scientific American, Apr 2013
- Alan Woodward. How hackers use the "Seven Deadly Sins" BBC, Dec 2012
- Alan Woodward. Quantum Cryptography At The End Of Your Road , Scientific American, Nov 2012
- Alan Woodward. The Art Of Misdirection, BBC, Aug 2012 A brief introduction as to why the science of steganography may hold a greater threat than that of cryptography, especially when it comes to law enforcement.
- Steven Schneider, Alan Woodward. eVoting: Trust but Verify, Scientific American, June 2012. eVoting should be commonplace yet it is not. Poor experiences have left voters wary of using any form of electronic voting let along using the Internet. Here we give the background, and what comprises a sound evoting system.
- Alan Woodward. Changing Governance Of The Internet Is Risky ,BBC, June 2012
- Alan Woodward. Cloud Storage: Getting Your Priorities Right, Scientific American, May 2012
- Alan Woodward. Privacy through uncertainty: Quantum Encryption, Scientific American, Apr 2012
- Alan Woodward. Are Macs safer than PCs? Naked Security, Apr 2012
- Alan Woodward. How Safe Is Your Mobile? Scientific American, Apr 2012
- Alan Woodward. Gumming up the internet: When DNS servers attack, Naked Security, Apr 2012
- Alan Woodward. How the Internet is changing our lives, Royal Geographical Society (Video), Apr 2012
- Alan Woodward. Who’s Responsible for Meeting the Cyber Threat? Scientific American, Mar 2012
- Alan Woodward. Contactless payment cards raise security concern - but is there a much older problem? Naked Security, Mar 2012
- Alan Woodward. How hackers could decapitate the internet, BBC, Mar 2012
- Alan Woodward. How hackers are caught out by law enforcers, BBC Mar 2012
- Alan Woodward. The internet is broken - we need to start over, BBC, Feb 2012
- Philip Bateman, Anthony T. S. Ho and Alan Woodward, Accurate Detection Of Out-Of-Control Variations From Digital Camera Devices, Proceedings of 2010 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS 2010), pp. 3056-3059, IEEE, 2010
- Philip Bateman, Anthony T. S. Ho and Alan Woodward, Image Forensics Of Digital Cameras By Analysing Image Variations Using Statistical Process Control, Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Information, Communications and Signal Processing (ICICS 2009), IEEE, 2009
- Alan Woodward, Atomic Computing: Quantum Effects On Modern Platforms, ITNOW Magazine, Volume 50, Issue 1, pp. 30-31, BCS, 2008
- Alan Woodward, Quantum Cryptography: How Is It Developing And Can It Be Trusted, Infosecurity, Volume 4, Issue 7, pp. 40-42, Elsevier, October 2007
- Alan Woodward, Winning success from Babbage's failure, Computing & Control Engineering Journal, Volume 16, Issue 5, pp. 18-21, IET, December 2005
- Alan Woodward, Software Factories: The Industrial Difference, Information Professional, Volume 2, Issue 4, pp. 43-47, IET, August/September 2005
- Alan Woodward, Quantum Cryptography: Exploring The Latest Developments, High Beam Research Bulletin, August 9, 2007
- Alan Woodward, Winning Success From Babbage's Failure: Adopting Engineering Approaches To Software Development, BCS Magazine & Online, August 2009
- Alan Woodward, Watching Them Watching You: How Google Is Stealing Your Secrets, BCS Magazine & Online, August 2008
- Alan Woodward, A Quantum Leap of Faith: Can Quantum Cryptography Be Trusted, computing.co.uk, 7 August 2007
- Alan Woodward, To Boldly Go Where No Hacker Can Follow: Effective Deployment of Quantum Cryptography, BCS Magazine & Online, June 2007
- Alan Woodward, Your Secrets Lost Before Your Eyes: Steganography Used For Industrial Theft, BCS Magazine & Online, March 2007
- Alan Woodward, Secrets Hidden In Plain Sight: An Exploration Of Steganography And How It Can Be Used, Lloyds List, 14 September 2007
- Alan Woodward, Data Theft: Modern Methods Of Stealing Industrial Value, FX-MM Magazine, July 2007
- Alan Woodward, Picture That Could Destroy Your Image: How Simply Allowing Staff To Send a Picture In An Email Could Leak Your Most Valued Secrets, International Trade Today, April 2007
- Alan Woodward, Software Development: is home cooking better than a takeaway?: Is It Better To Outsource Development Overseas Or Use In-house Resources, BCS Magazine & Online, November 2006
- Alan Woodward, How To Escape Jurassic Park Syndrome: Removing Dependence On Individuals, D&B Magazine
- Alan Woodward, Picture This - Secrets Lost : How Simply Allowing Staff To Send a Picture In An Email Could Leak Your Most Valued Secrets, Financial Times, September 2007
- Alan Woodward, Beware The Bit Twiddlers: How Steganography Can Be Anyone Today And Its Impact On Forensic Computing, i-law.com
- Alan Woodward, Why There's More To Computing Than Moore's Law: How Small Can Computing Go And What Is The Impact, Manufacturing and Logistics IT Magazine, 14 December 2007