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Mako R&D Director Joins Industry Advisory Board for Cybersecurity Researchers of Waikato

Mako R&D Director Murray Knox

Murray Knox, Mako Networks’ R&D Director, has joined the Cybersecurity Researchers of Waikato (CROW) research lab at the University of Waikato as an Industry Advisory Board member. He joins the group of 12 advisors to help guide the CROW research agenda and assist in bridging academia and industry to find solutions to evolving security challenges.

“We’re very pleased to welcome Murray to CROW board of industry advisors,” says Ryan Ko, Ph.D., Head of Lab for CROW and Senior Lecturer in the Computer Science department of the University of Waikato. “His valuable experience integrating disparate technologies and security make him a great addition to our program, and the obvious alignment between Mako Networks’ areas of specialty and the CROW security research agenda makes this a great partnership.”

Duties for Board members include:

  • Advising CROW about new security strategies and developments in industry
  • Acting as ambassadors for the lab and its research
  • Advising CROW on study curriculums and degrees
  • Bridging the lab with representative organizations and arranging field visits
  • Participating in government grant applications when needed
  • Assisting/supervising research projects when possible.

CROW believes the effectiveness of traditional cybersecurity approaches (such as perimeter defense, intrusion detection and infrastructure hardening) is becoming less effective as cloud computing and mobile device use increase.

Accordingly, the lab focuses on research projects that can empower users with intuitive visual tools for making security decisions, secure and tamper-evident devices, and providing a user-centric security service with cloud data tracking.

CROW is the central laboratory for University of Waikato students pursuing the Master of Cyber Security degree – the first of its kind to be offered in New Zealand. It is designed to cater for the growing demand in trained professionals in this area and help meet the New Zealand Government’s Cyber Security strategy.