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Centre of Expertise Cyber Security

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About

The importance of digital security has become indispensable for the world we live in. The mission of the Centre of Expertise Cyber Security is to strengthen the cyber resilience of public and private organisations that are themselves less equipped to deal with cyber threats. Cyber resilience represents the ability of organisations to recognise cyber threats and respond to them appropriately. The focus on cyber resilience stems from the observation that organisations will all have to deal with cyber incidents sooner or later and therefore need to focus not only on preventive measures, but also, for example, on detection and response.

In order to gain a better understanding of how to realise cyber resilience, our research focuses on three sub-areas:

  1. People: which behavioural and attitudinal aspects influence cyber resilience and how can organisations improve these aspects for cyber resilience?
  2. Organisation: which organisational aspects influence cyber resilience and how can organisations improve these aspects for cyber resilience?
  3. Technology: which technical aspects influence cyber resilience and how can organisations improve these aspects for cyber resilience?

Since its establishment in 2015, the Centre of Expertise Cyber Security has grown rapidly, and a great deal of practice-oriented research has been completed. We remain committed to sustaining previous successes and creating synergies between practice-oriented research, education and professional practice.

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Research groups

Research Group Cyber Security and Safety
Research Group Cybercrime & Cybersecurity
Research Group Risk Management & Cyber Security
Research Group Network and Systems Engineering Cyber Security
News
Results

Publications

Research Group Cyber Security and Safety

Article

Information security education based on job profiles and the e-CF

The information security field requires standardised education. This could be based on generic job profiles and a standard competence framework. The question is whether this is possible and feasible. To find out, the author did a case study: developing an information security master curriculum based on a generic PVIB job profile and the underlying competence framework e-CF.

Research Group Risk Management & Cyber Security

Article

Cyber crises require anticipation and improvisation

The ransomware attack on Maastricht University (2019) and the wiperware attack on Maersk (2017) painfully demonstrated that major incidents cannot be prevented and can even turn into cyber crises. The extent to which organisations can limit the impact of cyber crises is determined, among other things, by their business continuity and crisis management. How do you adequately organise these control measures, however?

Article

Leading a cyber incident response team

Jelle Groenendaal and Ira Helsloot present a model of cyber incident command that aims to support leaders by providing practical and applicable insights into decision-making under challenging conditions.

Research Group Network and Systems Engineering Cyber Security

Thesis

Secure Naming for Distributing Computing using the Condensed Graph Model

Implementing a distributed computation architecture has several basis functional requirements, such as load balancing, fault tolerance and security. The challenge is in how you manage these requirements as a whole.

Article

Cloud-Based Intelligence Aquisition and Processing for Crisis Management

Contemporary crisis management has to deal with complex socio-technical environments involving many interdependent elements. Many dependencies in such settings result in complex cascading processes that can have adverse effects on the population, environment, and economy.

Thesis

Secure Naming for Distributing Computing using the Condensed Graph Model

Implementing a distributed computation architecture has several basis functional requirements, such as load balancing, fault tolerance and security. The challenge is in how you manage these requirements as a whole. Security is a specific problem in that it is made up of a number of important aspects, such as confidentiality, integrity and availability. Each of these aspects is vital in a distributed system.One important aspect of security is access control. The central premise of this thesis is: “If you can name it, you can control access to it”.This dissertation examines the security requirements of the WebCom distributed computing environment and develops the security architecture for WebCom, primarily to provide a systematic access control mechanism for condensed graph applications.The flexibility of this architecture is demonstrated with a number of case studies, including a micropayment architecture for distributed computations, an automated administration architecture for Grid and an activity based secure workflow architecture.

T.B. Quillinan. Secure Naming for Distributing Computing using the Condensed Graph Model. Ph.D. Thesis. University College Cork, Cork, Ireland. July 2006.

Article

Cloud-Based Intelligence Aquisition and Processing for Crisis Management

Contemporary crisis management has to deal with complex socio-technical environments involving many interdependent elements. Many dependencies in such settings result in complex cascading processes that can have adverse effects on the population, environment, and economy. Adequate situation awareness and the capability to
predict the development of a crisis situation under different circumstances is a critical element of effective, and timely, crisis management and response.

de Oude, Patrick; Pavlin, Gregor;  Quillinan, Thomas; Jeraj, Julij, and Abouhafc, Abdelhaq. (2017). Cloud-Based Intelligence Aquisition and Processing for Crisis Management. 133-153. 10.1007/978-3-319-52419-1_9

Team

Team

dr. Rutger Leukfeldt

Professor Cybercrime & Cybersecurity

dr. Marcel Spruit

Professor Cyber Security & Safety

dr. Pei-Hui Lin

Professor Risk Management & Cyber Security

dr. Ligaya Butalid

Secretary Centre of Expertise Cyber Security

Emiel Kerpershoek

dr. ir. Pieter Burghouwt

dr. Susanne van ‘t Hoff – de Goede

dr. ir. Marinus Maris

Asier Moneva Pardo

Marco Romagna LLM MA

Raoul José Notté MA MSc

Luuk Bekkers

Daniel Meinsma

Michelle Ancher

dr. Nicole van Deursen

Sifra Matthijsse

Joeri Loggen

Céline Kreffer

Maaike Vergeer

Saman Barjas

Michael Gilhespy

Merel van Leuken

Maaike van der Wal

Jasmijn Boeken

Bernard van der Helm

Taisiia Garkava

Junior Researcher

Professor Cybercrime & Cybersecurity

dr. Rutger Leukfeldt

Rutger is the lector Cybercrime & Cybersecurity at The Hague University of Applied Sciences and senior researcher of cybercrime and coordinator of the cybercrime cluster at The Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR). He has more than 10 years of experience with scientific research into cybersecurity and cybercrime for both public and private clients. A few examples are research into the methods used and the characteristics of cyber criminals, into the victims of cybercrime among citizens and into the status of cybercrime cases in the criminal law system. Rutger earned his PhD with a study into the origin and growth processes, as well as criminal possibilities of cybercrime networks, and developed a model for the police and banks that can be used to more effectively combat cyber attacks. Rutger has also been the recipient of two prestigious research grants to conduct research into cybercrime. In 2015, he earned the Marie Curie Individual Fellowship (EU subsidy for promising researchers) and, in 2017, a Veni Grant (Netherlands Initiative for Education Research subsidy for talented researchers). Finally, Rutger is chairman of the Cybercrime Working Group of the European Society of Criminology.

e.r.leukfeldt@hhs.nl

Professor Cyber Security & Safety

dr. Marcel Spruit

Marcel Spruit boasts many years of experience in information and cyber security. He is responsible for research into cyber security and the development of education in this field and is personally and intensely involved in both the research and education development. Marcel is affiliated with the PBLQ consultancy firm as a senior consultant, where he provides advice on organisational aspects, especially the topics of information and cyber security. He also carries out audits, second opinions and security studies. Prior to his appointment as head of the research group, Marcel worked on quality assurance at Fokker Space and as a senior lecturer for the Information Systems department at the Delft University of Technology, where he specialised in information security, human failure and the organisation of security.

m.e.m.spruit@hhs.nl

Professor Risk Management & Cyber Security

dr. Pei-Hui Lin

Lector Risk Management & Cyber Security at the Centre of Expertise Cyber Security, The Hague University of Applied Sciences per May 2022. Pei-Hui obtained her PhD at Delft University of Technology with a research in safety management and risk modelling in aviation. Later she became an assistant professor at Delft University of Technology. Her research focused on analysing and quantifying potential risks for complex organizations/critical infrastructure, where human factors, technical errors and organizational aspects are taken into consideration. Pei-Hui has received numerous research grants from several (EU) projects by applying her research in various safety and security domains, such as process safety, transport safety, and civil security. 

Starting from 2016, Pei-Hui furthered her career in cyber security industry. She worked at European Network for Cyber Security (ENCS), where she was responsible for improving cyber security for the European smart grid operators. After that, Pei-Hui worked as a lead evaluator at SGS Brightsight. She led a team to perform cyber security evaluations in hardware and software on various types of IT devices. Pei-Hui has more than 15 years of experience in conducting practice-oriented research into safety and security problems. 

Secretary Centre of Expertise Cyber Security

dr. Ligaya Butalid

Ligaya Butalid is the manager of the Centre of Expertise Cyber Security. With a background in health psychology she studied the importance of empathy in medical care. She finished her PhD at NIVEL / Utrecht University with a study on doctor-patient communication in general practice. Furthermore, she is experienced in programme management and previously worked at research funding organizations such as ZonMw and the Dutch Research Council (Regieorgaan SIA / NWO) and at the department Education, Knowledge and Communication of THUAS. 
l.butalid@hhs.nl

dr. ir. Pieter Burghouwt

Pieter Burghouwt is the senior lecturer of the HBO-ICT programme of The Hague University of Applied Sciences. In addition to developing and providing education in the field of Cybersecurity and Computer Networks, he conducts research as a member of the knowledge network of the Cyber Security and Safety research group at The Hague University of Applied Sciences. His research mainly focuses on the technical security aspects of computer networks. Pieter obtained his doctorate in 2015 Delft University of Technology with a thesis on botnet traffic detection techniques in corporate networks. Since 2015, he has also been teaching the Executive Master Cyber Security at the CSA (Cyber Security Academy), a cooperative venture among Leiden University, Delft University of Technology, and The Hague University of Applied Sciences.
p.burghouwt@hhs.nl

dr. Susanne van ‘t Hoff – de Goede

Susanne van 't Hoff-de Goede is a criminologist and researcher in the Cybersecurity in SMEs research group. After her Master's degree in Law Enforcement and Security Policy at Leiden University, she obtained her doctorate at Utrecht University on the consequences of imprisonment for the partners of detainees. Her research interest is in the explanation, prevention and consequences of criminal behaviour and the holistic approach to addressing it. As a researcher at the research group, she focuses on the human side of cyber crime and cybersecurity in SMEs. Her research focuses on gaining insight into cyber crime and tackling cyber crime aimed at SMEs.
m.s.vanthoff-degoede@hhs.nl

dr. ir. Marinus Maris

Marinus Maris is a senior lecturer in the HBO-ICT programme at The Hague University of Applied Sciences. In addition to developing and providing education in the field of Computer Networks and Mobile Apps, he conducts research as a member of knowledge network of the Cyber Security & Safety research group at The Hague University of Applied Sciences. His research mainly focuses on cybersecurity awareness in primary and secondary schools. Marinus holds a degree in electrical engineering from Delft University of Technology and a PhD from the University of Zurich in the field of artificial intelligence.
m.g.maris@hhs.nl

Asier Moneva Pardo

Asier Moneva Pardo is a postdoctoral researcher in the field of the Human Factor in Cybercrime at the Hague University of Applied Sciences and the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement. With a background in Criminology, he obtained his PhD on the applicability of the Environmental Criminology and Crime Analysis framework to crime committed in cyberspace at Miguel Hernandez University of Elche (Spain). His research focuses on cybercrime analysis and prevention from a situational perspective through quantitative methods.
a.monevapardo@hhs.nl

Marco Romagna LLM MA

Marco Romagna is lecturer in ‘Legal and criminological aspects of cyber security’ and researcher for the Centre of Expertise Cyber Security within the Faculty of IT & Design. He is external PhD candidate at Leiden University with a project on “Hacktivism: honorable cause and/or serious threat?”. Before joining the Centre, Marco was an intern at eCrime (Trento University), Cyber Security Academy (The Hague) and Eurojust and he worked as digital commerce fraud analyst at Nike. Marco holds an LLM in Laws (Trento University) and an MA in Global Criminology (Utrecht University). Beside hacktivism and cyber security, his main research interests focus on cybercrime, criminology and the related criminal law. Marco follows with particular attention new developments in technology especially when linked with legal challenges.

m.romagna@hhs.nl

Raoul José Notté MA MSc

Raoul Notté has a background in administrative and organisational science. He is a lecturer-researcher associated with the Cybersecurity in SMEs research group. In recent years, he has published several studies about the victimhood of cyber crime in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the way in which companies protect themselves from this, as well as the impact of cyber crime victimhood on citizens. Raoul's research results have been published in scientific journals and promoted at conferences. In the past year, Raoul received a doctoral grant for teachers from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), which will be used to fund his doctoral project “Victimhood in a digitised society” at Tilburg University in the coming years.
r.j.notte@hhs.nl

Luuk Bekkers

Luuk Bekkers has a master’s degree in forensic psychology and criminology. As a junior researcher at the Cybercrime & Cybersecurity research group, Luuk published several studies on cybercrime offenders and cyber resilience in small- and medium enterprises. In the coming years, Luuk will work on his PhD research, which is focused on the topic of money mules.
L.M.J.Bekkers@hhs.nl

Daniel Meinsma

Daniel is a member of THUAS’ HBO-ICT teaching staff. Besides developing and providing education on technical security topics, he is an active facilitator of student participation in a wide range of technical research projects. Since January 2022, Daniel fulfills a parttime PhD position at Delft Technical University, with a focus on Automated Vulnerability Research. Furthermore, Daniel is one of the initiators of the Dutch Joint Cyber Range and actively contributes to Capture the Flag education.
d.j.meinsma@hhs.nl

Sifra Matthijsse

Contact:
s.r.matthijsse@hhs.nl

Maaike Vergeer

Contact:
m.j.vergeer@hhs.nl

Saman Barjas

Contact:
s.barjas@hhs.nl

Michael Gilhespy

Mike joined the Haagse Hogeschool as a member of the HBO-ICT teaching staff in 2020.  His focus is on teaching technical security topics with a focus on the offensive perspective, which is also his primary research interest.  As well as teaching undergraduates, Michael also teaches on the Master Cybersceurity Engineering program, where he is the core teacher for the module "Hacking and Malware".
m.d.gilhespy@hhs.nl

Merel van Leuken

Merel van Leuken studied Criminology and Applied Psychology. She obtained a master's degree in Investigative Criminology at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam and has been working as a junior researcher at the Cybercrime & Cybersecurity research group since April 2022. Previously, she worked as a Customer Due Diligence analyst at Deloitte. She is currently evaluating a preventive intervention aimed at juvenile cyber offenders.

Maaike van der Wal

Maaike studeerde Criminologie aan de Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam en behaalde een master in Forensische Criminologie aan de Universiteit van Leiden. Sinds april 2022 is zij als junior onderzoeker verbonden aan het kenniscentrum Cyber Security van de Haagse Hogeschool, waar zij zich met name bezighoudt met onderzoeken over cyberweerbaarheid. Voor haar aanstelling bij de Haagse Hogeschool was zij werkzaam als Digitaal Forensisch onderzoeker en Cybersecurity Consultant bij Digital Investigation.

Jasmijn Boeken

Contact:
j.boeken@hhs.nl

Bernard van der Helm

Contact:
b.vanderhelm@hhs.nl

Junior Researcher

Taisiia Garkava

Taisiia is a Junior Researcher at the Centre of Expertise Cyber Security (CoECS) at The Hague University of Applied Sciences (THUAS) and a Junior Security Analyst at Darktrace. Before becoming a Junior Researcher, Taisiia was an intern at the CoECS. She is interested in everything related to cybercrime, focusing at the moment on hacker marketplaces. Her other areas of interest include cyber threat intelligence, OSINT, threat actors, hacking techniques and cyber warfare.