Centre of Expertise Cyber Security

Rutger is the lector of the Cybersecurity in the SME sector 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.

Iris Meerts MSc (Leiden, 1972) studied Public Administration & Public Policy at Twente University. After her studies she left for Brussels where she worked as an intern at the European Commission and a lobby organization. She then joined the European Affairs department of mayor A. Peper’s office, city of Rotterdam. In the subsequent years Iris Meerts broadened her experience in the corporate sector, the cultural field (Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra) and as Managing Director of the Selforganization Foundation. In 2015, Iris joined The Hague University of Applied Sciences (THUAS), first in the role of Project Manager of the 3rd Hague Peace Conference, and later as the Coordinator of the research platform Good Governance for a Safe World (domains: global cities, new risks (incl. cyber security) and complex governance). Iris Meerts currently holds the position of Managing Director at the Centre of Expertise Cyber Security at THUAS.

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.

Thomas Quillinan is a lector of Network and Systems Cyber Security at The Hague University of Applied Sciences and a senior researcher and programme manager for Security at Thales Research and Technology Nederland. In his work at Thales, he is responsible for the coordination and delivery of activities related to safety research at TRT Nederland. He works together closely with the safety research group at Thales, as well as organisations and networks working nationwide on developments in Network & Systems Engineering Cyber Security. Thomas earned his PhD in Security for Distributed Systems and his Master’s in Computer Science from the University College Cork in Ireland. Prior to this, he was a member of the IIDS group at the VU University Amsterdam, where he worked on safety for distributed systems and crisis management. Thomas originally studied Computer Engineering in the University of Limerick in Ireland. His interests include research into the security of information and distributed systems. He holds both the CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional) and CEH (Certified Ethical Hacker) certifications.

Elif Kiesow Cortez is a researcher and lecturer in data protection and privacy compliance in the International and European Law Program. Before joining THUAS, Elif was a John M. Olin Fellow in Law and Economics at Harvard Law School. During her doctoral studies at the Graduate School in Law and Economics, University of Hamburg, Elif was a visiting fellow at Harvard Business School and a visiting scholar at Berkeley School of Law. Elif’s research is focused on utilizing economic analysis of law to provide recommendations for solving cooperation problems between public and private actors in the domains of data protection and privacy. Elif is currently a member of the IAPP Advisory Board on CIPP/E Exam Development.

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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.

Julien Sebire is a security researcher tackling the Internet of things (IoT) security challenges within industrial and home-based environment. He has helped securing the Final Assembly Line for Airbus commercial aircrafts. Julien designed one of the first security architecture, risk analysis and set of security requirements for the Electric Vehicle Charging Stations. He emphasized the cyber security and vulnerability processes for the Galileo program of the European Space Agency. Julien is now conducting research within the Center of Expertise for Cyber Security, where he dedicates himself to study radio technologies security issues and privacy leakage within the context of Internet of things and Industrial Control systems.