Research ICT Africa’s Digital Policy Project is happy to welcome a new senior fellow, Dr Ian Brown, who has joined us as part of our cybersecurity policy team from September. He brings a wealth of global and specialised expertise on cybercapacity research and development to support RIA’s activities in cyber policy. Ian will work on the development of a conceptual framework for cyber-capacity, human rights, and development and on setting up cyber-capacity maturity assessments in Sub-Saharan countries. Ian was previously an Associate Director of Oxford University’s Cyber Security Centre and Professor of Information Security and Privacy at the Oxford Internet Institute until 2016.He has worked as a consultant for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime on their study of global cybercrime. For the OECD, he co-authored with Peter Sommer the 2010 report “Reducing Systemic Cybersecurity Risk”. His most recent books are Regulating Code: Good Governance and Better Regulation in the Information Age (with Christopher T. Marsden) (2013, MIT Press) and Research Handbook on Governance of the Internet (editor, 2013, Edward Elgar). As part of its new Africa Digital Policy Project, RIA launched a call for fellowships to collaborate with established researchers and experts on pressing cyber-policy research issues including cybersecurity, innovation, and digital rights. The fellows will work closely with RIA researchers to develop information and analysis required for innovative and appropriate policies better able to address the challenges of sustainable development on the continent. The overall aim is to facilitate evidence-based and informed policymaking for supporting the development of an Internet that is free (based on and supportive of human rights), trusted (based on sound cybersecurity measures), and innovative (based on enabling policy environments).
