Cybersecurity and privacy, it’s everyone’s business

On Wednesday 10 December, we are welcoming young people from across London and beyond to King’s College London to learn about and explore cybersecurity. This is a key aspect of our digital lives that goes largely unknown in day-to-day life, apart from the annoyance felt when filling out yet another captcha to convince a website you are a human! Our Annual Informatics Schools Lecture runs every year and is designed to showcase cutting edge computing research to students GCSE and up.

For school students today, computing and the internet have been present their entire lives. This first ‘digitally native generation’ is often much more experienced than previous generations in many computer-based skills, with some event starting companies before even leaving school. The internet in particular is also now present in almost every corner of our modern lives, with mobile technology giving us access almost anywhere at any time. Whilst this has made our lives better in many ways, it has also made us potentially more exposed to harms, for example from bad actors or from other online platform users. The safety and privacy issues inherent in sharing our information online now pervade every corner of world, with much of our seemingly private lives accessible to potential hackers.

Thankfully, computer scientists across the world are working against these bad actors, helping to enhance the safety of all internet users, and keep digital spaces safe and welcoming. At this event, Dr Kovila Coopamootoo, Lecturer in Computer Science at King’s College London, will unpack her research in this sector. Her work takes place at the intersection of privacy, security, AI and human-computer interaction and so highlights the connections between different computer science disciplines. Kovila will explore the challenges in ensuring users' security and privacy online, in particular for at-risk users like children or migrants, and risky situations such as sharing your personal information and content online.

Cybersecurity is a fascinating and vital area of computing, where research can have a real measurable impact on people's lives and wellbeing. We’d love to see lots of young people at this event, so please share this with your schools and other contacts.

Annual Informatics Schools Lecture: Cybersecurity and privacy, it’s everyone’s business
10 December 2025 15:15 to 18:00, Strand Campus, London
https://www.kcl.ac.uk/events/annual-informatics-schools-2025