Scotiabank Invests $2 Million in University to Fund Cybersecurity Research

UBC plans to to accelerate cybersecurity and financial risk research in Canada, fueled by a $2-million donation from Scotiabank.

Over the next five years, The Scotiabank Cybersecurity and Risk Analytics Initiative will support research and educational initiatives, including internships, speaker series, engagement activities like hackathons, and other collaborative events.

“Data theft costs organizations billions of dollars a year worldwide, and cause psychological and social harm for individual customers,” said Michael Zerbs, Chief Technology Officer, Scotiabank. “Scotiabank’s support will contribute to research and engage students to advance financial modelling to help manage risks and protect customers.”

Scotiabank’s donation will support ongoing work led by UBC researchers Konstantin Beznosov and Hasan Cavusoglu, who specialize in cyberattack research and the human, social and economic issues concerning privacy and security; and statistics professors John Braun, Natalia Nolde and Harry Joe, who are making contributions to financial risk modelling and probability theory.

The donation will also support the Creative Destruction Lab West at the UBC Sauder School of Business, an extension of the Scotiabank-supported Creative Destruction Lab at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management.

“There is an urgent need to advance our understanding of information security and financial risk management in an ever more connected, complex world,” said Professor Santa J. Ono, UBC president and vice chancellor.

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