Latest news

11/07/2025

The Institute for Digital Security and Behaviour (IDSB) welcomed the opportunity to provide evidence to the Women and Equalities Committee inquiry into Misogyny: the manosphere and online content.  Download our report here.

11/07/2025

Professor Laura Smith, co-director on the Institute for Digital Security and Behaviour (IDSB) will give oral evidence as part of the Home Affairs Committee inquiry on Combatting new forms of extremism. The panel is on 15 July 2025 at 2.30. This will be followed by a second panel with the Counter Extremism Commissioner and the interim Independent Prevent Commissioner. Learn more…

08/07/2025

The University of Bath’s Images of Research competition was organised in 2025 as part of the Vice-Chancellor’s Engagement Awards. Several IDSB members submitted their images in the “Digital” category. Congratulations to Dr James Fletcher whose image was awarded in this category! To look at the shortlisted images submitted by IDSB members find out more here.

27/06/2025

IDSB doctoral researcher, Emma Woodward’s impact video is now available to watch. Emma is using a novel Systemic Design approach that combines holistic Systems Thinking and pragmatic design methods to explore the CSIRT effectiveness and find areas of leverage - where a small change in one area can have a positive knock-on impact for the whole system. Watch the video here.

17/06/2025

Led by IDSB member Dr Patrick Bury, the University of Bath was proud to host the annual European Expert Network on Terrorism Issues (EENeT) conference. The conference also showcased IDSB’s internal expertise, on terrorism, including IDSB Co-Director Prof Laura G. E. Smith,  specialising in group polarisation and radicalisation, and IDSB Deputy Director, Dr Olivia Brown who studies the link between online group behaviour and offline extremism and terrorism. Read more…

11/06/2025

Working with 25 people living with dementia, Dr Fletcher invited participants to document their journeys using mobile phones—capturing photographs, videos, and conversations that reveal both the challenges and moments of connection found in everyday travel.

The exhibition is available to view at Bath Spa train station until the 24th of June. Learn more…

The Bath Institute for Digital Security and Behaviour (IDSB) took part in the Bath Digital Festival, organised by TechSPARK, held from 13–15 May 2025. IDSB participated on 14 May, the "Sustain" themed day of the festival, which was sponsored by the University of Bath. Read more…

IDSB Institute Co-Director, Prof Laura G. E. Smith has co-authored the latest IDSB publication titled as: “A primer on politicization, polarization, radicalization, and activation and their implications for democracy in times of rapid technological change”. Read more..

The Institute for Digital Security and Behaviour (IDSB) participated in CyberUK 2025, hosted by the National Cybersecurity Centre, the UK’s flagship cyber security event, held in Manchester from 6–8 May. Our team was present throughout the conference at a dedicated booth. Read more…

IDSB members Harry Williams, his supervisor Dr Andre Barrinha have just published a new paper on Cybersecurity and the war in Ukraine in Portuguese! Click here to read more…

Announced by the National Police Chief’s Council (NPCC) as one of nine new Policing Academic Centres of Excellence, the new Centre in Bath will be led by IDSB researcher, Katie Maras.

Funded in partnership with UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the £4.5million investment will see each Policing Academic Centre of Excellence promoted across the policing sector as an accessible source of leading academic experts aligned with Policing’s Areas of Research Interest (ARIs) and evidence needs. Read more…

02/05/2025

IDSB Co-Directors, Prof Laura Smith and Prof Adam Joinson recently published their paper on the “Trajectories of Piracy and Cyberbullying across Adolescence”. Access the paper here.

Government Chief Medical Officer and Permanent Secretary for the Department for Health & Social Care Professor Sir Chris Whitty visited the University of Bath on Friday 11 April.

During a packed day, Prof Whitty met a range of individuals, including Prof David Ellis from IDSB, to learn about their research focused on health and wellbeing. Read more…

On April 9, Dr. Alicia Wanless delivered a guest lecture to IDSB members, focusing on the complexities of modern information environments.

Dr. Wanless is the Director of the Information Environment Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

The lecture marked the first stop of Dr. Wanless’s tour promoting her forthcoming book, The Information Animal: Humans, Technology and the Competition for Reality, which is set to be published and available in May 2025.

Emily Godwin's article in The Conversation UK explores how internet memes can distil complex ideas into simple, easily digestible formats, influencing political views and attitudes. She highlights that memes often eliminate the need for lengthy explanations, providing viewers with ready-made interpretations of topics. This characteristic enables memes to spread information rapidly, but it also raises concerns about their role in disseminating conspiracy theories and misinformation. Read more…

IDSB member, James Fletcher and Olivia Brown, in their study "Working Lives with Dementia: A Digital Futures Perspective," argue that if organizations adapt and deploy digital technologies, they can help individuals with dementia continue their employment. Read more…

How Dr Joanna Syrda and Dr Oishee Kundu are using a novel approach to illustrate the business risks of neglecting online defences.

Threats and Trade-offs was developed as part of Discribe, a £3.5 million research collaboration between the Universities of Bath, Bristol and Cardiff, and Royal Holloway, University of London. Read more…

Prof. David Ellis has been invited by WaveLength UK to speak at a special parliamentary event titled "Rethinking Loneliness." This crucial discussion will focus on assessing the effectiveness of the UK Loneliness Strategy in light of growing concerns over rising loneliness across all age groups. Read more…

Dr. Olivia Brown, Deputy Director of the IDSB and Associate Professor in Digital Futures at the University of Bath, recently appeared on This Morning and BBC Breakfast to discuss the impact of online media on young people. She addressed the risks of radicalisation, hidden meanings in online emoji language, and the dangers of desensitisation from harmful content. Read more….

IDSB member Dr Olivia Brown’s research analyses online data to identify the risk that someone might take violent action offline.Read more…

As part of the Discribe project, IDSB members have developed a game called Threats and Tradeoffs that simulates the cybersecurity challenges faced by innovative start-ups. The game not only educates players about security challenges but also provides researchers with insights into attitudes toward decision-making, risks, and rewards. Read more…

IDSB member Aurelien Mondon and Johan Farkas from the University of Copenhagen collaborated on an article about the recent tech power shift in the US.

Professor Dame Angela McLean, Government Chief Scientific Adviser, will lead the launch of the University of Bath’s new Institute for Digital Security and Behaviour (IDSB), on Wednesday 29 January, at Bath’s Guildhall, in a keynote speech on Securing the Future. Read more…

The highly anticipated launch of the University of Bath’s new Institute for Digital Security and Behaviour (IDSB) took place at the Grade I listed Guildhall in Bath on 29 January 2025, with a keynote speech from the Government Chief Scientific Adviser, Professor Dame Angela McLean.

Read more…

IDSB PhD student Emily Godwin’s study analysing the cultural role of memes in online conspiracy communities has been published in the journal Social Media + Society.

Read more here:

Researchers from the University of Bath’s Institute for Digital Security and Behaviour (IDSB) are taking a role in a major government-commissioned study to explore the impact of smartphones and social media on children’s wellbeing.

To learn more about the research project, read the press release published by the University of Bath here.

Congratulations to IDSB member Dr Oishee Kundu for winning Images of Research 2024 in Digital category!

The 2024 competition invited colleagues to submit an image and a short, plain English description to tell people about their research and its benefits to society. Read more….

Laura Smith is Deputy Director of the new network, which aims to help researchers understand how individual and population level security risks evolve. Read more….

UKRI announced today that Bath will co-lead a new Cybersecurity Research and Networking Environment (CRANE), a Cybersecurity NetworkPlus which aims to strengthen cybersecurity, realise the benefits of emerging technologies and better prepare society against future cyber threats. CRANE is supported by a £6 million investment from the UKRI Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).  Bath project lead Adam will present on opportunities for members to engage when the Network+ launches in early Spring. Read more

Laura Smith is collaborating with colleagues at Princeton University and Cardiff University on the first project funded under US-UK Bilateral Academic Research Initiative (BARI) social science programme. IMITATE3 will lead to a fundamental change in our understanding of the construction, communication and consequences of foreign influence operations, and their capacity to induce political, cultural, and socio-economic instability and uncertainty..

The UK research team will receive up to £2.87 million from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)

Read more...

Liv Brown’s research on identifying far-right terrorists from social media posts features widely in the media, see Financial Times. Liv will meet with the University's incoming Head of Public Affairs next week to discuss promoting her research to policy makers. Read the press release here

Institute Director Professor Laura Smith delivers her inaugural lecture ‘Progress, Peril and Polarisation: Mechanisms of Mobilisation in the Digital Age’ to a packed audience on the 12th June 2024. Watch the recording here

New project: Laura Smith is theme lead for Human Centred Design for a successful consortium bid, led by Bristol, for an UKRI AI hub, AI for Collective Intelligence (AI4CI). The human-centred design work stream is cross-cutting and leverages the expertise of the Institute. This is an £11m investment with nearly 30 government and industry stakeholders, so is strategically valuable and will bring significant opportunities to Bath

Huge congratulations to Institute members Danae, Laura, Aurelien, Brit and Alicia, and PhD students Dessi and Rob, who received Doctoral Recognition Awards this year for contributions to doctoral research. More...