Bill Buchanan

William Johnston Buchanan OBE FBCS CEng PFHEA (born 6 March 1961) is a Scottish computer scientist. Buchanan is a professor in the School of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment. He currently leads the Blockpass ID Lab and the Centre for Cybersecurity, IoT and Cyberphysical at Edinburgh Napier University. In 2017, he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2017 Birthday Honours for services to cyber security. Along with the love of the City of Edinburgh, Buchanan has deep passion for cryptography and innovation and is quoted with a tagline of, "A Serial Innovator. An Old World Breaker. A New World Creator." Over the years, he has presented a strong viewpoint on the risks of AI and a Big Brother world. Buchanan also shows a great passion for enterprise and education in Scotland, "For a small country, Scotland has a beating heart of innovation and enterprise. The country is known around the world for its inventors and enterprising spirit. But, at the core of this, is a commitment to education at all levels, and in breaking down the barriers in the access to education." Buchanan teaches Network Security and Applied Cryptography in the School of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment at Edinburgh Napier University, and his research focus is around digital identity, cryptography and blockchain. This applies into areas of health care and cybersecurity. He is the sole author and creator of ASecuritySite, and which hosts a wide range of cryptography applications, including within public key encryption, symmetric key encryption, digital signatures and key exchange methods. ASecuritySite.com was first released on 15 Feb 2013. Buchanan was awarded an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List in June 2017. He was the first person in the UK to received an award for services to Cybersecurity. On receiving it he outlined, "The award of an OBE is recognition for not just my own work but that of the Cyber Academy, and for the role my university, my School and the city has played in supporting that work. We have never had any barriers placed in our way, and have always received the required support, and the freedom, to develop our vision", and "We hope our work can continue to provide both economic and social impacts, and that cyber security can point the way to building new infrastructures which respect the rights of individuals while also protecting our societies."