Wales DTC student David Mair together with his supervisor at Swansea University, Dr Stuart Macdonald, recently travelled to Ohrid, Macedonia, to contribute lectures to a NATO Advanced Training Course on terrorist use of cyberspace.

David Mair and Dr Stuart Macdonald

The event, which was organised jointly by NATO’s Centre of Excellence on Defence Against Terrorism and the Macedonian Military Academy “General Mihailo Apostolski” featured 21 lectures delivered by experts from 8 countries. Dr Macdonald and Mr Mair were the two representatives from the UK. More than 40 participants attended the event, including members of the military, national governments, NATO and the UN. The lectures from the course will be published in a book as part of the NATO science series.

Course co-director, Dr Metodi Hadzi-Janev said, “The topics examined during the course are of the utmost importance, and have been identified by NATO as a strategic objective. We are very pleased to have had Dr Macdonald and Mr Mair speak on these pressing issues and thank Swansea University for its valuable contribution to the event”.

Dr Macdonald, who is co-director of the Swansea University’s cyberterrorism research project and also a member of the organisation committee for the NATO event, said, “The Cyberterrorism Project has developed a reputation as one of the leading international research initiatives focussed on terrorists’ use of the Internet. We are delighted to have had this opportunity to share our research with such a distinguished group of participants”.

Mr Mair, a PhD student in the Department of Criminology, delivered a lecture on Al-Shabaab’s use of Twitter during the Westgate attacks in Kenya. He commented, “Lecturing on this course has provided a valuable opportunity to present some cutting edge research on recent terrorist atrocities and the implementation of technology in the terrorist toolkit to an international audience. As a postgraduate student, I am very grateful to the University and NATO for giving me the opportunity to present at this event and to hear a range of outstanding talks from leading experts”.