BU Forensic and Cyber Security students recently competed as national finalists at the UK Cyber Leaders Challenge 2025, held at the iconic BT Tower in London. Team BU were Atanas Burmov, Benjamin Crosby, Rhys Goadsby, and Paul Seymour, supported by Dr Fudong Li as their Mentor.
Team BU had the opportunity to respond to a simulated national cyber incident targeting critical UK port infrastructure. The scenario was complex, high-stakes, and related to real-world operational risk. This included a focus towards isolating threats in flat OT networks, designing Zero Trust architectures for industrial environments, applying the Purdue Model to segment and secure port operations with NGFW Segmentation, balancing immediate mitigation with long-term resilience planning, and presenting strategic options to national-level decision-makers under time pressure.
The team were honoured to collaborate with some of the brightest minds across government, defence, and industry. The challenge tested not just technical knowledge, but leadership, communication, and the ability to think clearly under pressure.