On Friday 23 January 2026, Paul Lopez, Director of the Eastern Cyber Resilience Centre, part of City of London Police and a former Detective Superintendent at Essex Police, delivered a guest lecture on cyber-enabled crimes in the real world and perspectives of law enforcement. The guest lecture was delivered for students of the PGT module COMP7016 “Cybercrime and Adversarial Behaviours” at the University of Kent’s campus in Canterbury, as part of a 2-hour seminar between 4 and 6 pm. The COMP7016 module is part of the University of Kent’s the conversion degree course MSc Computer Science (Cyber Security), co-taught by Professor Shujun Li and Dr Virginia Franqueira, who are Director and Deputy Director (Education) of the Institute of Cyber Security for Society (iCSS), respectively.
In addition to covering cyber-enabled crimes, Paul also introduced ECRC to the students including the Cyber PATH scheme that allows university students to gain cyber security hands-on experience in many operational areas. He also shared some selected cyber security and resilience tools and resources.
After Paul’s guest lecture, students asked many questions and had a lively discussion with Paul in a Q&A session.
Paul Lopez said: “We work closely with university students across the whole region, many of whom are part of our Cyber PATH cohort, and it is always a privilege to be given the opportunity to speak to students about our experience of dealing with victims of cyber crime, and occasionally going after the bad guys who bring so much misery to the people and businesses that they target. The students at the University of Kent on the Cyber Masters programme were particularly engaging and it was a real pleasure talking to them about my experience policing this challenging area.”
Professor Shujun Li said: “As a former Detective Superintendent at Essex Police and an expert of educating businesses and the public about cyber security at ECRC, Paul’s guest lecture provided our students with rare frontline experience on cybercrimes in the real world and how they are investigated by law enforcement agencies. The many real-world examples Paul presented at the guest lecture helped to provide good case studies in my later lectures. I thank Paul for staying with us for the whole 2 hours on the guest lecture and the Q&A session with our students!”
The National Cyber Resilience Centre Group (NCRCG) is a national organisation that supports small and medium sized businesses, charities and the third sector by raising awareness of cyber threats and then offering guidance around how they can protect themselves. The Group is funded through the National Police Cybercrime Programme, and all staff are police officers and staff. All the materials, services and support are free of charge to those who use them. The Eastern Cyber Resilience Centre has helped thousands of businesses across seven county regions in the East of England (Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent, Norfolk & Suffolk) to take those important first cyber resilience steps.