What Prying Eyes Might See: the Organisational Vulnerabilities Revealed in Transactional Data

Suppose someone were to hack into the IT system of a major UK company or government agency and obtain a large amount of data regarding its internal email traffic – who emails whom, when and how often? What would they be able to infer about the structure of the organization and security culture? How might this affect the vulnerability of the organization and its members to further attacks and interference? What remedial actions might the organization be advised to take and how might they have protected themselves better in advance from the impact of the hack? It has been shown that our individual digital footprints reveal much more about ourselves than we are typically aware of or comfortable with but the vulnerabilities that transactional data (e.g. data on email traffic) might reveal are not well-researched or understood.

This project fills that gap. Having acquired a training in social network analysis (SNA) during their Masters year and using open source (publicly available) data, the successful applicant will devote their remaining three years of study to exploring the above questions (on SNA see Scott 2017). Combining insights from literature across a range of topics, from cybersecurity to organizational sociology, with indepth empirical analysis of real-world communication networks, the project will consider what hacked data regarding such networks might reveal, why it matters and what key UK organisations might do to minimize the damage from such attacks.

The studentship is based in the University of Manchester’s Centre for Digital Trust and Society, with an additional affiliation to the Mitchell Centre for Social Network Analysis. The industry partner for the study is GCHQ and the student will have supervisors from within that organization, alongside their academic supervisors, who will offer advice, support and feedback throughout the four years. GCHQ will also help with dissemination of research findings, enabling the student to reach audiences which might otherwise prove difficult to reach.

The project will contribute to the mission of GCHQ and its partner organisations to keep the UK safe.

Eligibility

Desirable criteria

• Applicants should have or be on course for a first-class degree in any social or behavioural science.
• They should have an interest in and commitment to UK national security.
• They should have a basic mathematical competence (e.g. GCSE grade 6 or above) and a willingness to learn and use specialised forms of quantitative data analysis, including social network analysis.

Academic requirements

• Bachelor’s (Honours) degree in a cognate subject at 2:1 or above (or overseas equivalent); and
• Master’s degree in a relevant subject – with an overall average of 65% or above, a minimum mark of 65% in your dissertation and no mark below 55% (or overseas equivalent)
• Applicants with only a Bachelor’s degree will be considered for 1+3 funding to cover both a Master’s and PhD programme.

English language

All applicants must provide evidence of English language proficiency:

• IELTS test minimum score – 7.0 overall, 7.0 in writing, 6.5 in other sections.
• TOEFL (internet based) test minimum score – 100 overall, 25 all sections.
• Other tests may be considered.

Application procedure

The application deadline will be Midnight (GMT) on 28/02/2025. Apply online for PhD Sociology at the University of Manchester.

Under Section 6 Research Details select ‘Yes’ to Are you applying for an advertised project. Insert the project title as stated at the top of the advert. It is recommended when entering the name of the supervisor to simply enter this and not use the supervisor search function.

Please indicate in Section 9 Funding Sources your intention to apply for the ESRC CASE Studentship.

Ensure all required supporting documents are included at the time of submission, as incomplete applications may not be considered. Your application must include the following:

• A copy of your Bachelor’s and Master’s academic transcripts and certificates. If your Master’s degree is pending, please provide an interim transcript.
• If you have completed more than one Bachelor’s or Master’s degree, please provide evidence for each. If your transcripts are in a language other than English, you must provide an official English translation. If your weighted average mark or GPA is not included on these documents, please also include an official document from your university verifying this information.
• An academic CV, summarising your employment history, publications and highlighting experience demonstrating your research potential.
• Supporting statement of a maximum of 500 words indicating why you would like to undertake this studentship and explaining how your focus, experience, and skills link to the research outlined above.
• Example of a piece of academic writing produced by you of up to 2000 words (you may consider submitting two shorter pieces if these deal separately with conceptual and empirical analyses). This may be an academic essay or chapter(s) from a dissertation, in which case, an abstract or introduction outlining the context/aims/research questions of the study must also be included. In Section 12, upload the Writing Sample under Research Statement/Proposal and label it clearly as “Writing Sample.”
• You must nominate two academic referees (including one from your most recent institution). Your referees will be contacted directly via the Referee Portal following the submission of your application form. You may wish to contact your referees to request they submit your reference in a reasonable timeframe as this forms part of the review process.
• Please complete and submit the ESRC NWSSDTP Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form.
• A PhD Proposal is not required.

If you have any questions or would like to discuss this further, please contact Prof. Nick Crossley (nicholas.crossley@manchester.ac.uk)

Formal interviews: Interviews are expected to take place week commencing 24th March 2025.

Equality, diversity and inclusion

Equality, diversity and inclusion are fundamental to the success of The University of Manchester, and are at the heart of all of our activities. We know that diversity strengthens our research community, leading to enhanced research creativity, productivity and quality, societal and economic impact.

We actively encourage applicants from diverse career paths and backgrounds and from all sections of the community, regardless of age, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation and transgender status.