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Staff and students from Abertay University are celebrating double success after scooping two prizes at the 2017 Scottish Cyber Awards.

An innovative cybercrime tool produced by Abertay lecturers Dr Natalie Coull, Dr Ian Ferguson and Dr Iain Donald in partnership with Police Scotland and Droman Crime Solutions took the award for Collaboration With Police Scotland.

The ‘serious game’ is used to train police first responders in how to deal with cybercrime and can be played on a tablet, smartphone or desktop computer, allowing users to interact with a virtual environment and make decisions about applying legislation and police powers.

There was also awards success for the Abertay Ethical Hacking Society, whose students took the Cyber Resilient Community Impact Award.

The society is one of Abertay’s strongest and every year organises the major cyber conference Securi-Tay, last year attended by around 350 delegates from across the UK.

Head of the Division of Cyber Security, Dr Coull said the awards reflected the quality of teaching and research at Abertay as well as the dedication of the University’s Ethical Hacking students.

She added: “To be celebrated in this way at Scotland’s most prestigious cyber events is fantastic and I’m particularly delighted to see our students getting the recognition they deserve.

“It is vitally important that universities continue to work with the police, industry and other key partners to drive forward the quality of our cyber security capabilities and also for the UK and Scottish Governments to continue to support the sector.

“With the possibility of a cyber hub for Dundee as part of the Tay Cities Deal there’s never been a better time to study cyber security or to invest in this growth industry.”

Organised by the Scottish Business Resilience Centre, the awards took place at the Sheraton in Edinburgh, celebrating the country’s most innovative, pioneering and successful cyber security work.

Other winners included ID Cyber Solutions (Best Cyber Start-Up), Alexander Young (Best New Cyber Talent), James Kwaan (Cyber Evangelist Of The Year), Toni Scullion (Cyber Security Teacher of the Year), Alison Brogan and Naghmeh Moradpoor (Outstanding Women In Cyber), My1Login – Winner (International Contribution to Cyber Security), ZoneFox (Leading Light Innovation), Wallet Services (Best Cyber Breakthrough), RBS (Best Cyber Education Programme), Seric Systems (Leading Diversity in Cyber), Clydesdale Bank (Outstanding Cyber Team), Toni Scullion and the Turing Testers (Champion Of Champions).