Bill Buchanan

Part of the IT Leaders 100 - a list of the most influential IT leaders in the UK in 2026.

William (Bill) J Buchanan OBE FRSE is a Professor of Applied Cryptography at Edinburgh Napier University, and is a Principal Fellow of the HEA.

Bill was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2017 Birthday Honours for services to cybersecurity, and, in 2024, was appointed as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE).

In 2023, he received the "Most Innovative Teacher of the Year" award at the Times Higher Education Awards and was awarded "Cyber Evangelist of the Year" at the Scottish Cyber Awards in both 2016 and 2025. He has led research work to four highly successful spin-out companies.

What's the most exciting part of your current role?

I have the privileged position of being able to lead teaching, research and innovation. This work has led to the creation of four highly successful spin-out companies. At my core, I love reading research papers and coding their methods. This is highlighted by my work on A Security Site, and which include both the theory and practice related to advanced cryptographic methods.

What do you do in week one of a new project to avoid pain in month six?

I make sure we have a strong plan to deliver key milestones and the right quality level, and have the resources in place. There are also fallback plans to make sure we can still deliver key milestones. Our approach is generally to deliver to the highest quality level possible.

What’s the part of your estate you most want to simplify in 2026?

The usage of agentic AI is the key focus of my focus, and the risks and opportunities of this in cybersecurity.

Excluding smartphones, what piece of technology could you not live without and why?

I need a range of key tools: Visual Studio Code (for coding), AWS/Cloud (for the creation of the web infrastructure for ASecuritySite.com).

What excites you most about the future of IT?

I believe we face many issues related to privacy, and I hope that cryptography, such as with Zero Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs), will address many of these issues.

What talent are you quietly proud of that would never show up on LinkedIn?

I have a long track record of creating cryptography code and creating related Capture The Flags (CTFs).

What’s your most-used keyboard shortcut or command that you wish everyone knew?

Command-Shift-F3 for a Mac OSX screenshot.