William Johnston Buchanan OBE FBCS CEng PFHEA (born 6 March 1961) is a Scottish computer scientist. Buchanan is a professor in the School of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment. He currently leads the Blockpass ID Lab and the Centre for Cybersecurity, IoT and Cyberphysical at Edinburgh Napier University. In 2017, he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2017 Birthday Honours for services to cyber security.
Along with the love of the City of Edinburgh, Buchanan has deep passion for cryptography and innovation and is quoted with a tagline of, "A Serial Innovator. An Old World Breaker. A New World Creator." Over the years, he has presented a strong viewpoint on the risks of AI and a Big Brother world. Buchanan also shows a great passion for enterprise and education in Scotland, "For a small country, Scotland has a beating heart of innovation and enterprise. The country is known around the world for its inventors and enterprising spirit. But, at the core of this, is a commitment to education at all levels, and in breaking down the barriers in the access to education."
Buchanan teaches Network Security and Applied Cryptography in the School of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment at Edinburgh Napier University, and his research focus is around digital identity, cryptography and blockchain. This applies into areas of health care and cybersecurity. He is the sole author and creator of ASecuritySite, and which hosts a wide range of cryptography applications, including within public key encryption, symmetric key encryption, digital signatures and key exchange methods. ASecuritySite.com was first released on 15 Feb 2013.
Buchanan was awarded an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List in June 2017. He was the first person in the UK to received an award for services to Cybersecurity. On receiving it he outlined, "The award of an OBE is recognition for not just my own work but that of the Cyber Academy, and for the role my university, my School and the city has played in supporting that work. We have never had any barriers placed in our way, and have always received the required support, and the freedom, to develop our vision", and "We hope our work can continue to provide both economic and social impacts, and that cyber security can point the way to building new infrastructures which respect the rights of individuals while also protecting our societies."
In January 2018, Buchanan decided to receive his OBE in his home city, and received this from Queen Elizabeth II at Hollyrood Palace in July 2018.
Love of Edinburgh
Buchanan has never hid his love of his home city of Edinburgh, "I stepped foot in Edinburgh many decades ago and immediately fell in love with the place. That first sight of the city will never leave me, and I still adore the way it holds its head high." In April 2018, he presented alongside Richard Demarco in an event entitled, "Building a World-leading City in Arts & Science" and which discussed and debated the future of Edinburgh.
In August 2017, Buchanan was interviewed by Elliot Reeves within the "Inspired Edinburgh" series of talks with famous Edinburgh citizens. Within the talk he outlined the career route that he took in his early life and in following his father and grandfather into electrical engineering, and how he fell in love with the city the first moment he saw it.
In an interview with Convention Edinburgh, Buchanan outlined, "Edinburgh is one of the most wonderful cities in the world, and I adore living and working here. Our students, too, often love being here, and appreciate the beauty and culture around them. As a city it is cultured and achingly beautiful, along with being one of the most educated cities in the whole world."
On receiving a student-voted award for best lecturer for 2020 in the School of Computing at Edinburgh Napier University, Buchanan outlined, "I am very lucky. I live and work in the most beautiful city in the world, and in the most beautiful country on the planet. I research and teach the subject that I adore (cryptography). I work in a university that has supported our work ... with every single heartbeat. But most of all I get to teach and learn from our amazing students."
