Rich Macfarlane

Rich Macfarlane is an Associate Professor at the School of Computing Engineering and the Built Environment, Edinburgh Napier University, UK. He specializes in Cyber-security, Digital Forensics, and Network Security, with extensive experience in ransomware detection, forensic tool evaluation, and cloud-based security training.

• Research Centres: Centre for Distributed Computing, Networking and Security
• Projects: Directed KTP initiatives funded by Innovate UK, Data Lab, and Scottish Enterprise

Research Interests include:

• Ransomware attack detection and mitigation
• Digital forensic tool validation
• Cloud infrastructure security
• Entropy-based file analysis
• Deception techniques for threat identification

Article Trends show technical focus on ransomware detection, entropy analysis, digital forensic datasets, and wireless network monitoring. The work combines mathematical modeling, cloud-based platforms, and machine learning applications in forensics.

Education & Supervision:

• Second Supervisor for Matthew Thomson (2023) - Digital Media & AI Forensics
• Second Supervisor for Philip Penrose (2013-2017) - Large Storage Device Forensics

Grants: Managed industry-funded projects totaling £874,436 including KTP with Morgan Stanley (£136,306), Fragment Finder (£228,757), and vSoC development (£119,363).