On Friday the 27 of November we participated with other UTCs in the UTC Cyber Group’s event on cyber security. We had students from Year 10, 12 and 13 participate in this opportunity to learn more about the field of cyber security.
The day started with a welcome from Michael Halliday and then being introduced to Suzy Beanland, a cyber defence specialist at DarkTrace, a world leading cyber AI company. Suzy talked through the world of cyber security and, through the use of their Antigena email system, how they are playing a role in ensuring threats are minimised. Suzy went through the details and techniques used within phishing emails to attempt to scam unsuspecting people.
After hearing about the techniques and tools these attackers use, the students were tasked with creating their own phishing email, demonstrating what they learnt, to then be analysed by Antigena email System.
We were then introduced to Stuart Laidlaw, senior director at Immersive Labs. This is a platform used primarily by universities and other businesses to upskill their staff in the area of cyber security. We have been fortunate enough to have been allowed access to this learning environment for our students. This is a fantastic resource for our students to further their skills but also an impressive feature of their personal statement when applying for future education or other career prospects.
Students were challenged to complete as many courses as they could throughout this session and prizes were awarded to the top UTC and the top students from everyone taking part. We performed incredibly well, placing second as a college amongst the other UTCs and also placed first for the individual student who completed the most. Thomas B (year 12) was able to impress both Michael and Stuart with his commitment and determination in completing as many courses as he did.
Towards the end of the event we were introduced to representatives from Fujistsu, Immersive Labs, Palo Alto Networks and Energus. They were able to share information as to what their respective companies do in this area but also gave us a platform to ask questions. Students were able to gain valuable information about different routes into these careers, how to obtain apprenticeships and entry level positions in cyber security and what were the most desirable skills are.
All students showed a professional mentality to the event, demonstrating that they are attending UTC Portsmouth to succeed. Several students were already looking into cyber security related futures and hopefully more are now interested in this ever emerging field.
Mr Warwick - Head of Computer Science
