Profile

I’ve been working in cyber-security for about 13 years. I consider myself very lucky that my job is doing something I love.

Computer technology is always changing, so I spend quite a lot of time outside of my job learning new things. One of the most fun ways is taking part in hacking competitions. My favourite is the annual SANS Holiday Hack, which runs in December each year and has a really fun christmas theme.

More recently I’ve been thinking about how I can share some of the things I’ve learnt with other people. Participating in “I’m a scientist” is one part of that. I’ve also found myself with lots of spare time during the Covid-19 lockdown, so I have started making some YouTube videos about the ways that hackers break in to systems, and what can be done to stop them.

I’m not always sitting behind a computer screen though. I enjoy doing lots of outdoor activities such as flying, sailing and rock climbing.

Computer systems are very complex, so sometimes the people who design and build them make mistakes. These mistakes occasionally let hackers trick a system into doing something it shouldn’t. So a big part of cyber security is trying to find these mistakes (and fix them!) before the hackers do.

Finding and fixing security bugs is not free. It can take a lot of time, and good cyber security people cost a lot of money. So another big part of cyber security is ‘risk management’ – or in other words, making a trade-off between security and other things (like money or time).

And it’s not all about technology either. Hackers don’t just hack computers, they hack people too! In fact, one of the most successful ways for a hacker to break in to a computer is simply to trick a person into giving away their password! You might have already received a few of these ‘phishing’ emails yourself…? So another big part of cyber security is helping to teach other people how to stay safe and secure online – especially those people who aren’t as good with computers so could be more easily tricked.

Finally, we know that it’s not possible to make something 100% secure. Sometimes the hackers will manage break in. So there’s also lots of people working in cyber security to build monitoring systems to detect hackers (a bit like CCTV for computers!) and then kick the hackers back out if they do break in.