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Author: Daisy North

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A week in a life of a post-GCSE work experience student

Click Here to read full report written by the student : 

Work Experience Cyber Report

 

Recently, one of CyNam’s Board Member’s Mark Adams had a post-GCSE work experience student from Pate’s Grammar School (a #CyberFirst school) join him at the Hub 8 offices.

Bored of theory, the student was immersed in a real-time case study. Read for yourself his top three takeaways below:

💻 I built a system using GCLOUD CLI’s virtual machine (attacker) and Openfire docker (server) and exploited the server using a real RCE exploit.
🎇 I learnt how quickly exploits such as these explode and spread and therefore the difficulty of issue disclosure by companies.
🔐 I learned how to use command line to securely download files and use command functions to navigate inside of files and connect to the GCLOUD CLI.

The student said “thank you Mark Adams for being an incredible mentor, allowing me to develop, sharpen and refine a multitude of cybersecurity skills that I will be able to further develop in the future. Thank you, Amy Cushion, Hollie Wakefield and the CyNam team for the wonderful opportunity to take part in this work experience. I found it extremely interesting, challenging, and an exciting learning opportunity that allowed me to vastly expand my knowledge of cybersecurity, especially CVEs and RCEs. I truly hope that I can do some more work experiences with the CyNam community in the future!”

We also add Mark what he thought. Mark said “working with the student was a great experience for me, he was enthusiastic to learn and totally immersed in the task. He covered 3 times more work than I was expecting. Was it really only a week?! Also, he found a new tool I hadn’t heard of which is now my favourite vulnerability profiling tool. Seeing other people develop and learn is often interesting, challenging and humbling. I would encourage everyone in business to consider work experience opportunities, and have your perspectives challenged.”

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How to be a better ally in the workplace.

Clare Bourne – Head of Delivery, Innovation & Growth.

 

In February this year, I was invited to attend a workshop on allyship and how to be a better ally in the workplace.

I was invited to participate by Rebekka Bishop from CACI – CyNam’s Next Gen & Diversity partner. The invite was sent to contribute to CyNam’s strategic objective of understanding what more we can do as an organisation to promote diversity in the sector.

The session was hosted and facilitated by Chikere Igbokwe founder of the Allyship Community and Inclusive Consultancy, taking the allyship message into workplaces.

The session was immediately interesting – a group of people (some of whom had never met) opened up and shared their individual stories of times when they had either felt on the receiving end of some bias, or a time when they might have needed an ally. We were reassured that this is a safe space and that conversations may be hard, we
were encouraged to challenge each other and see the side that existed other than our own.

We covered a range of topics in the workshop, and we discussed privilege and what we each identified privilege as. Some people in the group identified that they were privileged in some areas, while they may not be privileged in others i.e. someone who may be able-bodied, may be underserved in another area of their life. What must be learned from this is that each individual has a story and a unique journey in the world – it pays to understand not only where you feel like you don’t have privilege, but also where you do.

Microaggressions were also a hot topic, and we discussed how we can intervene should we encounter one. The workplace is changing, and the once acceptable communications of distasteful banter, inappropriate slights and suggestive comments should be long behind us as a civilised society – however, they are not. Every day people are made to feel incredibly uncomfortable and marginalised by the clumsy and somewhat narrow-minded commentary of others and we must step in, we must be an ally. We need to be calling it out and putting it right.

This session is just scratching the surface of what changes we should make across this sector, there are years worth of change ahead of Disappointingly, potentially decades of change or as Chikere stated possibly not even in our lifetime.

For more information on how you can be a better ally, please follow Chickere’s website:  https://www.allyship.co.uk

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CBI Announcement

We thought it was important to update our stakeholders
and wider community regarding CyNam’s  work with the CBI.  You may be aware of the news regarding allegations of sexual misconduct at the CBI. 

Before Easter, when the news broke, we agreed with the CBI that we will pause all our outward facing work with them as we think it important that we allow them time and space to properly investigate the allegations; it will also enable us and our sponsors, partners and wider community that we represent, to gain a better understanding how our values & culture align with theirs once more details are known when the investigation is concluded.

 

The CBI fully understand this and are supportive of the approach.

 

You may also be aware that we were hosting a fringe event
at CyberUK – The Belfast Cyber Meet-up on Wednesday 19th April.

For clarification, the CBI will not be involved in this event for the
same reasons and to ensure that everyone is able to attend without concern or compromise.  

 

If you require any further information relating to this matter and our relationship with the CBI, please contact tim.a@cynam.org who would be the first point of contact on this matter. 

 

We will continue to monitor the situation and provide updates
on this page as appropriate.

 

 

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Cyber Skills And Growth In The Industry

Salus Cyber is a community-focused cyber business and provides consultancy to impart expert advice on how a company can maximise strategy, increase profits, add value, and resolve issues. Cyber Security consultancy supports all those key elements and acts as a critical friend to a business dealing with complex issues where they lack internal capacity.

Salus was founded on strong values, integrity, accountability, and trust. These are the core factors that need to be considered when looking to the future and the next generation of talent within the industry.

The explicit needs of other businesses are significantly different to Cyber due to the regulatory requirements of NCSC in the CHECK space. Currently, most graduates entering the industry have specific skillsets based on their courses but not the general skills which are fundamental to understanding the wider cyber security implications of a business. Due to this, one of the biggest challenges being faced is that there is no natural fit from the University/Education pathways to provide Cyber businesses with the skillsets they require.

There is an ever-increasing number of pathways (Cyber degrees) however the critical elements such as penetration testing are not covered to the extent required by the industry, this is due to the ever-changing requirements and technologies which is something Cyber businesses need to consider due to the time and training required.

One of Salus’ graduate consultants, Cameron Doran, entered the industry through a Cyber degree pathway and provided insight into the process:

Brief overview of the University course

I undertook a four-year degree based on building the required skills to be able to perform a security audit of computer networks and systems. The course also built knowledge on how to prevent certain cyber-attacks from happening and included three modules based on ethical hacking.

Why I considered the course?

The reason I decided to do this University course, as opposed to another similar course was because this course covered the fundamentals to be able to progress into any sector of cyber-security. While the course did focus on learning how to perform a penetration test, the course also investigated areas such as, learning how to do coding with C++ (focusing on Data Structures and Algorithms), Digital Forensics (hard-disk drives and mobile phones), and Computer Networking (OSI Model, network traffic analysing, mapping a network). The course opened a lot of doors for exploring and discovering what areas of cyber-security I enjoyed and then in my final year allowed me to focus my honours project on that area. Another benefit of going through a University course is that there are plenty of opportunities to do work placements through the University. Being able to do these types of work placements will enhance your chances of getting a foot in the door.

I decided to do this course because during high school, the subject I enjoyed doing the most was computer science. This led to me wanting to pursue a career in computing. The reason for going into the cyber-security industry (specifically penetration testing) was because it seemed like the area that would open the most doors and a sector that was growing in demand. I also personally enjoy the challenge of a field that is constantly changing with new skills and concepts to learn.

Salus have continuously enabled new starters in cyber security to get high-quality work-related experience and a professional career pathway. Additionally, we hope to take on 1 – 2 apprentices through the University of Gloucestershire and CyberFirst whilst advising school children on how to get into the industry by sending books to them to help assist their journey.

Salus understands that to retain a healthy consulting team, a combination of graduates, senior consultants and experiences from other industry sectors which have links to Cyber are required to ensure we can continuously adapt to the specific needs of our clients. This includes having technical assessors appointed by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) to ensure that the skills within the UK market remain at the cutting edge and contributing to the work of an industry assessment body (The Cyber Scheme and the Cyber Trust) to give back and support the development of standards in the sector

Another challenge being faced within the Cyber industry is retention. The average length of an employee’s time with a company in the UK is just under 3 years and for Cyber it is even shorter. When factoring in development and continuous training, a Cyber business will usually have approximately 2 years of output from a consultant which brings into consideration the return on investment (ROI) cost issues associated. Salus has invested heavily in new talent and developing the next generation of specialists, seeing a 54% growth in its workforce over the past year, being able to pair this with a healthy work culture is vital to retaining this talent and limiting the challenges faced.

When looking out towards the next 5 years and how the industry will shape its approach towards recruitment, the main factor to consider is the technologies that will be in play. With the rise in automation, digital twins and artificial intelligence, the risk is that there will be a delta between humans learning to do a trade craft when during significant parts of their career it is machines that will do most of the work. The question which needs answering is, how do you become a specialist in a field when people don’t want to use you as a practitioner? The ability to keep humans in the lifecycle moving forward is going to the be the biggest challenge faced by the Cyber industry.

Does the future look bright? The answer is yes but;

The advance of technology across all facets of society and life provides significant benefits to all of us and needs to be embraced by all businesses. Alongside that comes the responsibility for effective assurance and security to be provided to protect the users of that technology.  The NCSC highlighted its views on the future of technology assurance in the UK and it promotes the concept of continual assurance through the life of the product or service.  

This means we must all think differently when embracing new technology but also be clear about how we maintain an effective understanding of risk within our current and legacy technologies which still prop up significant parts of society. An annual MOT type approach to cyber assurance testing will not be adequate to mitigate the growing business risks we face and have seen in real terms with the growth of Ransomware and data theft over the past few years.

Those that see criminal or political opportunity in the vulnerabilities in technology are growing their capabilities.  This has always been the case, but the digital world allows much more flexibility in how, when, and where from to ply that tradecraft. Cyber Security needs to grow and keep one step ahead of these challenges for the rest of society to have confidence in the services and systems they use. 

Salus lives the continual assurance life in how it functions, operates, and seeks to promote that with its clients and partners. We also seek to attract diverse talent that can define and develop new concepts and methodologies around technology assurance and embrace the different skills and experience they bring to enrich the team.  Cyber Security is a great industry to work in and provides significant professional development opportunities across a diverse range of technologies and services and a huge sense of reward in helping businesses manage risk better.  

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Agri-Tech Discovery Update

Agri-Tech is an emerging area of interest within the cyber security sector, and is starting to transform UK food systems. With 78% of farmers across the UK using some form of AgriTech, it’s vital to understand the security and risk components that lie within these technologies. The 2022 Government Food Strategy identifies innovation as a key component in meeting its economic and sustainably objectives. 

Agriculture and food production is a major sector in Gloucestershire and a key part of the regional economy. It is also the home of two leading Universities specialising in the future of agriculture, Hartpury University and the Royal Agricultural University (RAU), the selected site for what is currently described as the world’s largest vertical farm[8], and the largest concentration of cyber technology businesses in the country.

 Inevitably increased digitisation brings with it a corresponding cyber security threat. CyNam (Cyber Cheltenham) has therefore created a discovery project to bring together stakeholders from the Agri-Tech and Cyber communities to better understand the challenges and opportunities in this space.

AgriTech Discovery – Update

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CyNam 2022 Wrap-Up

What a year…

As we round off 2022, we have taken some time out to reflect on all the amazing achievements we have made. This year has been our most successful yet, and we have grown both our team and our community massively. Our internal team grew from 3 to 5 welcoming CyNam’s first Skills and Growth Lead, and Marketing Apprentice. We have worked with over 150 industries and around 4000 students over the year, developing and deepening connections within the community.

Here’s to 2023 and all the exciting opportunities it holds. We hope you have a happy and healthy Christmas and a wonderful New Year.

Madeline Howard- Chairperson at CyNam:

“Being the Chairperson of CyNam is a huge privilege, but being able to work alongside such a wonderful high performing team, well that is the real privilege. CyNam has achieved a lot in the last year as we’ve edged out of the pandemic and back to normality. It’s hard to pick one moment that I’m the most proud of. Each CyNam team member has given me multiple hairs standing up proud moments. I’d have to say it’s the stuff you don’t see that I’m most proud of. It’s the grit, the determination to do the right thing, and the passion to engage a community, drive growth and inspire a new generation that I’m most proud of. The CyNam team really is built of superhumans. I don’t think anyone in the industry will really fully appreciate how much the team cares about them, their organisations and the local ecosystem.”

Richard Yorke- Managing Director at CyNam:

It has been an honour to be CyNam’s managing director for another year! This year has been full of so many highlights, including Cyber Horizons and Empower events plus numerous Cyber days in schools across the county reaching upwards of 4,000 students. I’m very proud that Gloucestershire continues to lead the way in terms of the number of Cyber First Schools and thanks to the great work of the CyNam team we have more schools lined up to become recognised next year.

We’ve also seen a significant increase in the number of cyber apprentices and young adults studying cyber and computing degrees at the regional Universities which is a good measure of our impact of work… to inspire the next generation.

Another highlight was hosting a range of events over the year hitting key components of our ecosystem. We secured UKC3 funding to enable engagement with the Agri-Tech and Food production sector. The project is in progress and we are building a good understanding of how the opportunities for the cyber ecosystem to protect this critical sector.

CyNam 22.1 at Pittville Pump Rooms was another highlight. Over 350 people attended including visitors from Canada and the Cheltenham Culture Board. There were some fantastic talks, including a super keynote from Priya Guha discussing ‘Why ecosystems matter’. But it was the young, next generation talent that stole the show with their Apprenticeship panel.

I also connected CyNam with UKC3 and under my tenure as Chair, because of this it has seen formal recognition of 13 cyber clusters covering most parts of the UK.

The List could go on, but without the support of everyone that is part of CyNam none of this would be possible, so a massive thank you to my team and I look forward to see what 2023 has in store for us!”

Charlotte Smith – Enterprise Co-ordinator:

“What a year! Where do I start…

Lets kick it off with the number of school students we have engaged with from March 2022 as a result of Covid. Approximately a whopping 4000**,** with ages ranging from different age groups from 11- 20 years until December 2022. We also have 20 Stem Cyber Ambassadors that have completed induction and DBS or awaiting the finalise the process covering the South West with more being attracted as we build our relationships with CWS and the Careers Hubs in the South West.

At present we have 8 Cyber First Gold Schools/Colleges in Gloucestershire out of a total of 17 in the UK, 6 Silver out of 28, and 2 Bronze out of 11. But we have not only been working in Gloucestershire… but we are now spreading into the wider South West region where we work with Techspark and Graphic Science. We have then added, 5 Bronze schools dotted throughout Cornwall, Wiltshire, Devon and Bristol and then another 6 Silver to the Cyberfirst Contract!

We also can’t forget about the 15 non- Cyber First schools we have engaged with, where we have started serious conversations and hope that more can be achieved. In the wider south west I would suggest the number of serious conversations is also about the same!

Let’s walk the walk and change lives. Here’s to 2023!”

Daisy North- Marketing Executive Apprentice:

I joined CyNam in August 2022 as their first apprentice, and my first job in the industry. And what an amazing experience it has been so far! I have been exposed to so many opportunities and met so many new people! So far I have attended 6 events we have hosted and been involved with all marketing around them. I have been pushed to achieve the best of my ability and made to feel very valued within the team. I feel very blessed to say I am a part of such an amazing organisation and I look forward to see what next year has in store for CyNam and be involved with all the excitement from the start. Roll on 2023, well done to the whole team, you should all be proud!

Eleanor Hardman- Ecosystem Engagement and Events Lead:

“2022 you have been amazing! 2022 has been the biggest year for CyNam in terms of event delivery and ecosystem engagement activities. We have levelled up how we bring our community together and we look forward to hosting bigger and better things in 2023. In total, we have delivered 24 events this year which all fall into our three pillar criteria which are as followed: Cyber Tech ecosystem development- 8, Cyber innovation and growth- 7, and Cyber skills and growth- 9

My event highlights of events are as followed:

International Women’s Day:

To help spread the word and capture the spirit of International Women’s Day, we teamed up with Savient, Bamboo Technology, and Hub8 to help celebrate the incredible female talent in the cyber tech industry in Gloucestershire. We went live with a campaign on social media asking for inspirational women nominations, and then we invited them to a celebratory event! It was so heartwarming to see so many incredible women in the same room, reflecting on their endless successes.

CyNam 22.2 – Web3: Worldwide Wellbeing or Worldwide Weapon?

Our June headline event saw us partner with the Cheltenham Festivals team to bring our community an evening of arcade fun and thought provoking conversation about all things web3, blockchain and decentralisation. It was amazing to be part of the Science Festival agenda.

Personally… I have 2 standout highlights. Becoming a mentor to an Apprentice from the Hub8 team, and becoming a mentor and Line-Manager to our own legendary Daisy North.

Clare Bourne – Head of Delivery, Innovation & Growth at CyNam :

“It’s been a year of exploration both internally as an organisation and externally as a community. It’s been great to get back into our stride post-pandemic engaging the next generation of cyber professionals with our work experience programme and also the return of the Empower event”

Other highlights of the year include venturing into new areas such as agritech, and taking CyberFirst deeper into the South West, as well building the foundations for an investment community here in Gloucestershire”

Bruce- Director at CyNam:

“My highlight of the year has to be EmPower Cyber! The glitter, the pink, the music, the dancing, the surprise, the energy, the noise. It’s an event that is trailblazing cyber to be more diverse, more inclusive, and more progressive.”

Reid Derby- Strategic Director at CyNam:

“We kicked off 2022 by hosting Amy MacBeath right at the start of the year. She was with us as a volunteer to help us write our strategy. Amy has an MBA from Harvard Business School, a Masters student in cybersecurity at Oxford and a management consultant at McKinsey at the time of volunteering. As a result of Amy’s help we were able to produce a high quality strategy for CyNam and give Amy valuable experience of the community.” Find out more about Amy here LINK

Chris Dunning-Walton- Director at CyNam:

“What a year! So many highlights and fantastic achievements across 2022 for CyNam. Stand-out moments included the epic jazz band in Pittville Pump Rooms after a phenomenal Cynam 22.1 in collaboration with IBM with 400 attendees. Another highlight was the start of our investor events and seeing us successfully build momentum in the space. And of course, the rockstar effort with EmPowerCyber to round off the year. It is humbling to see such an impact within the community being achieved by a small, but incredibly dedicated and talented team who are unified by a vision and purpose to see Cheltenham and the surrounding regions reach their potential as the capital for cyber security innovation in the UK. Here is to making 2023 an even more exciting year for everyone involved after a well earned break!”

The biggest highlight for the team:

On the 25th November EmPowerCyber 2022 was a real tear-jerker! We had the absolute privilege of delivering not only one event in our home turf but also working with our friends at CyberNorth to deliver the second event in Newcastle. A prime example of sharing best practices! Both events captured the imaginations of 1,300 Y8 girls and showcased the possibilities that a career in cyber security and technology can offer you. There was glitter, music, drones, and a huge amount of fun in the room! We’re constantly trying to change how the cyber security industry is perceived and we’re sure EmPowerCyber did this in bucket loads! We had the absolute privilege of working alongside nearly 40 organisations, universities, and government departments to excite and inspire the girls…..dare I say see you next year?

Check out the highlights from the day:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezxV82GrAoo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vekXpkS4Xxw

We want to take this opportunity to thank our community, supporters, sponsors and partners again for your ongoing support. We can’t wait to bring you bigger and better things in 2023 and continue to make a positive impact within our community.

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CACI becomes our Next Generation and Diversity Sponsors

CyNam are pleased to welcome CACI to our journey to inspire the next generation.

By providing sponsorship and support, CACI aims to help students find out more about the industry and all the opportunities available.

We are excited to be working with the team at CACI as our Next Generation and Diversity Sponsors.

Cathy Sutherland, Head of IIG at CACI Ltd:

“We are delighted to be a Next Generation and Diversity Champion for CyNam. We are passionate about building a generation of Cyber professionals that are more socially equitable and accessible across the ecosystem.”

From the team at CACI:

 

“CACI are proud to support the next generation of cyber professionals by becoming a Next Generation & Diversity Champion. Our culture is built through our people and their relationships with our partners & customers. We look forward to working with CyNam to support the cyber ecosystem.”

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Atkins become CyNam’s Strategic Partner for 2023

We’re delighted to announce that Atkins has become CyNam’s Strategic Partner for 2023. 

Atkins are a key player in the Cheltenham Cyber Community and regularly supports work to inspire and create opportunities for the next generation.

We are looking forward to growing the company with the support of Akins and seeing what opportunities and ideas we can collaborate on within the next year.

James Partridge – Atkins quotes:

“Atkins are delighted to become CyNam’s 22/23 Strategic Partner. We look forward to deepening our connection with the flourishing Cyber ecosystem in Cheltenham, helping enrich the experience of local start-ups, partners, and clients.”

Richard Yorke – Managing Director of CyNam says:

“Working with Atkins as a strategic partnership enables us to follow and elaborate on our values which are: Community, creating inspiration, love, and peace, and doing what’s needed.”

Atkins’s generous sponsorship will assist Cynam and its community in achieving its strategic objectives and initiatives across all three pillars of cluster activity: Cyber Skills, Ecosystem Development, and Innovation Join Up

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‘Who we are and what we do to the NCSC for Startups Alumni Week participants’ – CACI

CACI were delighted to be invited to introduce ourselves and give an overview of who we are and what we do to the NCSC for Startups Alumni Week participants. We spent the first hour of the day with an introduction to CACI and how we support our SME partners, helping them to navigate government contracts and comply with security requirements whilst also supporting their growth into wider ecosystems.

The rest of the day was spent in one to ones with the startups, discussing in greater detail what they do, what stage they are at and how we might be able to either partner with or support them in the future.

 

It was, for us, a very educational and fascinating day and we hope we had a positive impact on those individuals and businesses we spoke to. Supporting SME’s and partnering with other companies is a key facet of CACI’s strategy, and events such as the NCSC for Startups Alumni Week are a great opportunity for everyone to benefit from shared knowledge and access to decision makers across a wide range of the technology sphere.

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Gloucestershire College and UWE Bristol join forces as CyNam Academic Sponsors 2022/2023

We are pleased to announce that our long-term academic partner Gloucestershire College has continued its sponsorship support of CyNam for another year.

Not only has Gloucestershire College pledged to continue its support of CyNam into 2023, but we are delighted to announce that the University of West of England (UWE) has partnered with Gloucestershire College as our academic sponsors for the coming year.

 

“We’re thrilled to sponsor CyNam for a third year running, and to further strengthen our partnership with UWE Bristol in what promises to be an exciting year. Our joint NCSC-accredited cyber degree apprenticeship continues to prove invaluable to employers and we look forward to launching the new Digital and Technology Solutions (DATS) degree apprenticeship in September 2023.”

 

“CyNam is a key driver in the region’s cyber skills growth agenda and our sponsorship reflects the continued alignment of our strategies and mission to attract, develop and retain talent in Gloucestershire.”

 

The key drivers for Gloucestershire College and UWE in further developing their relationship with CyNam have been the recent successes in engaging young people in not only the Cyber Apprenticeship Degree program but promoting the virtues of the level 3 & 4 apprenticeships too.

 

This year the plan is to further bolster the communications to employers about the value of Level 3 & 4 apprenticeships and upcoming new courses available as apprenticeships such as Software and Networking and DevOps.

 

And the effort doesn’t just stop at apprenticeships and young people – the Glos Col/UWE offer is open to more mature members who may be looking to reskill and retrain.

 

UWE is recognized by NCSC as an Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Education and is committed to developing cyber security education across the region, through our teaching, research, outreach and industry engagement. We offer our MSc Cyber Security and BSc Cyber Security and Digital Forensics courses in Bristol, as well as our BSc Information Technology (Top Up) and our BSc Cyber Security Technical Professional Degree Apprenticeship that both run in Cheltenham in conjunction with Gloucestershire College. We host a variety of events in the region to help upskill teachers and industry, as well as outreach events for school students including our Unlock Cyber events and our support of the CyberFirst Schools initiative.