This is a guest post written by Christopher Boddy, who was part of Cyber Discovery.
Before CyberStart, I never thought I would have been capable of what I have achieved. CyberStart has made me aware of all the great opportunities provided to young people to learn about cyber security
I’ve always been interested in computers, especially programming, but I’d never seriously looked into the area of cyber security. I signed up to CyberStart with some friends after our computer science teacher recommended it to our class, but none of us had high expectations of where we would get to or that a career in cyber security was even something we could pursue.
The challenges themselves are extremely interesting and an eye-opener into what I could do and what there was to learn
I had no previous experience of hacking or cyber security other than random small tricks — nothing substantial. CyberStart Game is an amazing introduction to cyber security because it allows you to demonstrate and test your ability in a variety of challenges and fun learning games involving both hacking and programming. I found the programming tasks to be pretty easy, but the other challenges were more difficult for me as I had less experience in that area.
The challenges featured things I had heard of before but never really had a chance to practice, such as SQL Injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and steganography. As my friends and I progressed through the challenges, it was helpful to be able to tackle them together and try out each other’s different ideas.
The atmosphere of CyberStart was competitive but very supportive at the same time. If you didn’t know something or weren’t sure, you could always ask someone, and they’d be happy to help you out.
After a year progressing through CyberStart, I’d learned loads, met new people and been encouraged to consider a career in cyber security
Before CyberStart, I never thought I would have been capable of what I have achieved. CyberStart has made me aware of all the great opportunities provided to young people to learn about this vital field. The number one thing I have taken away from this programme is always to take on opportunities when I can. I think cyber security is and will be, really important for our generation in every area of work.
Any experience in cyber security will make you more employable
In the last decade or so, everything has become far more interconnected through the internet and other technologies which means that there is an even greater attack surface for hackers to inspect and exploit.
Cyber security professionals will be vital in preventing potential exploits from being left in the open; however, cyber security is also relevant to every employee in the workplace. Any experience in cyber security, merely being aware of the potential security threats against you in your workplace immediately makes you more employable — you are helping to protect your employer, and therefore their customers.
If you are interested in seeing what there is for you in cyber security, I would really recommend you join CyberStart. It was definitely an eye-opening and amazing experience for me.
Don’t just take Christophers word for it, get started right now with CyberStart - the most proven cyber security learning tool for young adults!
