David spent some time recently chatting with QUT students about becoming a Cyber Security Advisor.

The event was organised by The QUT Hacking and Technology Society aka the QUT White Hats, a club designed to train students to become ethical security experts so they can help fill the extremely large gap in the cyber security job market.  

The rate of growth for information security analyst roles for example is projected to increase 33 percent from 2020 to 2030, much faster than the average for all occupations. Computer science roles are already in high demand as it is; adding in the element of security makes these roles even more critical and sought after.

The QUT White Hats believe that students should be able to learn and practice security in their first years of university – regardless of their discipline – because cyber security is becoming an increasingly large threat to every industry. They run a free weekly workshop to increase student knowledge and skill-sets in Cyber Security.

Which is where David came in.... 

He has held a variety of technology roles over the last 20 + years including as an Avionics Technician in the Airforce where he held Top Secret clearance, Help Desk Manager at Datacom, Group CIO at a multinational manufacturing firm and of course the obligatory stint at Hungry Jack's whilst at Uni and of course there is FortiTech.

All of this experience allowed David to cover topics for the attendee's including how he got started in IT and InfoSec and what a day in the life of a cyber security advisor looks like (both good and bad ones).

Plus, he also got to show off some of the tools that hackers use to infiltrate electronic devices, including the WiFi Pineapple and USB Rubber Ducky (pictured right).

The Wifi Pineapple is able to test the vulnerability of wi-fi networks and the USB Rubber Ducky injects keystrokes at superhuman speeds, violating the inherent trust computers have in humans by posing as a keyboard allowing it to install backdoors, exfiltrate documents, or capture credentials.

Throughout the session there were some great questions from the attendees and allowed David to give real life examples of the attack vectors used and impact that having (or not having) cyber security measures in place can affect people and businesses, along with stories from the front lines of cyber warfare.

If you would like to arrange for David to come along and speak with your team or organisation about Cyber Security, just drop us a line.