Hosting a one off Cyber Day provides an excellent opportunity for students to be introduced to a potential career in the exciting field of cybersecurity. John Curtin College’s Cyber Day incorporated the ASD CyberEXP, workshops developed by Edith Cowan University and guest speaker Cordelia Mortimer – Lee, a Senior Security Consultant at PwC. A fun filled day was had by all those involved.

Cordelia began the day by quickly debunking the myth that this is a geeky boy only profession. Highlighting to students that it was her General Science Degree and her passion for English Literature that gave her the initial STEM and communication skills to join the profession.  Gaining a lot of interest from students were her tailgating stories and exciting experiences testing for vulnerabilities. Asking the students to design their own safe home, she was easily able to transfer the security measures of a home to those used in a digital cyber space.

Dr Michelle Ellis from ECU focused on the importance of critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity and how they need to be developed alongside the technological skills to work in this industry. Taking the students on a most interesting job interview with the Australian Secret Intelligence Service at http://www.morehumanintelligence.com.au/ she highlighted some of the unique attributes required for employment. This would be an easy activity for a teacher to replicate in the classroom.

To raise the student awareness of social engineering, phishing attacks and digital forensics, ECU Cybersecurity student Harneet Kaur led the students in some skills building workshops.  After examining the huge effect of cybercrime in Australia for 2018 at https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/about-scamwatch/scam-statistics  Harneet had some great advice for the students, “Buy a hard drive for your grandparents this Christmas and back up their data.”

Life Journey’s ASD CyberEXP provided an opportunity for students to discover their own skills and explore potential careers with the ASD. Students completed the first ideation stage of the experience and now have an opportunity to further develop their competencies through the ASD Cyber Challenge and the online courses available to them as Field Trips.

A  ‘Capture the Flag’ competition developed by ECU student, Adam Brickhill was a huge hit and introduced students to the art of steganography and brute force attacks. Students loved the challenge and this was an ideal way to finish off the day.

“The Cyber Security Day introduced me to a whole new field in the workplace which I had never even considered” –  Abbey Bate

“You don’t have to be a ‘tech nerd’ to work in this field. You can go undercover to break the rules and get paid – only if you have a contract. “ – Madison Jemone

“The cyber safety aspect of this course taught us how easy it was for a hacker to access your accounts. We were taught how to avoid hackers and ignore any possible signs of phishing: this helped raise our awareness of dangers in the online world” – Ella Hoy