A Week with GCHQ
This Summer, I went to GCHQ’s CyberFutures Residential Course at Newcastle University. For a week I lived in the halls and attended various lectures and workshops about cybersecurity. If you asked me a year ago when I applied, I really wasn't that interested as I was more interested in software development. However, I learnt and experienced so many amazing new things.
To begin with, being so far away from home and living independently was really different. For the first time, I wasn't surrounded by any friends or family. This meant I was thrown into the deep end of making new friends and navigating myself around the university campus and the new city. However, I found this really exciting especially as I am considering going to university rather far away from home. Although initially, it was rather daunting, by the end of the week I felt extremely comfortable in my little dorm and exploring the campus.
In lectures, I was taught by a series of cyber experts from various fields such as digital forensics and ethical hacking. There were also many guest speakers such as a member of Lloyds TSB and the local police force. Their personal experiences were extremely inspiring and interesting; hearing about the hilarious stories on social engineering or the number of criminals caught through cyber forensics were some of my favourite talks. In the week, we discussed many techniques covered in the Computer Science GCSE but also built on these foundations, learning about more specific cyberattacks such as DDOS attacks and how to defend against hacking in more detail than just firewalls. I actually really enjoyed these talks despite lectures being portrayed as boring and long in films! I filled nearly a whole notebook with information, notes and contacts that are already proving useful now that I've brought these skills home and into my lessons.
As mentioned previously, I also got to experience the impact cybersecurity has on devices firsthand. Over the week, we worked in small groups to protect our devices against opposing teams' attacks whilst trying to break through their protections as well. We worked on examining unprotected package exchange and taking over webcams. This helped massively with my understanding and appreciation for cybersecurity. For example, who knew you could hack a fridge?!?! And where can I get anti-virus software for it?!?!
To conclude, this was an amazing week filled with so many new and exciting opportunities. I gained GCHQ’s CyberFirst SCQF Level 5 Qualification (equivalent to 4 UCAS points).
"Emily has been a pleasure to work with. She has fully engaged with the course and her team members. She is a natural leader and I have no doubt she will go far. She has been a pleasure to work with.”
SmallPeice, CyberFirst Futures
Of course, this is a brilliant experience I can put on my CV but more importantly, I think I have found a new passion of mine and I really want to develop these skills further by studying computer science and cybersecurity at university. I would recommend this course to any teen even a little bit interested in computer science and I definitely want to do it again next year!
To begin with, being so far away from home and living independently was really different. For the first time, I wasn't surrounded by any friends or family. This meant I was thrown into the deep end of making new friends and navigating myself around the university campus and the new city. However, I found this really exciting especially as I am considering going to university rather far away from home. Although initially, it was rather daunting, by the end of the week I felt extremely comfortable in my little dorm and exploring the campus.
In lectures, I was taught by a series of cyber experts from various fields such as digital forensics and ethical hacking. There were also many guest speakers such as a member of Lloyds TSB and the local police force. Their personal experiences were extremely inspiring and interesting; hearing about the hilarious stories on social engineering or the number of criminals caught through cyber forensics were some of my favourite talks. In the week, we discussed many techniques covered in the Computer Science GCSE but also built on these foundations, learning about more specific cyberattacks such as DDOS attacks and how to defend against hacking in more detail than just firewalls. I actually really enjoyed these talks despite lectures being portrayed as boring and long in films! I filled nearly a whole notebook with information, notes and contacts that are already proving useful now that I've brought these skills home and into my lessons.
As mentioned previously, I also got to experience the impact cybersecurity has on devices firsthand. Over the week, we worked in small groups to protect our devices against opposing teams' attacks whilst trying to break through their protections as well. We worked on examining unprotected package exchange and taking over webcams. This helped massively with my understanding and appreciation for cybersecurity. For example, who knew you could hack a fridge?!?! And where can I get anti-virus software for it?!?!
To conclude, this was an amazing week filled with so many new and exciting opportunities. I gained GCHQ’s CyberFirst SCQF Level 5 Qualification (equivalent to 4 UCAS points).
"Emily has been a pleasure to work with. She has fully engaged with the course and her team members. She is a natural leader and I have no doubt she will go far. She has been a pleasure to work with.”
SmallPeice, CyberFirst Futures
Of course, this is a brilliant experience I can put on my CV but more importantly, I think I have found a new passion of mine and I really want to develop these skills further by studying computer science and cybersecurity at university. I would recommend this course to any teen even a little bit interested in computer science and I definitely want to do it again next year!
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