On Friday the 4th of March - I was fortunate enough to attend my first ever cybersecurity conference! Even more fortunate than that, I got the opportunity to speak at one too!
A brief bit of housekeeping, in case you are wondering, Securi-Tay is an information security conference held annually at Abertay University (Dundee). Securi-Tay X referes to the 10th time this event has taken place.
Who puts on Securi-Tay?
Securi-Tay is organised by Abertay University's Ethical Hacking Society, making it Europe's largest student-run information security conference!
What do you do at a Cybersecurity conference? What is it like?
You are given free reign to pick and choose what you wish to do according to the schedule (minus the workshops, I believe they were reserved prior!).
All attendees were given a lanyard with the schedule for the day and could pick and choose what talks they wanted to attend.
Like other industry conferences, speakers were presenting across three tracks throughout the day, with workshops taking place throughout the day too.
Sponsors all had stalls in the various exhibition spaces where you were free to network through the day.
For everyone, this is a great chance to learn about new developments and research in the industry to better inform everyone about their own practice.
With industry professionals (with a wide range of experience and expertise), IT enthusiasts and students in attendance, one of the main things you do at a conference is network! (sorry introverts!)
Having a large group of attendees provides an ideal opportunity to meet like minded people and forge connections that might lead to an opportunity to work with/for someone or collaborate on a project in the future.
As a speaker, you get the opportunity to broadcast your views on a topic to a live audience (both virtual and in-person) and engage first hand with any feedback provided.
The sponsors all have stalls that are manned throughout the day for you to interact with. As a student, I cannot re-iterate how valuable this opportunity to network is.
It provides you with in-person interaction with potential employers and ample opportunity to ask questions and make a good first impression.
Using this opportunity effectively can give you tangible steps to aid your professional development and bolster the likelihood of getting industry experience or even a job.
As much as this an opportunity for students, for the sponsors attending, this is an opportunity for companies to find students who could be a match for the ethos in their company. All companies did have goody-bags too and lunch was provided, which is always a welcome bonus!
Some of the goodies I picked up on the day!
What it was like presenting a talk?
Anybody who says they don’t get nerves presenting to an audience is most likely lying! There were some initial nerves, but these quickly subsided thankfully. I was perhaps over prepared and my main worry was speaking for too long, instead of not long enough!
My talk was on track 3, the smallest track out of the three tracks. This track was reserved mainly for first time speakers (mainly students), to ease us into the world of public speaking!
The other two tracks were reserved for the main speakers as they had a bigger capacity.
What did you talk about?
I almost felt like a bit of a fraud speaking at Securi-Tay! Other People on track 3 spoke about Userland Linux roolkits, social engineering and forensic artefacts (amongst other topics) and I spoke about what it is like to change career from a primary school teacher to a cybersecurity student! I wanted to give an insight into the challenges of jumping headfirst into the world of cybersecurity, whilst highlighting many of the skills people from other industries (mainly teaching) can bring. If you are interested in viewing my talk – you can find it below!
At this point I want to thank the committee members for allowing me to do a talk despite my inexperience at this stage. I am extremely grateful for the encouragment and support given when preparing my presentation.
If you take anything away from this, attend conferences in relation to your passion/studies (hopefully both apply!)Finally, a massive thank you to the committee members and fellow helpers from Abertay Ethical Hacking Society to make this event happen and allowing me to. Witnessing first-hand the amount work that went into organising an event of this size gives you a new appreciation for how difficult the logistics behind an event like this can be!
Links to websites referred to in this blog
Abertay Ethical Hackers WebsiteSecuri-Tay Website