Cyber Career Chat Podcast

Adam is the co-founder is Cyber Revolution, a cyber security training institute based in Sydney. He has been in the education space for close to a decade now and education is one of his core values. With a bachelors degree in Secondary Education form the University of Canberra. Questions:  What were your goals when you were in year 10? What changed? I believe you’re a qualified PE Teacher? Tell me about this experience What made you go from PE Teaching to Cyber? What is your role? What skills do you require? What are your weaknesses & how did you recognise these? Have you or are you starting to overcome these weaknesses now? What are your strengths? What are you most curious about right now? Is there something I should have asked, or you wish I did ask you before we finish? Useful Links:  Connect with Adam here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-hewitt-566097101/  NSW Cyber Security Innovation Node - https://nswcybersecurityinnovationnode.com.au/ Sarah Box LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-box-25670667/    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Samira Tollo CTO and co-founder of Elbaite (P2P cryptocurrency exchange) and a blockchain consultant with IBM is passionate about growing Australian grown blockchain use cases. She is an electrical engineer with a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering (Honours) from The University of Queensland. Samira’s accomplishments in the field have been recognised, in 2020 she was a finalist for Rising star of the year 2020 in the Women in Digital National Awards, during her time in University she was awarded with Electrical Engineering Alumni Advantage Scholarship and a Supporting Women Scholarship. Samira’s final-year thesis project was the development of an innovative smart fridge, which was recognised in an article written by The University of Queensland.  She is passionate about all things tech and wants to encourage more young Australians to start tech companies. Questions: Would you like to further explain the activity to our listeners and why the activity was selected? Did you have this type of opportunity when you were in secondary education?  Do you think it is valuable for gaining not only awareness but also engagement and aspirations? What was/is your role as a blockchain consultant? What skills do you require? You have been CEO (Chief Technology Officer) for 3.5 years now can you please explain what this role entails? What are your weaknesses & how did you recognise these? Have you or are you starting to overcome these weaknesses now? What are you most curious about right now? Is there something I should have asked, or you wish I did ask you before we finish? Useful Links: Connect with Samira here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/samira-tollo-b60b8a140/  NSW Cyber Security Innovation Node - https://nswcybersecurityinnovationnode.com.au/ Sarah Box LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-box-25670667/    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ross Turner studied for his Bachelor of Medical Biotechnology at the University of Wollongong between 2015-2018 where his highlights include; - Techniques in Biotechnology and Medical Research (Lab & Theory) - Cell and Molecular Biology (Lab & Theory) - Immunity and Infection (Lab & Theory) - Genetics (Lab & Theory) - Social Aspects of Genetics and Biotechnology - Biochemistry (Lab & Theory) - Bio-informatics of Genome and Bio-molecules (Lab & Theory) - Analytical Chemistry (Lab & Theory) - Organic Chemistry (Lab & Theory) - Organic Synthesis (Lab & Theory) - Pharm-a-cology Following this he further committed to Honours, Class 1, Immunology in 2020 and currently is a part-time research assistant at the Illawarra and medical research institute in Wollongong NSW. Ross now Manages the Oncology Biobank for the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District. Questions: What is bio technology? Who inspired you to pursue this career path? What are your highlights so far? Biggest learning opportunities For a secondary student who has no idea or some idea of their career path what would you say? You obviously have some extremely sensitive personal information you must keep confidential, can I ask how you keep this secure in regards to linking with cyber security and what systems are in place. What skills do you value that are most important to you in this field? – what skills helped you Worst part of your job? And how do you stay positive and motivated Useful Links: Connect with Ross here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rossjamesturner/  NSW Cyber Security Innovation Node - https://nswcybersecurityinnovationnode.com.au/ Sarah Box LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-box-25670667/  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Joshua is currently a 2nd year student studying a bachelor’s degree of Cyber Security and Behaviour at Western Sydney University. An ambassador for the NSW Cyber Security Innovation Node, where he spends time as participating in panel discussions, teacher immersion activities and delivering activities to secondary school students.  Josh also spends his time as a Cyber Security Research Assistant at Western Sydney University, and very active in looking out for opportunities within the Cyber security field. Questions: What were your goals when you were in year 10? What changed? What are your weaknesses & how did you recognise these? Have you or are you starting to overcome these weaknesses now? What are your strengths? What are you most curious about right now? Is there something I should have asked, or you wish I did ask you before we finish? Useful Links:  Josh Snelling LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-snelling-b837a8188/  Sarah Box LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-box-25670667/  NSW Cyber Security Innovation Node - https://nswcybersecurityinnovationnode.com.au/  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ben Cornish started out working across a range of jobs including as a labourer, in hospitality and security, before going on to study law in his early 20s. Ben then worked as a lawyer in SA and NT before moving into the Commonwealth Government where he worked in a number of different roles across industry, government and critical infrastructure - investigating and advising on security threats and mitigation strategies; and currently is a professional services manager in Security & Risk for Saab Australia – managing a team of information and cyber security specialists - tasked with supporting Saab's businesses, as well as Saab’s external clients, enhancing their information and cyber security maturity, resilience and culture. Adam McHugh started out as a kitchen hand, but grew into a management role across two restaurants in Brisbane. He then moved into sales for Vodafone, and was also a self-employed web developer for several years before joining the Royal Australian Air Force in 2010. Adam was trained as a Communications Electronic Technician, and attained a Certificate 3 in Engineering in Electrical/Electronics. His first posting within the RAAF was to No 1. Combat Communications Squadron where he was trained in the operation, maintenance and deployment of radio, satellite, cryptographic and IT systems. His next posting was to Air Force Test Ranges where Adam began utilising his training from 1CCS to bolster cyber security awareness in support of Defence projects. Adam commenced studies in Information Systems Security in 2016, and has recently attained a Masters in Information Systems Security with focuses in Hacking Countermeasures, Network Security, Encryption, Forensics, Investigations and IT Risk Management. Having transitioned from being a full-time Defence member in 2019, Adam is now the Security Operations Manager for Saab Australia where he manages physical, personnel and information security matters for the business, and Defence related projects. Questions: Last year you were a part of the WINNING team for the first ever Nationwide National Missing Persons Hackathon which ran simultaneously and was livestreamed. This event was delivered in partnership with AustCyber, Australian Federal Police, Missing persons.com.au and tracelabs. The idea of this was to crowdsource through a not-for-profit organisation, to assist police in investigating missing person cases.  So why did you create Team SaabAu? What made you want to participate? What does OSINT mean?   Did any of your team members have to be trained in any way to prepare for this event? So how did you know you wanted to be a part of this event? What is ethical hacking? Is this legal? What is the difference between this and non-ethical and can you accidently put yourself in trouble by ‘hacking’?  What are some of the biggest hacking misconceptions? Biggest learning curve from the day if any?  Highlights from the event? Part of this Missing Persons Hackathon is to demonstrate the diversity of cyber security careers, skills and opportunities… What skills would one need to participate in this activity?  Is this a genuine career pathway?  What opportunities exist for those in school thinking about subject selections for say years 9 & 10 or 11 &12?  Useful Links:  NSW Cyber Security Innovation Node Website - https://nswcybersecurityinnovationnode.com.au/ Ben Cornish LinkedIn  - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-cornish/ Adam McHugh LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-m-244545130/ Sarah Box LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-box-25670667/  Host contact - sarah@nswcsin.com.au Experts On Air - https://expertsonair.fm/  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lara Hemmarty completed her studies in Computing, Systems Analysis and Design, E-Business at Western Sydney University. Lara has been an account executive, an inside sales associate for Google, responsible for growing G-suite’s customer base, supporting a productive business environment and identifying new business opportunities, generating business plans and defining strategic tactics whilst managing multiple cross-product opportunities.  More recently Lara started working with IBM in business development, social & commerce, where she assisted clients to grow business to be effective and efficient.  Lara then moved into IBM’s collaboration solutions, allowing Lara to again find the right solutions for business and assisting organisations on their journey to re-imagine their work. Lara is still with IBM in a Security Specialist role, specialising in Security Software, which means Lara’s role is to protect important information and software that, if not protected correctly, runs the risk of adversaries (bad guys or bots) accessing the data and potentially inflicting financial damage.  Lara is also one of the NSW Cyber Security Innovation Node’s Ambassadors, which is formed by a group of business, academics, professionals and secondary students to represent the expertise and empower people to investigate roles within the Cyber Security industry.   Questions: Each day of Cyber Week there is a theme, which today is ‘Buying and Investing in Cyber Capability’ with the overall theme of workforce development, so what does buying and investing in cyber capability mean to you?   How many people seek these roles in foreign countries, for example Silicon Valley? Do we have a thriving cyber ecosystem here? Where? How can we improve? How can we as Australians invest more in cyber capability?  Do we have obstacles to overcome? What Impacts do you think will happen over the next few years if we do not take this seriously?  Cyber Week is for people new to the cyber ecosystem?  What can one expect from Cyber Week? Who can get involved? Current stigma around cyber security careers... Who is best suited to these roles?  How broad is cyber security really?  Do we want to highlight alternative pathways into these careers?  This episode is proudly sponsored by the Experts On Air Podcast Network Useful Links:  NSW Cyber Security Innovation Node Website - https://nswcybersecurityinnovationnode.com.au/ Lara Hemmarty - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lara-hemmaty-142b5826/  Sarah Box LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-box-25670667/  Host contact - sarah@nswcsin.com.au Experts On Air - https://expertsonair.fm/  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mina Zaki has had an extraordinary career starting several law firms including providing legal services for commercial leasing, general property advice, wills & estates, powers of attorneys and guardianships to clients both locally & globally, in information services. Through these roles she has liaised with authorities such as ASIC, ITSA, OCR, Local councils and National courts.  Mina has supported legal services to socially and economically disadvantaged people across NSW, delivering legal services in most areas of criminal, family and civil law and diverse range of clients including entrepreneurial ASX listed companies, privately owned businesses, high wealth individuals and family groups. Provided specialist legal services, for example Workplace Ombudsman, Aboriginal Legal Services and The Consumer Credit Legal Centre to name a few.  Some responsibilities over the years have included setting up Discretionary, Family, Unit and other special purpose Trusts, incorporating public and proprietary companies. Registering Trademarks in Australia and New Zealand, Setting up businesses, association, self-managed super funds and other registrable Australian bodies. Managing changes to Trust funds and company statutory files. Mina has also been a freelance translator and provided Dari and Pashto translations for ground-breaking stories such as 'Anatomy of a Massacre' - Dateline 2012, 'Questions from Oruzgan' Dateline - 2010 and 'Tackling the Taliban' Dateline 2007. Extending onto Dari and Pashto translations and subtitling for the 2008 November Films production 'A Well-Founded Fear' - documenting the plight of asylum seekers who had been deported to Afghanistan, Syria, Turkey, Iran and Canada from Australia. Mina hasn’t stopped there and has appeared in ‘Muslims Like Us’ a fascinating two-part series exploring Islamic life in modern Australia and has been a freelance writer for Mamamia for several years And now you have officially joined the AustCyber Network as the NSW Cyber Security Node’s Manager which I am very honoured to be here today to not only welcome you aboard but also launch the new PODCAST series for Cyber Pathways and opportunities, during what is the most exciting part of the year…Cyber Week 2020, what perfect timing this is! Welcome aboard Mina.  Questions: 1.  Each day this week there is a theme which today is ‘Impact of Australian Cyber Week 2020’ with the overall theme of workforce development. So, although you are not new to the cyber security eco-system, what does cyber week mean to you? And what would be your key outcomes for Australian Cyber week? 2. What Impacts do you think Cyber Week has for people new to the cyber eco-system? (prompting ie, activities that are available, what can one expect from cyber week? Who can get involved?) 3.  current stigma around cyber security careers who is best suited to these roles? How broad is cyber security really? Do we want to highlight alternative pathways into these careers? This episode was brought to you by the Experts On Air Podcast network.  Useful Links:  NSW Cyber Security Innovation Node Website - https://nswcybersecurityinnovationnode.com.au/ Mina Zaki LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/minazzaki/  Sarah Box LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-box-25670667/  Host contact - sarah@nswcsin.com.au Experts On Air - https://expertsonair.fm/  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.