Career Development Timeline
The following page outlines my current career development plan, as at March 2018. It highlights my chosen units and extra curricular education opportunities I will seek to complete to enhance my career development. These activities were chosen as they best align with my two preferred roles, being a Penetration Tester or Cyber Security Consultant.
Click here to view my Career Development Timeline.
Extra Curricular Activities
Def con
What is it – Def con is a hacking convention held every year in Las Vegas. It hosts Cyber Security public speakers and various hacking competitions; the key one being the Capture the Flag (CTF) event (Tangent 2018).
How will I participate – I will not be attending the event however at the end of the CTF a summary of the competition is posted online that I will be able to read.
What experience do I want to gain – Reading this summary will provide me the opportunity to see the language used in the Cyber Security field and will allow me to take note of the techniques used and their effectiveness.
CySCA
What is it – The Cyber Security Challenge Australia (CySCA) is another hacking competition, however this one is run in Australia and is only open to students (Cyber Security Challenge Australia 2018, The Challenge).
How will I participate – It is my intent to organise a team to compete in 2020 and 2021. To enable this I will be following the competition on Social media to identify the registration dates and will be posting online to identify motivated members to form a team.
What experience do I want to gain – This event will enable me to develop my Cyber Security skills sets in a competitive environment. I intend to take the lessons learnt in 2020 and apply them to the prep in 2021 to increase the chances of my team taking first place.
Security Exhibition and Conference
What is it – This conference is held every year in Melbourne Aust. around July. It is a three day event that covers a wide range of security, intelligence and threat related topics (Security Exhibition 2018, About The Show).
How will I participate – I will be traveling to Melbourne to attend the conference.
What experience do I want to gain – My interest in this conference comes from my second career choice being a Cyber Security Consultant. The broad range of security topics covered will provide a holistic view of security. I believe having a basic understanding of a wide range of threat actors and methodologies will enhance the security options that I could provide to a customer.
Unpaid Work Experience/SIT306
What is it – It is time spent working within an industry under qualified professionals, usually conducted as part of your education in that field.
How will I participate – During the end of year break 2020/21, I intend to seek out some unpaid work experience. My first preference would be through Cybernetic Global Intelligence located in Brisbane Aust. Cybernetic Global Intelligence provide data protection to businesses through a range of cyber security services such as penetration testing and security audits. (Australian Cyber Security Provider 2018, Cybernetic Global Intelligence). I would engage with the company in August 2020 to confirm it would be possible to get some real world experience through their company, this would also allow them sufficient time to organise any administration that would be required.
What experience do I want to gain – It would be my intent to use this as a gateway into performing SIT306, my IT placement, with this company. I am looking to develop an understanding of the methods used in penetration testing. I would also be seeking to understand the legal requirements and how the information is presented back to the customer.
CEH Certification
What is it – A Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) is certified profession who knows how to identify vulnerabilities in a system. They utilise the same tools and techniques as malicious attackers. Unlike malicious attackers a CEH professional operates in a lawful and legitimate manner (EC-Council 2018, Certified Ethical Hacker Certification).
How will I participate – During my research into Penetration testing roles, I identified that a CEH certification was common to all open job listings. I will identify an opportunity to complete this certification once I have completed my degree and before looking for employment in this role.
What experience do I want to gain – An understanding of the requirements to operate as a Certified Ethical Hacker and a recognised qualification.