2024-11-22 –, Ngaio Marsh Theatre
The goal of this talk is to give people interested in getting into cyber security, or who have just started but aren’t sure where you’re going to land, an idea of: where you can start, where you can go, and what you can do to get there.
In the 90s, cybersecurity was still pretty underground and mostly revolved around hackers and government suits. Now in 2024, you can get an actual university degree in it. Cybersecurity has grown into a proper full grown industry, even though the image it holds still screams 90s cyberpunk future. We know this can be pretty daunting to newbies on the outside, looking to get involved.
In this talk, three industry ‘veterans’ will talk about our path in cyber security, the jobs we’ve done, what we do now, and try and de-bunk some of the gatekeeping you may have encountered.
Jed Laundry is a Senior Manager at CyberCX, based in Christchurch. His background includes working as a software developer, IT ops lead, and security do-it-all-person, as well as all round geek who geeks call geeky. His family is very forgiving of all the over-the-top projects he has around his house.
Erica Anderson, aka sput, is a security nerd through and through. While her most recently formal titles have included founder and manager, she finds the most joy in building (and helping others build) things securely. She also manifests chaos with the Kawaiicon crüe and Digital Future Aotearoa.
Ben Creet, aka Creeture, is a reforming policy wonk turned cyber security leader. Ben is the Treasurer of the NZ Internet Task Force, an iSANZ board member, and is a member of InternetNZ. Ben works at the National Cyber Security Centre as a unit manager, leading three teams of cyber security professionals in what he describes as the NCSC’s ‘GRC shop’.