I’ve always had a mental bucket list in the back of my mind, things I wanted to do, my little stamp on the world that I’d concentrate on, one day, when I had money to burn, or so I always promised myself. In recent years my main focus has turned to cyber security, this being something I am deeply passionate about, and I planned to incorporate this into the things on my bucket list one day. I dream of a free Yorkshire cyber academy for the UK’s ever increasing list of online child abuse victims. I want to bring anonymity training into women’s refuge centres, have Linux training and BASH scripting clubs in Autism specific “special” schools, and create game changing tools that bring down the world’s most disturbing online offenders.

However, romantic dreams a side, I had a deadline. I am a Computer Security with Forensics student, at Sheffield Hallam University. I’d been put into a study group and asked to come up with an idea, some event that is related to computing security in some way. It didn’t take long to run through my bucket list, squashing each idea with the simple fact that it wasn’t feasible at this time, not yet.

Having a highly intelligent and brave brother in the forces, it was hard to see him go away and fight in Afghanistan, twice, knowing it was possible he wouldn’t return, well, not the same man anyway. So when multiple friends of his came home in body bags or in pieces, both literally and metaphorically, I started researching what happens when someone leaves or is discharged from the British forces. Well, to my dismay, not a lot really. SOME get pay-outs, most don’t, some have other careers waiting for them, most don’t. Despite their hard core security training they are left on the sidelines of society, often unemployed and facing poverty; in fact over 9000 of Britain’s homeless population are ex-military. Isn’t that shameful? Imagine being disabled, emotionally ill, unemployed or homeless and knowing you were once valued, you were once strong, a productive member of society who contributed to the safety of the nation, only to be tossed aside like damaged goods. This got me to thinking, after months and/or years of security training, be it securing perimeters, monitoring for intrusions, insider threat detection, or reconnaissance missions – these people had the security mind-set drilled in to them deep, something you can’t teach in a class room

So, when discussing project topics in my new group, I mentioned a cyber security hacking event for ex-forces people, something small and manageable, maybe 10-15 people. To my delight my group loved the idea! We officially named the group “Tech for Troops” and set about allocating roles. We decided on two teams; a programming team and a hacking team. Anthony Walker, George Reese and Josh Fox were to be the Tech for Troops programmers, these talented guys would help the ex-troops learn about python scripting and secure communication. Eliot Riley, Sara Gaffoor and myself were to be the relentless hackers who would teach the participants how to hack a Wi-Fi enabled kettle in record time. It wasn’t long before the small intimate event grew, and now we are holding hacking and coding labs for 64 people with, as yet, an uncapped number attending the many lectures, talks and demonstrations, from some very impressive industry professionals. Sheffield Hallam have really backed this, with a couple of the lecturers wanting to make the event annual, and exploring other more permanent options of maintaining affiliations with the ex-forces community. I am really proud of my friends who have agreed to help out at the event, a lot of them are very skilled in computer security so it only made sense to rope them in on the day too.

It seems the topic of cyber security is on everyone lips these days, with stories of DDOS attacks, SQL injections and data leaks making a weekly appearance on the news. It’s understandable that people are worried about their personal online data, what’s not so understandable is the apparent lack of interest in actually securing that data.

Aside from the fat guy and the little girl in Jurassic Park, Sandra Bullock in the Net and that really awful Angelina Jolie film from the 90’s, hacking doesn’t seem to tickle many people’s fancy. And while people like reading about notorious black hat hackers, ethical hackers don’t really get a look in. This may sound like a minor problem; some may say it’s ‘just a tech issue’ but it’s far more than that. This is everyone’s issue. This lack of talented cyber security professionals puts us all at risk, and if online enabled technology is normality and practically everyone is using it, yet almost no one is securing it, then something has to change. Who better to front that change than the very men and women who come pre-packed with security training? All that remains is the technical ability, which CAN be taught in a class room!

Now, when I mention national security you may imagine cyber warfare, missiles released by terrorist hackers, or a dirty bomb dropped by a drone, or something equally grim. Let’s remove ourselves from that idea for a moment. Let’s imagine that someone managed to install a computer virus on an oil rig, which altered the depth or heat settings on the off-shore bay and killed all the workers, spilled oil into all of our shores, starved our country of its necessities, wrecked our wildlife, put fisherman out of business, closed down market stalls and ruined the economy. Imagine someone remotely lowering the temperatures of the fridges in an NHS blood bank, later restoring the temperature after the blood was soiled? Thus killing potentially thousands of people. All of these twisted things you can dream up are terror threats, very real ones, that we as a nation need defending against. It doesn’t take much imagination to envisage how some code and some persistence can potentially be a greater threat to life than some nut with a leather bound book in one hand and a rifle in the other.

At the Tech for Troops cyber event day, we’re not going to be scare-mongering, like I just did (sorry), we will however be showing just how fascinating this subject actually is. This event is going to be a fun and exciting day, hopefully people will leave having learned something that will stay with them forever. Maybe some of them will commit to a career in cyber security, enrol on a course or go home and embark on a self-taught online mission of self-discovery.

We’re looking to attract anyone from a forces background to participate in the event, but equally important are the people who can make the event special and worthwhile. We’ve got a decent number of cyber security specialists contributing, some behind the scenes prior to the event, and others coming in on the day. We do, though, need more professionals on board to make this a success. There are currently a lot of slots unfilled and I’d like to speak to anyone with a security background – hackers, digital forensic specialists, corporate security poeple – really anyone who can contribute and help me make a difference.

Thank you!

Eliza May Austin

Tech for troops is being held at Sheffield Hallam University on Sunday the 6th of March 2016, from10am till 4pm.

If you’ve like to get involved with the event, please contact contact tech_for_troops@outlook.com

For free tickets, check out the Eventbrite page.

**UPDATE 10th MARCH 2016**

The event went incredibly well! Everyone who attended has been really vocal about how much they enjoyed it. Every speaker bought something special, the atmosphere was so positive. Each person that attended left with something, either a Raspberry Pi supplied by the BCS, or a high quality text book provided by Gareth Watkin Jones of Mothax. David Langton of Lossiemouth in Scotland won the hacking competition and claimed the prize of £16,000s worth of <a href=”http://www.metasploit click over here now.com/”>Metasploit software and training  courtesy of Rapid7. If he throws him self in to it, I’m confident he will never be out of work!

Since last Sunday I’ve received a lot of interest from more companies wanting to sign up to attend in 2017! Someone else who attended has made it on to training course with a big company, others have shown an interest in the Sheffield Hallam University courses. The rest seem to have jumped in feet first with online training, they saw what potential is out there and they’ve all got the work ethic to take a piece of the pie.

After the event I wanted a common place for all of the info-sec enthusiasts, so I set up a Google+ community . Here I will be updating it regularly with tutorials, training opportunities and free online courses.

Watch this space!