Cyber security jobs news roundup: March 2024

Keep up-to-date with some of the biggest stories in the world of cyber security in our monthly roundup.

We’re rounding up some of the biggest cyber security stories of the past few weeks. In March, NCSC Challenge Coins were given to security researchers, GCHQ joined LinkedIn, ISC2 marked the 30th anniversary of the CISSP certification and the winners of the CyberFirst Girls competition attended a ceremony at the Robotics Institute.

Security researchers recognised with awards

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) hosted a special event at its headquarters in London to thank researchers for disclosing critical vulnerabilities. Individuals were given NCSC Challenge Coins in recognition for their work protecting the UK from cyber threats.

As well as the presentation, a number of talks offered insight into the experience of finding and reporting vulnerabilities to the government. This enabled researchers to present their thoughts on how security posture and best practices within the field could be improved.

Ollie Whitehouse, CTO of the NCSC, said: “It was great to meet with members of the UK-based researcher community and an honour to award them their coins. We want all security researchers, regardless of where they are in their career, to feel empowered to be able to responsibly discover and report vulnerabilities without negative repercussions and ultimately feel safe to hold a mirror up to government to help keep us honest.”

GCHQ joins LinkedIn

GCHQ has joined LinkedIn in a bid to recruit a wider mix of people to tackle real-world and online threats facing the UK. It has marked its arrival on the professional networking platform with the publication of a puzzle.

Anyone who can solve the 13 clues to spell out a message may have the lateral-thinking skills the intelligence agency is looking for in its recruits. The puzzle was created by Manchester-based artist Justin Eagleton to celebrate GCHQ’s presence in the city.

Anne Keast-Butler, director of GCHQ, said: “The world is getting more complex and we're only ever going to stay ahead of those threats by bringing together the right mix of minds that lets us tackle the challenges ahead. For us, that means bringing in people with different backgrounds, different experience, different insights, different knowledge, and creating a team where all of us can play our part. For us, it's clear that that diversity is mission critical.”

ISC2 marks 30th anniversary of CISSP certification

ISC2 has launched a year-long celebration of its Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) certification as it turns 30. Some 165,000 cyber security professionals have received the training, which has been described as the gold standard for the field.

Recognised by governments and accredited to standards of international bodies, the CISSP is a valuable certification for anyone to have on their CV. In its first year, 1994, just 46 individuals gained the certification that has become the flagship of the organisation that created it.

Clar Rosso, CEO of ISC2, said: “We are looking forward to celebrating the pioneers who helped create this certification, and all who have earned it over the years. CISSP holders are the most passionate and dedicated cyber security professionals in the world, and we are thrilled to recognise them.”

CyberFirst Girls winners attend ceremony at Robotics Institute

The winning teams in the CyberFirst Girls competition attended an awards ceremony hosted by the University of Oxford’s Robotics Institute. More than 50 girls had their cyber security skills recognised at the celebration.

CyberFirst Girls is run by the NCSC and saw the participants undertake multilingual codebreaking, programming drones and role-playing scenarios. Oxford High School was the top-scoring team overall, with Newlands Girls’ School from Berkshire being the best newcomers and The Tiffin Girls’ School from Surrey the highest-scoring returning team.

Felicity Oswald, interim CEO of the NCSC, said: “It’s fantastic to see so many talented young women engaging with cyber and technology and I hope it inspires them to consider a career in the cyber security industry, which needs more female representation.”