August Newsletter

CyberFirst News:

At CyberFirst North East & CyberFirst Yorkshire we are incredibly proud to share that our very own Nik Kelsey has been nominated as The Cyber Citizen of the Year 2024. We join Nik in thanking those at The National Cyber Awards for the wonderful nomination.

Nik works tirelessly hard and is extremely passionate about what we strive to achieve with the CyberFirst program.

In response to the nomination Nik said “I genuinely love working in my various roles, it is my pleasure to work in Cyber and Education working to Inspire the next generation, develop educators and school, evolve resources and raise aspirations to secure our nations prosperity alongside industry and education.”

Huge congratulations must also go to out partner Kings Priory School who have also been nominated as the Cyber School of the year.

NationalCyberAwards IBM

CyberFirst North East attended the fantastic finalist evening for NationalCyberAwards at IBM yesterday! It was great to see IBMs work with Quantum computing and to meet all of the finalists.

We really enjoyed hearing about the McPartland report incredibly thought inspiring especially as the need for energy expands.

The Rt Hon Stephen McPartland described the awards as “An amazing evening celebrating the Awards and speaking about why I have founded GreenCyber® Research (my new not for profit) bringing security and sustainability together.”

In his opinion, “the two greatest global risks facing governments today, are uncontrolled and accelerating climate change and uncontrolled technological advancement. The push for greener technologies should not need to compromise security; whilst Secure by Design is now a recognised practice, we seek to extend this to Green by Design. Effectively securing the Green Technology required to move towards a Net Zero Economy and incorporating Digitally Sustainable Cyber and AI into ESG strategies, working across society globally to help deliver Net Zero Cyber security as Artificial Intelligence and Quantum Computing and other emerging technologies will rapidly transform industry.”

CyberNorth News

Gateshead College, in partnership with CyberNorth, launched a new Cyber Security Flexi-Apprenticeship scheme, where an apprentice will have the opportunity to work in multiple employer environments over a two-year period. We are still on the look-out for additional Northeast businesses that may want to introduce a junior cyber security role into their organisation. More details can be found here:

https://cybernorth.biz/2024/08/14/flexi-job-apprenticeship-programme/

Digital Safety CIC are holding a small number of free online events around cyber safety over the next couple of months:

Safe online gaming and esports for parents, carers and professionals

Online Webinar on SCAMS, what to look out for and how to protect yourself

S*xting & S*xtortion Internet Safety Webinar for parents and professionals

CyberNorth: July saw the third cohort of our Cyber Leaders programme. Fully-funded from DSIT's CyberLocal funding, the programme has now enabled almost 30 regional cyber leaders to hone their non-technical skills and develop their careers, build strong networks and advance their skills. We're planning to run more aspiring cyber leaders cohorts in the future, on a commercial basis

CyberNorth is busily preparing for our annual CyberFest, which this year will include cyber-related events across the whole of October, up and down the Northeast region. Some events will be organised/hosted by CyberNorth, and others by cluster partners. This year includes our inaugural annual CyberNorth Awards evening, where local nominations are being accepted for multiple cyber-related categories. For details on how to enter the CyberNorth Awards 2024, programme of events, ordering main conference tickets and enquiries for potential sponsorship opportunities, more information can be found here:

https://cybernorth.biz/cyberfest/

National Cyber Security Centre’s CyberFirst University Bursary

We’re really proud partners of the CyberFirst University Bursary, that’s helping break down barriers to get more women into tech so if you’re a student (particularly if you identify as a woman) applying to university in 2025 (or are in your first year in September), you could get up to £24K in funding, and the chance to work with some of the biggest names in tech each summer.

You’ll make professional connections, try new things, and build loads of new skills and confidence, regardless of what you study. It’s a unique opportunity to uncover a tech career and be part of a supportive community.

Cyber Ambassador of the Month

Richard Hopkins from IBM.

On Wednesday I travelled to the Metropolitan University of Manchester to talk to the CyberFirst Academy about the Future of Information Technology. In the talk I explored the post-von Neumann landscape, explaining how and why quantum computing is poised to surpass conventional supercomputing, what that means for security and how AI might evolve beyond Large Language Models and generative AI.

As Cyber Ambassadors we always try to inspire the next generation, so I was delighted to receive this word cloud from the students today.

Cyber Ambassador Information:

Could we please ask that any activity you complete be logged on the STEM Ambassadors platform. This allows us to inform NCSC of the great work that is going on in our region.

We are currently partnering Cyber Ambassadors with our new 10 cyber schools so watch out in your inbox for details of your partner school.

Cyber Ambassador Spotlight:

This month we in the Spotlight we have Jessica Nadin Jessica.Nadin@atombank.co.uk from Atom Bank.

Jess said “if there’s one thing my journey into cyber security shows, it’s that there is more than one way to get into the technology sector. I think this is an important thing for people to know, whether they’re just starting out or they’ve gone down a different path already.

It’s a big reason why I’ve become a CyberFirst ambassador, and put a large part of my time, passion and energy into visiting schools and sharing my experiences and knowledge. As an ambassador in this programme, I deliver career talks and cyber security workshops to students, which I hope inspires the technologists of tomorrow.

It’s my aim to break the typical stereotypes and promote opportunities that are available through CyberFirst bursaries, girls-only competitions and courses. I try to encourage young minds to think differently, and help them to realise that there is more than one way to reach your career goals.”

Read Jess’s full blog here; https://www.atombank.co.uk/blog/meet-our-cybersecurity-expert/

HOLD THE DATES:

Newcastle Post-Quantum Security & Quantum Technology Workshop 29-30th Aug

Cyber Intelligence Alliance September Conference (Cyberwhite) 12th Sept

CyberFirst girls’ competition, open for registration September 16th for the NE & Y&H.

Aspire Cyber Summit 2024 - 25th Sept

Competition opening 18th November – 27th November.

STEMFest Sunderland - 8th-10th OCT

CyberFest Community Conference 2024- 16th Oct

CyberNorth Awards 2024 Event - 23rd Oct

NE STEM Awards - 25th OCT

NE CyberFirst Conference - 18th NOV

(Put in a diary hold, & look out for VIP invitations)

RETURN TO LIST