SECUINFRA gets students excited about cyber defense
IT security can be this exciting: Students of the final year of the Gymnasium Bad Nenndorf were able to get an idea of the work of cyber security specialists on Wednesday. Students with the computer science seminar subject had the opportunity to visit SECUINFRA’s Berlin Cyber Defense Center and learn what the daily challenges are for security professionals. Not only did they gain an insight into the organization of one of the leading companies for the detection, analysis and defense of cyber attacks in Germany, but they were also able to follow a live demonstration of how such an attack takes place.
During their visit, the students had a competent contact person on site: Felix Gutjahr, Cyber Defense Consultant at SECUINFRA, who led a “teaching program” of a special kind that day. He showed the young visitors how important IT security is – and what complex threats analysts have to deal with. The students from Bad Nenndorf had already studied cryptology and information security in detail and were very keen to visit an IT security company. For Felix Gutjahr it was a matter of course that he fulfills this wish for his visitors. “I think it’s important to raise young people’s awareness of IT security. Unfortunately, this was completely lacking even in my school days, which were not so long ago. If we can help fill a gap here, we’re happy to do so.”
This type of teaching was very well received by the guests. They were impressed by the hacking demonstration, for example, because after all, it is not often that one has the opportunity to witness such an attack live in practice. In addition, it was frightening for many of the visitors to see how easily one can even become a victim oneself – possibly even without knowing it. Felix Gutjahr put the students to the test and had them use a leakchecker to check online whether their own account data might already have been compromised. “For me, this is absolute basic knowledge,” Gutjahr thinks. “This kind of thing should be part of the school curriculum.” However, the security specialist was impressed by the basic technical understanding and commitment of the students and teachers of the Bad Nenndorf high school. “The school and the students really have to be praised, also that they organized such a visit. It’s certainly a great experience. I also enjoyed it very much and I would be happy if I could inspire our guests for the topic of IT security. Who knows, maybe we saw one or two up-and-coming security professionals today.”
