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Cyber Security Experience at Hugh Baird College

Staff and students of Hugh Baird College in Liverpool were treated to some fascinating insights into the world of Cyber Security by the North West Regional Organised Crime Units (NW ROCU) last week.

Facilitated by The CyberHub Trust, Phil Byrom from the Cyber Choices’ PREVENT team gave a presentation about Cyber Threats and Opportunities. This was then followed by an interactive hands-on Cyber `Table Top’ Training exercise, presented by Louisa Murphy from the PROTECT team.

This fun and engaging activity provides each `table’ with its own Business, comprised of a factory and a separate office, along with all the relevant resources, IT and people who would run the business. These are all represented by Lego figures.

Teams were then allocated budgets and a five-year plan and asked to manage the spend and build the business. At every stage they were presented with challenges and threats, both cyber and physical. Teams had to fend-off data theft, physical damage to property, hacking and other cyber crimes, keeping losses and damage to a minimum.

The award-winning exercise is designed to explore decisions that people make in order to protect their businesses from cyber threats.

CEO of the CyberHub Trust, Michael Klonowski, opened the event – highlighting the new Security Operations Centre that has just opened at Hugh Baird College and the many opportunities this will offer students, business and the wider community. He said:

“Today’s Cyber Security experience is an excellent way of engaging young people in the exciting world of Cyber-related careers. This industry is full of opportunity and it’s vital that we give people access and exposure to real-life experiences.

“We are hugely grateful to the NW ROCU for delivering this workshop. Students (and staff) have come away wiser and more experienced – with a much better understanding of the threats and challenges that need to be tackled.

“This is one of many events and activities that will be hosted by the new CyberHub Security Operations Centre at Hugh Baird College – making careers in cyber accessible to people and engaging them in this exciting industry.”

Tweeting from the event the North West Regional Organised Crime Units (NW ROCU) highlighted the activity’s success: “The NWRCCU Cyber Prevent and Protect visited the CyberHub Trust at Hugh Baird College today. A fantastic set-up and a good introduction to Cyber Security training and careers. Interactive Training was enjoyed by all.’

John Billington, Director of Facilities & Technical Services at Hugh Baird College added:

“In heightened periods of international tension all organisations should be vigilant to cyber risks, and for several months the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has been advising organisations to bolster their cyber security.

“We were therefore delighted to welcome representatives from the North-west ROCU (Cyber Choices) teams, both Prevent & Protect, who presented an interesting cyber update, followed by a hands-on exercise that really engaged students and staff. It was great fun and really informative – and exactly the sort of thing that we need to be doing to help address cyber security issues going forward.”


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