The technology army

Want to do your bit for your country? Join the forces and fight for your freedom? Many people do.

However, wouldn’t it be so much better if you could do it from a comfy chair, in a climate controlled building, with tea and biscuits on hand?

The front line

When you think of the front line, you usually think of solders in action, often in hostile, dangerous conditions. However in our new ‘cyber’ world, the front line is more the back offices. More and more, the threats to our security are not physical, but cyber.

This is why the UK government have set up Cyber Security Challenge UK. Cyber Security Challenge UK is a project that hopes to encourage individuals into the security industry.

The logo of Cyber Security Challenge UKIn the future it is likely that our wars are not going to be as defined as country versus country, but rather hackers versus data owners. This means that anti-virus firms, and the military will need to work very hard to keep our country safe.

Imagine what would happen if the banking system got hacked. Everyone’s theoretical money could potentially be wiped, and we would have no clue who owned what. Imagine a leading brand had a virus infect their entire internal network.

Cyber threats are becoming more and more real, and more and more scary.

If you think that you could be up to the challenge to become a ‘security champion’ head over to cybersecuritychallenge.org.uk and have a go at their challenges.


The challenges are a series of online games and competitions to test your cyber security abilities, to see if you could train to become a defender of computers.

If you are successful, you may be offered a job or funded through training, so it’s worth a try – you never know, you may discover some hidden potential!

Could you work for an anti-virus firm or the government to protect people against cyber crime/attacks?

8 thoughts on “The technology army

  1. It’s a good idea, but the problem is that ‘cyber fighters’ at the moment come from all over the world and are spread all over the world. What i mean is, if we take a look at the programmers in the UK, i bet half of them are not even english, they’re from India, Bulgaria, Romania, etc. so hiring them in an army could prove difficult 🙂

    • Christopher (admin team)

      I see what you are saying. It would take a global effort to stop cyber crime, as we could potentially stop the crime, but if we don’t have the rights to catch the criminal, the offense could just be recommitted 😛

  2. This is a point of view that I had not thought of until now. It seems that many of us do this already on a daily basis when it comes to trying to avoid having our computers “blown up” from senseless hackers that have nothing better to do with their time. It’s certainly exciting to think that these hackers could get a dose of their own medicine, and if I was qualified to do so, I wouldn’t mind it at all. Thanks for the thought provoking post.

    • Christopher (admin team)

      You are most welcome Maria, I agree that it would be cool to do a job like that, but I don’t think that I would have the skills ether 😛

  3. Almost everyone, including simple individuals, small to big businesses will benefit from having a secured and hack-free cyber environment – count me in this group. If there will be a program or a global group that will be established for the purpose protecting people from cyber attacks and if I am qualified – I’d definitely volunteer. I am not losing hope that this internet security problem be solved.

    Secure Internet Communcations

    • Christopher (admin team)

      Pessimists would say that there will always be spammers, hackers and malicious code spreaders out there, so why bother trying to oust them?
      Optimists would say that for every spammer, every hacker, every malicious coder there are hundreds of good honest people working to make the internet a better place for all.

      Good luck with persuing a career in cyber defence Jaz 😉

      Thanks for the comment.
      Christopher – Admin Team

  4. Even if it’s not that obvious to the public eye, wars are now taking place online. Since you can’t do anything anymore without the internet, all government institutions are prone to cyber attacks, without exception. It doesn’t matter if you’re the US or Uruguay.

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