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?