Molly Dewis is a Senior Security Consultant (DFIR) at NCC Group. She has agreed to share her career journey with the Surrey Cyber Security Clusterwhere skills is a vital pillar in the community of Surrey. She shares some important insights for those interested in a career in cybersecurity.
“My cyber journey started with me clicking on a phishing link on Facebook when I was a teenager. I was worried about what this would do especially as it was on my mum’s computer but at the same time fascinated by this.
My first opportunity came when I attended a career talk at college by SSE. After the talk I went up to the speaker and asked if I could do work experience. I knew it might not be possible as I was asking to do work experience in cyber security, but they said yes. I managed to do multiple days shadowing the IT department. I learnt so much and from this knew, IT or cyber security was the career for me. This was also the first place I heard about NCC Group.
From here I started to research cyber security. I went to university open days, and I would attend online talks, in person talks and conferences. I wanted to know what I needed to do to work in this field. One of the events I attended was at Bournemouth University. I think this event was meant to only be for students, but the tickets were public, so I ordered one. There were so many companies talking about cyber and I was able to go round from stand to stand asking for work experience. The company that said yes, was NCC Group and as I had heard their name before, I was excited.
When I was at college, I completed various work experiences with NCC Group, mainly learning about their technical assurance division. College was an interesting time for me. For personal reasons and that I struggled with exams I ended up having to redo my first year. It made me ask myself could I really do cyber security when I can’t even pass AS Computer Science. However, I ended up doing BTEC IT which gave me the foundational knowledge I needed and as it was all coursework, it put me in good stead for the constant coursework at university, as well as working in DFIR.
Fast forward to university, I went to the University of Gloucestershire to study cyber security. As NCC Group have an office in Cheltenham I was able to visit the office at various points and talk to my now colleagues about cyber. I completed a third-year placement with NCC Group and from here was offered a permanent job in the Digital Forensics and Incident Response (DFIR) team. One of the highlights of university was having the opportunity to publish my dissertation in an MDPI journal.
I have been working in the DFIR team for 3.5 years, leading the technical analysis on a wide range of incidents like business email compromises, data breaches and ransomware. More recently I participated in the Empowering You program that gave me time to reflect on myself, my purpose and how to be the type of leader that coaches’ others.
From what I have learnt in my journey into cyber is:
• Network. It’s not just about growing your LinkedIn connections but having meaningful conversations. Share resources with others. Connect over knowledge you have learnt or want to learn.
• Initiative. Go to conferences, go to webinars, go to talks. Put yourself out there and connect with others in the industry.
• Communication. Soft skills are vital for a career in cyber security. Being able to communicate technical findings into something understandable for those who are non-technical is a valuable skill. Start practicing now.