At the end of the strangest of years we will be rounding off 2020 with a jam-packed cyber session and we'll be expecting to see you all in Xmas jumpers munching mince pies (or Welsh Cakes!).
We will be welcoming the SANS Institute back to the Cluster this month. Steve Armstrong will be joining us, he is a SANS Principle Instructor on Penetration Testing and Ethical Hacking, which he learnt while serving in the RAF, securing wireless networks under attack while in a warzone with full body armour, loaded weapons, and hacking gear in 50+ degree centigrade heat. As you can imagine, Steve is a truly fascinating speaker.
As most of you probably already know, SANS is the most trusted and by far the largest source for information security training and security certification in the world, each year, SANS programs educate more than 30,000 people. When they made the decision to expand into Europe, Middle East, Africa (EMEA) and the Baltics they chose to locate their HQ right here in Wales and they have been a proactive member of the Cluster since we formed.
They qualify to GIAC, the gold standard of certifications in the cyber industry which does make their courses reassuringly expensive. But they also develop, maintain, and make available at no cost, the largest collection of research documents about various aspects of information security, and they operates the Internet's early warning system - the Internet Storm Center.
When COVID struck and so many people found themselves forced into lockdown, furlough or even out of work entirely, they converting many of their programmes, such as their SANS Foundations programmes, into self-study and pushing more re-skilling advice and guidance out to people who need it.
In addition, we will hear from long-standing Cluster member Simon Renault.
Back in 2014, when the first Cluster formed, Simon was in Welsh Government responsible for the portfolio management of the cross-cutting Digital Wales agenda. We continued to work closely when he helped form Innovation Point and led on Digital Skills projects helping Wales to address the digital skills gap as Head of Special Projects. Since going back into Welsh Government last year, SImon has been driving the establishment of the new Centre for Digital Public Services supporting the Welsh public sector.
After giving us a taster of what the Centre is all about at the Cluster meeting in October, Simon will provide a proper briefing on the latest of his ground-breaking initiatives and let us know how we can all get involved.
We also have lots of news and updates to share so we are looking forward to a jam-packed session to round off a really grotty year!
See you all there!
Link to the event - https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/872888773
