This year was my first visit to InfoSec Europe.  I came with my eyes open, not really knowing what to expect but hoping for some insight into how the industry worked, the people in it and what opportunities are around.  The fact of the matter is that whilst I perform lots of duties that I would consider “Information Security”, my job title is a mere “Systems Engineer”, so what would I know?

So what did I find…  Well it was far more commercial than I was expecting, lots of PR stunts and dazzling vendor stands that reminded me of a clip from The Simpsons;  I forget the episode but its the one where Krusty the Clown’s clothing range makes a garish loud entrance to an expo and without warning folds out crushing Bart’s home made T-shirts stall.  Even the presenters for Tech Theatre had an angle, being sponsored or employed by some product or other.  The amount of talks that effectively started with “I’m here to talk to you about X product” or ended with “and we solved that by using such and such a product” was staggering.

The commercialness aside, I actually had a fun time.  I was given some interesting freebies, my favorite being a 3M iPad 3 Privacy Filter despite the fact that I don’t own (or want to own) an iPad.  I have had one of their laptop ones though for a while and it has its positive and negative traits (I smell a future article).

I was most impressed with the networking opportunities.  I ended up speaking to so many different people from a surprisingly diverse set of industries.  There were the obvious but very cool individuals who worked for SOCA (Serious Organised Crime Agency) or were somehow associated with the GCHQ’s training department, a.k.a. the CESG.  But I also met people from big organisations like Dell SecureWorks, the Met Office and Barclays.  I even briefly met the legendary Bruce Schneier from BT who gave a talk about the contents of his new book.  Best bit yet – he gave us all signed copies!

One of the things I was looking for whilst at InfoSec was training opportunities.  I sat an week long intensive course a few years ago run by ISC2 for their CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional) certification.  I wish I could say I sat the exam back then but unfortunately my funds ran out and life took over pretty much the same reason I don’t have a degree.  I have the original “Yellow Brick” and had updated to the Black Brick before my trip down there thinking that I would read on the train or something but the reality is that that did not happen.  I am waiting to hear back from ISC2 about the next dates for the CISSP exam as I am determined this time round to make it happen!

What I did find whilst I was at InfoSec though was that you don’t necessarily need a Bachelors Degree to do a Masters and that Oxford University offer an MSc in Software and Systems Security.  I have started my application for it, but until I am accepted I am not holding my breath.  I’ll be the best part of £24k lighter, but with a Masters I am hoping to open a good few doors.

Next year I think I will attend, but this time I will try and also go to another conference that runs at the same time called the Security BSides.  Not exactly a flashy website (but then neither is this one) but a friend told me its the raw tech side to the security industry.

Heres to next year!