Cyber 9/12 Experience: Tash Buckley

In February I had the honour and the pleasure of being invited to coach the fantastic team Krack-In Security for this year’s Cyber9/12 competition, a mixed university team made up of four students from Durham, Edinburgh and St Andrews.  I entered Cyber 9/12 as a competitor for Royal Holloway in 2020, coming in as finalists, and I got so much value from the experience that the next year I volunteered to be part of the organising team. It was brilliant to experience the competition this year in person again for the first time since 2020, and from a different perspective.

In the lead up to the competition students receive an intelligence brief containing a range of artefacts from news reports through to government communications. Their job is to digest and analyse the information to try and get a handle on what is actually going on. My role as the coach was to help develop their ideas and theories, and help to rein in some of the more out-of-the-box suggestions. With lots of hard work done up front, the team and I went to BT Tower in London to take part in the two-day event made up of a fantastic range of keynote speakers, interactive workshops, and everyone’s favourite – the lock-picking station. The first round sees teams deliver a pre-prepared 10-minute presentation on their initial thoughts and recommendations, to a panel of judges from across government, industry, and academia. The teams then receive a thorough grilling from the expert judges, to really test their knowledge and rationale. Krack-In Security did fantastically well in the first round, working together brilliantly as a team, confidently handling the questions and absorbing the feedback that they were offered. The thing that really struck me was their confidence in their deductions.

At the end of the first day the teams that made it through to the semi-finals day were announced and I was very proud to see Krack-In Security were justifiably successful.  The teams were given a second intelligence briefing, that takes the scenario off into new and, sometimes, unexpected directions. This time the team only had one, sleepless, night to create a new set of recommendations for the judges! This night is notoriously long and gruelling and really tests the team’s abilities to work together. Thankfully they managed to get some sleep that night, although it is not unusual for teams to still be working at 3am. (I know!)Meanwhile, the coaches and guests from industry and government were invited to a fantastic dinner hosted by the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office. The grand setting, the scale of the venue and the prestigious company, made this a night to remember, with amazing food and ample chances to network with a host of exceptional people. I felt a little guilty that while my team was slogging away, I was enjoying myself at the dinner, but not guilty enough to join them!

With bleary eyes, the competitors (and dinner guests), started bright and early with more keynotes and then the semi-final round. Krack-In Security once again did fantastically well under pressure as a team, and we were all very excited to find out that they had made it to the final three teams! The final round really ramps up the pressure as the teams are given 20 minutes to prepare their final recommendations, and they are kept in isolation until their turn to present. If that was not daunting enough, the final presentations and recommendations are delivered on stage, under spotlights, to the entire audience and a panel of VIP judges, which this year included Aurorah Cheney (-Co-director of strategy and growth at BT Security), Andrew McCosh (Group security director at BAE Systems), Trey Herr (Director of the cyber state craft initiative at the Atlantic Council), Bella Powell (Cyber Director at the Cabinet Office) and Pete Cooper (Deputy Director of Cyber Defence at the Cabinet Office). It is an intimidating experience I remember well from my time as a competitor. After the presentation there was another gruelling 10 minutes of questioning from the judges, after which they gave some constructive feedback  on the performances.

I really could not have been prouder of the teamwork, the work ethic and the critical thinking I had seen from Krack-In Security over the two-day competition, so I was really excited for them when they were announced as the winning team! The late-night work I am certain will have seemed worth it when they received their prizes, a MacBook and a goody bag supplied by Rapid7 and individual career coaching supplied by BAE Systems. To round the competition off, there was a drinks reception on the 34th floor of the BT Tower, with stunning panoramic views of the entirety of London as the sun went down on the second day - a truly memorable experience. 

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