Bachelor of Counter Terrorism Security and Intelligence (2019)
From accounting to counter terrorism security – Jacob Larsen was in his final year of high school when the career path he thought he was about to embark on took a dramatic turn.
“ECU had an orientation day at my school, and at the time I wanted to be an accountant as my parents were accountants,” Jacob explains. “I spoke to the career advisor from ECU and looked at the courses that were available. I was scrolling through the booklet of all the courses offered and that one caught my attention.”
The course that piqued Jacob’s interest was ECU’s Bachelor of Counter Terrorism Security and Intelligence, majoring in Cyber Security.
“I had always been interested in making a real difference,” Jacob says. “So I did that (course) because I felt that it would be a good balance of learning about global threats that could impact national security but also learning about how I can protect Australia from a technology perspective through cyber security.”
Fresh from high school, Jacob says he was one of the youngest students in what was a relatively new course at the time, which has now grown to be one of the most in-demand industries in the world.
“I don’t think people knew it was a course that you could study. And particularly ECU at the time, I think was the only university in Australia that actually offered it,” he says. “It was a really awesome experience and I feel very fortunate that the course was also based here, and that ECU was very close to home for me.
“The class was fairly small and all the discussions were very intimate. And I felt that regardless of everyone's backgrounds, we were all encouraged to voice our opinion and get involved.”
From trying to predict terrorist organisation ISIS’s next move to learning how to use technology to protect national infrastructure, no day was ever the same.
“I would love to go back and do the same course again, with a new perspective now,” Jacob says. “I think we were faced with a lot of challenging topics, like terrorism incidents and groups that were actually ongoing. A lot of the work we were doing was really around what was happening in the moment.
“There was a lot of challenging our biases, because an important part of intelligence analysis is mitigating your cognitive biases to form decisions.”
Deciding to focus on the cyber security pathway, during his final semester of university Jacob secured a three-month work experience placement at a boutique consultancy firm. Five years on and with multiple mergers Jacob remains at the same organisation - now called CyberCX - Australia’s leading cyber security company.
From translating technical risks to decision makers in his first role after graduating to working his way up to his current role, managing the security testing and assurance team, Jacob is exactly where he wants to be.
“About 18 months ago I transitioned back into a technical role which is what I was originally interested in.
“Organisations will hire us to basically simulate an attack rather than it being the real thing, so that they can get the recommendations from us before the real impact does happen. They can review their processes and methodologies, their detections, their response, and learn how to harden their defences.”
While the eastern states may be leading the way for cyber security, Jacob says there are also plenty of opportunities in Perth due to a huge skills gap in the increasingly vital industry.
“One thing that's important, is cyber security is needed by every organisation, just different scales and depths. We work with a lot of different organisations, from small boutiques with five to 10 employees all the way through to State and Federal government, mining companies, banks, finance and insurance companies – pretty much everything that you can name, we work with.
“I feel very fortunate to have progressed to a senior role fairly quickly. I think it speaks to the testament of hard work, but also to be at an organisation where you're encouraged to identify opportunities for improvement, execute changes and give new things a go.
“One of the values at CyberCX is ‘securing communities’, which is really about, when you deliver your work, take into consideration that it might actually make a difference to critical infrastructure, power, water, your local community. You're not just delivering a project, but you're ultimately driving change to secure your local critical infrastructure and really protect yourself, your neighbours, your friends and community. So that's really important to me.”
Jacob’s passion for the industry is clear, staying up to date with the ever-changing threat landscape, presenting classes at universities including ECU, as well as mentoring people trying to break cyber security who may have been misguided or are struggling with misinformation.
“I thought it would be really good to offer free coaching and mentoring to students, graduates, and just anyone that's wanting to change their pathway. Over the last four years, I've probably spoken to about 100 people in person and maybe 50 online that wanted to get into cyber security.
“I've also been involved in a mentorship program for the Australian Women in Security Network (AWSN). And that is basically a program sponsored by the government to connect industry professionals with women that want to break into cyber security.
“It's something that I get a lot of meaning and value and purpose out of. It makes me feel like I’m making a difference. And kind of helping people not be preyed upon by a lot of bootcamp providers out there that are really trying to take advantage of people that want to get into this space.”
Jacob credits ECU’s lecturers for preparing him so well for the industry.
“One of the really critical things was that I was learning from professionals and not just academics. All of the lecturers had worked in the space, either with a physical security background, national security, the Australian Defence Force – they could reference situations and examples from their careers.
“And that really was a game changer because it allowed me to see what I was learning from a theory perspective really applied in the real world, and it made me feel like I was learning techniques that I could actually apply directly into a role and be job ready straightaway.”
