How do you catch global cybercriminals? By training in the world's best facilities

We need cybercrime fighters like never before.

Almost everyone is now dependent on technology in their daily life.

And cybercriminals are targeting increasing numbers of individuals and organisations with cyber scams, online frauds and ransom demands, as well as stealing the intellectual property of leading brands.

Little wonder that cyber security is one of the world's fastest growing industries, with demand being high for skilled professionals.

But where do you go if you want to become a pro?

Right here in Perth as it turns out.

To catch a (data) thief

You need to understand how a criminal mind works before you can work out how to stop one.

And you need to understand how cybercriminals find a way into what seems like secure online information, often held by large organisations who didn't think they'd be vulnerable.

That's where ECU's multimillion dollar computing and cyber security training facilities comes in.

It includes the largest Security Operations Centre of any Australian education institution.

So you'll be learning in the best, and with some of the best teachers in the world.

The centre has an impressive 24-seat training space, designed to familiarise you with a real security ops environment.

Here, you'll learn about open and closed source SOC and Security, Information, and Event Management, or SIEM platforms.

Another part of the SOC is used by students doing what's called 'work Integrated Learning' where they engage with an industry partner to deliver a real-life SOC function for the client under supervision of the partner's senior SOC analysts.

Now that's real training!

Intelligence gathering

The Security Operations Centre can also function as an Open-Source Intelligence Centre, a type of information gathering environment.

In an intelligence operation, including (not just military/government) open-source tools are used to find information that can be 'scraped' from web pages.

Think news or corporate websites, discussion forums, social media and the 'dark web'. It's information that's not immediately visible to the public.

Red team students versus blue team students in ECU's Security Operations Centre.

Red team versus blue team

We should also mention that some friendly competition is a key part of a student's cyber security training.

Like an attack/defend exercise where a 'red team' attacks some virtual or simulated infrastructure that's being defended by a 'blue team'.

Red team members are trying to attack without detection, while blue team members try to detect, mitigate, defend and triage.

It sounds like a game – and it kind of is – but it's the kind of training you'll need in the real world.

Ready for cybercrime?

If this article has got you interested in becoming a cybercrime fighter, maybe it's time to explore Cyber Security courses?