Journal
The week seven seminar is about Evaluate, Treat & Control Risks. Dr. Cate provided a link from the FAIR (Factor Analysis of Information Risk) institute. This institute is a non-profit organization made up of forward-thinking risk officers, cybersecurity leaders, and business executives. This institute mission is established and promotes risk management best practices that empower risk professionals to collaborate with their business partners to achieve the right balance between protecting the organization and running the business. Also, this institute provides the FAIR University curriculum. The FAIR University curriculum offers students with management skills that will allow them to articulate the ROI (Return on Investment) of cybersecurity. Uncover ways to conduct cost-benefit analyses and enable cost-effective decision making. It is worthy of joining this curriculum, and it will be my course for this summer.
Regarding the project, team members divided the tasks and created the first draft of the framework. Sometimes, working with groups confused. I worked with many and different groups. They only allocated the tasks between group members without discussion about the topic or asking questions. In my perspective, the group must discuss everything related to the task, understand the whole idea, then allocate the duties. Indeed, what I knew and learned about teamwork; I cannot apply it appropriately with the group. I need to improve some skills regarding group work and management. Skills like convincing and encouraging others is necessary for team members to convince the group about my ideas and encourage them to accomplish the task as perfectly as possible.
In my real life, especially with my family, I always like to be the supervisor who prepares trips, parties, and occasions. I like to make plans, divided the responsibilities, and explain the tasks. My family relies on me and trusts me most of the time. Even now, I’m far away from them, but Mum is still asking about my advice and ideas. In contrast, working with a group is challenging me. In all projects I had, I became very enthusiastic and have many good ideas; this is my opinion, and I feel very excited about working with groups. Sometimes I share my ideas, but they do not like it or think they are unnecessary. After a few days, when reviewing my ideas, I feel or realise that it is unnecessary. For example, after the first meeting with my group this semester, I wrote a long message for the group about my expectation of this project, the grade I am aiming to get, my preferred way place and time to work, and my strengths and weaknesses. My aim of sharing this message with the group is to encourage the members to know each other. I did not share this message because I feel that the group will not be interested in sharing this information. I am confused because I do not know my ideas valuable, or I am usually over-enthusiastic. Working in groups and with different students from different backgrounds is an excellent way to discover my skills and know more about my strengths and weaknesses. Improving my management skill is a priority if I want to be an excellent cyber manager.
8
This week we have the second quiz. It is interesting to change the mode or the style of the lecture sometimes. This time, our group worked hard together to get the right answers. Some got 60 out of 100, and some got 50. We discussed the questions, our solutions, and chose the correct answers. We got 100 without appealing.
This week I watched a documentary film “Social Dilemma” on the Netflix platform. This documentary-drama hybrid explores the dangerous human impact of social networking, with tech experts sounding the alarm on their creation. The film starts with this expression “Nothing vast enters the life of mortals without a curse.” It is scary, and no one knows how to evaluate social media’s potential risks and threats. All these theories are predictable, and everyone addicted to social media must watch this film to understand the media’s threats. What was shocking is that all technology professionals prevent their children from owning an electronic device and using social media applications.
I had a little search about ISO Certification]. ISO Certification is an independent, non-governmental, international organization that develops standards to ensure products, services, and systems’ quality and efficiency. ISO certification standards also help keep products and services relevant. On the other hand, there are no standards to manage or measure the threats and risks of products, services, and systems. Having no standards leads to exacerbate the social media issue because no one can predict the potential problems. Some technology expertise quit their jobs because they feel guilty, and they cannot fix the problem that they created.
Concerning the project framework, we received the first feedback from Dr. Cate. We have some mistakes and some missing parts. I found myself interesting in doing the framework. I created two parts and helped my friend with his part. I am thinking of joining SA Cyber Edition Mentoring Program to learn more about improving my skills in this path.
9
Week nine, we back after mid-break. Dolan family Wine is the only team finish phase one document and submit it to the client. I am very proud of the team members as we worked hard before and during the break and helped each other accomplish the document.
During the break, I joined the National Missing Persons Hackathon OSINT Foundations Course and got the certificate for accomplishing the course. The course discusses: Open-source intelligence fundamentals, information searching essentials, Australian OSINT, and Social network analysis. Open-source intelligence (OSINT) is a term used to refer to the data collected from publicly available sources to be used in an intelligence context. In the intelligence community, the term “open” refers to overt, publicly available sources (as opposed to covert or clandestine sources). OSINT is provided by Trace Labs, a non-profit organization whose mission is to accelerate the family reunification of missing persons while training members in the tradecraft of open-source intelligence (OSINT).
Moreover, I added new channels to my podcast library. Cyber Risk Management, Cyber Risk Fundamentals, and Reduce Cyber Risk Podcast. I listen to an episode daily, improving my listening skills, and gaining new knowledge. I learned a new expression, “Threat Intelligence”. Threat intelligence is data that is collected, processed, and analysed to understand a threat actor’s motives, targets, and attack behaviours. Threat intelligence enables us to make faster, more informed, data-backed security decisions, and change their behaviour from reactive to proactive in the fight against threat actors. Threat intelligence benefits organizations of all shapes and sizes by helping process threat data better understand their attackers, respond faster to incidents, and proactively get ahead of a threat actor’s next move. For SMBs, this data helps them achieve a level of protection that would otherwise be out of reach. On the other hand, enterprises with large security teams can reduce the cost and required skills by leveraging external threat intel and make their analysts more effective.
I tend to risk management, but I feel confused. I do not know where to start and what to do. I joined OK RDY provided by AustCyber, and I hope to find a mentor to help me begin my path.
10
With regards to the team project, the team members discussed phase two of the project. We need to add a risk control section and some tables to help our client mitigate the potential risks by doing the right reaction. We should also provide the client with a simple table for controlling the future risk by recording the indecent, time, and how to solve it. I worked on the Risk mitigation part, which refers to planning and developing methods and options to reduce threats—or risks—to project objectives. We might implement risk mitigation strategies to identify, monitor, and evaluate the risks and consequences of completing a specific project, such as new product creation. Risk mitigation also includes the actions put into place to deal with the issues and effects of a project. There are four types of mitigating risk strategies include risk avoidance, acceptance, transference, and limitation.
In the seminar, Dr. Cate discusses the documentation aspect, which is writing information down—often used to describe the gathering and compilation of information from studies or research. There are at least six skills to create successful documentation: Writes clearly, concisely, and precisely, Proficient in using the tools of the trade, able to select the proper support visuals needed to enhance the written word, has a natural curiosity for learning how things work, knows how to ask questions and learn from the answers, refine the art of patience and persistence.
There is a relationship between documentation and project management because project documentation is vital for Project management. Documentation must lay the foundation for quality, traceability, and history for both the individual document and complete project documentation. It is also essential that the documentation is well arranged, easy to read, and adequate. Searching about project documentation leads me to a PMP certificate, an essential professional requirement for senior project manager roles across all industries.
This week, I attended the second webinar provided by National Missing Person. This webinar discussed What is an OSINT Search Party CTF? How does this help law enforcement with missing person cases? What can you do to assist?
They also speak with the Team SaabAU members, the inaugural winners of the National Missing Persons Hackathon 2019 and share some hot tips for participating in the event.
11
We are still working on phase 2 of the document. Also, we discussed the abstract for our document. An abstract is a concise summary of a research paper or an entire thesis.
It is a well-developed single paragraph of approximately 250 words in length, indented and single-spaced. The function of the abstract is to outline all parts of the paper briefly.
Although it is placed at the beginning of the paper, immediately following the title page, the abstract should be the last thing the writer writes.
All abstracts generally cover the following five sections: Reason for writing, Problem, Methodology, Results, and Implications.
About the client report, the writing reason is a summary of the risk management framework. We created this framework to help our client to help protect against potential information risks and threats. The framework includes Risk identification, Risk measurement and assessment, Risk mitigation, Risk reporting, and monitoring. Risk reporting and monitoring involved the client’s results and recommendations to protect against potential information risks and threats.
This week is the last webinar of the National Missing Person. This webinar invited cyber professionals from the United States. They discussed: does Australia share the same cybersecurity challenges as the USA? How do we identify the ‘fake news’ in the information environment and its impact on individual profiling or incident response? How intertwined is OSINT with cybersecurity?
This semester, I focus on developing and discover my skills more. I admit that I have less self-confidence and read that martial art forms focus heavily on a self-improvement regimen, not simply of the body but also on the spirit and mind. Training is an enjoyable, natural, and reliable method to gain self-confidence and focus on goals. So I joined karate classes at the beginning of this semester. Moreover, I like to use the personality tests which they provided and recommended by professionals. This week I found a www.16personalities.com website. This website has many articles, and many specialists recommended this website and trusted by many readers. This website provides an overview of each personality in the introduction and discusses strengths & weaknesses, romantic relationships, friendship, parenthood, career paths, and work habits and provides all of this information in different languages. My personality is Protagonist. Protagonists are natural-born leaders, full of passion and charisma. Forming around two percent of the population, they are often our politicians, our coaches and our teachers, reaching out and inspiring others to achieve and to do good in the world. With a natural confidence that begets influence, Protagonists take a great deal of pride and joy in guiding others to work together to improve themselves and their community. This is me and my personality from the inside, but I cannot see my real personality in real life. Either I did not reach the level I am looking for or something wrong, and I have to figure it out. I am preparing a summer holiday schedule consisting of different plans to improve the English language, management skills, and self-confidence.
12
This week I attended the national missing person hackathon 2020. When I registered and bought the ticket, there was not enough information about joining a team. I registered as an individual, but before the event a few days, Dr. Cate shared our names with the University of Adelaide teams’ sponsor, and he joined me on the team. I am very grateful to Dr. Cate to join the team and participate in this beautiful event.
The issue of missing persons in Australia is complex and multifaceted. Over 38,000 missing persons reports are submitted to police every year in Australia. The AustCyber has partnered with the Australian federal police’s (AFP) and trace lap to hold the national missing persons hackathon.
I prepared very well for this hackathon and finished the course provided by OSINT. There were 12 cases to investigate. For each case, they offered a little information. I feel very sorry for all these people and their families, and I want to do anything to help them. After a lot of searching, I did not find much helpful information, which made me feel disappointed. When the work is combined with emotions, it causes a lot of pressure and is hard to accomplish. I noticed one thing shared between all cases: they do not have social media accounts; maybe three or four have Facebook accounts. I searched about missing persons, and some websites provide steps about how to disappear, and one of these steps is you have to quit the social media accounts.
Participation in the hackathon is very worthwhile. We are learning new things, meeting new people, and sharing our skills to help others.
Concerning our project, I finished my part a week ago, and the group was waiting for the other two members to accomplish their part. They took a long time to complete the part, and they did not do it will. Now, we are working on this part and modifying other parts to prepare for submitting the project.
13
The last journal is the overview or summary for this semester. I will discuss: the information threats, risks, and control course, the Dolan family wines project, teamwork and my skills.
The information threats, risks and control course and Dr. cate’s courses are the best for me because these courses focus on involving the students with real client and real experiences. These authentic experiences teach me the commitment and how to treatclient’s requirements, working in a group and improving new skills.
With regards to the project, the project is an information risk management framework. Through the semester, our group worked with the client: collected the client’s business information analysed it, identified the potential risks, risk measurement and assessment, risk mitigation, risk reporting and monitoring and risks control. There are deferent types of risk management framework NIST, OCTAVE, Essential 8 and Top 4. The group decided to use the NIST framework because it is appropriate for the client. Concerning our client, the potential risks are cyber risks related to the website, social media accounts and email, electronic devices attacks and losing sensitive data. To mitigate these risks, we provided a process to help the client protect the business against risks. Also, we offered a control part to help in controlling the risks if it occurred.
Concerning teamwork, the excellent point is that I engaged with new people and group each semester. I met new people from different background and with other skills and perspective. My team this semester consists of postgraduate and undergraduate members, and we are all in cybersecurity major. I can summarise what I have learned through working with this team: initiative, I should provide anything I can do to the group and the work. Flexibility, I am very strict with the deadline, members were very relaxed and confident about finish the job on time, we got lost and late some weeks, but we finish the document in an appropriate time.
This semester I focused on improving my skills and identified new goals for my future. Improving the skills involved many aspects: English language, self-confidence, management skills and future path. For improving English language, I found it hard to improve the language in short period of time. Also, with covide-19 everything being harder. Moreover, the university provided programs and activities for international students. These programs did not help me because the accent of international students is not clear, and these programs keep us away from the native speaker which we must contact to learn the language correctly. I like volunteering, I did not volunteer with university because most of the programs with international students. I volunteered with Meal on Wheals, I met Australian people, talked with them learned more about the language and the culture.
weekly journal is time-consuming because I need to review all week actions and edit the journal many times before final submit.On the other hand, writing journal increased my awareness of my behaviour and skills. Before writing the journal I make a plan of the main events of my week then analyse these events. Why are they important for me, what
I am thinking of what to write about and do I gain the benefit of new knowledge and experiences and how they will lead me to my goals and improving my skills. Also, I judged my attitude and reaction. Why I do that, is it the best choice, do I have other options. I also recognised my weaknesses, strengths and which skills require improve and practice.
This semester I engaged more in management path and discovered new jobs in cybersecurity. Personality test gave me a nudge to focus on management skills and developing my confidence and skills in this side. I have some plan for the summer holidays to work on improving myself. I will join Adelaide toastmaster club, in this club participants can practice the art of public speaking, communication and leadership in a supportive, friendly and professional environment. Moreover, I will contact a mentor to help me prepare a plan to improve my management and career skills. Overall, this semester was interesting because I had different courses and gained tremendous knowledge and experience. It was hard; also, we still fighting against Covid-19, and we are away from our family, but it was very, very fast as a dream. Finally, I am very grateful to Dr Cate and her support, to my group members who were the curtail people to accomplish the project and to all experiences, happiness and difficulties through this semester.
