The BTEC Level 3 IT students attended the Digital Transformation Exhibition at the Excel Centre. This is a major exhibition where companies engaged in moving business and commercial activities from the analogue world to the digital realm demonstrate their products and services. Increasingly, professional processes are being moved from old digital systems to modern ones.
One of the main focuses of the exhibition was on cyber-security. Leading companies in this field such as Darktrace (the FTSE-250 listed company), Cisco and Threatlocker were exhibiting alongside more niche companies such as Arctic Wolf and Tenfold. Both Darktrace and Arctic Wolf use a behavioural approach to identifying potential threats. For example, if an employee usually works between 08:00 and 16:30, why would they log on remotely at 22:00? The Artic Wolf representative stated, “Human curiosity will always beat Artificial Intelligence”. He continued to point out that human curiosity is needed to identify unusual, and possibly suspicious behaviour; it is not possible to rely wholly on Artificial Intelligence (AI).
In between collecting coveted (free!) merchandise, students also had the opportunity to talk to professionals in the IT industry who are not much older than them.
The visit gave students an excellent opportunity to learn more about the latest trends and factors both in Cyber Security, Incident Management and IT Service Delivery, all of which are externally assessed units for the BTEC Extended Diploma course in IT delivered at Croydon College.