Security Awards is a yearly event arranged by the Swedish publication Skydd och Säkerhet, where the aim is to highlight persons or companies that are improving the security industry. Detectify’s backend developer Jonatan was one of the finalists for Security Awards’ Security Student of 2016, so we caught up with him right after the event to ask him about the Swedish education system and his personal IT security role models.
How do you think IT security education in Sweden could be improved?
Identify and make the most of individuals who are motivated and have high ambitions regardless of their age. One example is Mathias, who hacked Google when he was only 13. People like him should be involved in the education system.
Do you have any advice for people who want to learn about IT security?
Have patience, everyone is a beginner once. Take your time to understand and solve a challenge. There are all sorts of practical exercises on the Internet (many for free!), so focus your security training on what interests you the most.
Who would you like to hand out your own security award to?
Alexander Peslyak, also known as Solar Designer, a Russian hacker who was a pioneer of memory corruption. And my teacher Johan Bogg at IFTAC who does his best to educate students about security, even though it is a difficult subject to keep up to date with.
Jonatan and the Detectify team want to congratulate Annie Myhr, who received the award for Security Student of 2016!