New interns set for summer of cyber challenges

HMGCC has welcomed its latest group of 12 interns through the doors as they undertake an eight-week summer internship focusing on cyber security.

Our award-winning internship is part of the national CyberFirst programme, enabling undergraduate students from different universities the chance to learn from experts.

The CyberFirst internship, which brings in students to work alongside software and security research staff, has been running at HMGCC since 2018, so far welcoming over 100 students.

Participating students are often interested in future careers working within cyber security, so the internship offers them the chance to learn from immersion in a real work environment.

Computer Science student Anne is among this summer’s group of interns at HMGCC.

She said: “As I was very interested in computer science, I was really encouraged by a teacher at school and then heard about the CyberFirst internship.

“I’m so grateful to be taking part, it is really interesting and there is a strong motivation and wider purpose to taking part.”

Louise, another intern on this year’s programme, commented: “The first time I got interested in anything like this was when I took part in a cryptography competition when I was 14 – my mum had thought I would find it fun. After that I started working with my friends on solving puzzles.

“This was the early foundation and then of course years later I found out about the CyberFirst courses. I hadn’t known much about HMGCC but I knew enough to realise it would be interesting and exciting.”

CyberFirst is NCSC’s student bursary and development scheme for undergraduates. It offers them an annual bursary, supported summer internships and, at graduation, more than 86 per cent of students on the scheme enter a cyber security related role, many of which are within national security.

Visit our CyberFirst pages to find out more.