The newly appointed Senior Lecturer in the Department of Information Technology (IT) at the Durban University of Technology (DUT), Dr Brett Van Niekerk was recently a judge in the international Cybersecurity Competition which was held online from Geneva in Switzerland.

According to Dr Van Niekerk, the competition was part of the Cyber 9/12 series of competitions started by the Atlantic Council.

“The participating teams need to assess information given to them about a fictitious international cybersecurity incident. They need to provide a brief on various policy options that could be used to respond to and recover from the incident and motivate for a preferred option. The purpose is to focus on the policy, diplomatic, societal, and legal aspects to the scenario in addition to some high-level technical aspects,” explained Dr Van Niekerk.

Speaking about how he was selected to be part of this prestigious event, Dr Van Niekerk indicated that in January 2021 he was a member of a team that won a similar competition, and towards the end of 2021 he was a judge in the first Cyber 9/12 event held in Africa. He said following on from the African competition, he was invited to become one of the judges in the Geneva competition.

“We played the role of a cybersecurity committee for a fictional version of the African Union. We assessed the team’s briefing, asked them questions, scored them, and then gave them feedback. I was also a panel member for one of the side events. The panel was designed to give participants a view of cybersecurity as a career path. The panellists provided their own career paths and experiences working in cybersecurity. What was common was that we all had a passion for the discipline, and the multi-disciplinary nature of cybersecurity was very evident,” added Dr Van Niekerk, unpacking some of his duties at the competition.

The highlight of the competition, according to Dr Van Niekerk was the high quality of the briefs the teams were delivering. He revealed that 32 teams registered for the competition, and there were some teams from Africa competing as well. He encouraged students interested in technology and competing to keep an eye out for calls for future competitions as he feels it is a rewarding experience.

Giving a brief background on himself, Dr Van Niekerk stated that he is a National Research Foundation (NRF) rated researcher, co-editor of the International Journal of Cyber Warfare and Terrorism and chair the International Federation of Information Processing working group on ICT uses in Peace and War. He joined DUT under the Faculty of Accounting and Informatics in January 2022.

He holds a PhD in Information Systems focusing on cybersecurity and critical infrastructure protection.

“I completed two years as a Postdoctoral Fellow. My BSc and MSc are in Electronic Engineering. In addition to my academic experience, I have about five years industry experience, and have served on the board of a professional body. I also have an industry certification: Certified Information Security Manager (CISM),” added Dr Van Niekerk.

Regarding his passion for IT, he said: “Towards the end of my undergraduate qualification, I came across the concept of cybersecurity before it became a mainstream concept. My fascination with the topic grew during my Master’s, and I then decided to complete my PhD focusing on cybersecurity. During the PhD, my passion for research grew, and I decided to continue my research as a Postdoctoral and remained as an honorary researcher when in industry.”

Pictured: Dr Brett Van Niekerk

Simangele Zuma