Andy Kantic’s Remarkable Career Transition From Aviation Security to Cyber Security?

Andy Kantic was working in aviation security and found himself enjoying the thrill of catching threats.

Working in this space made Andy think a lot about the rapid growth of cyber security, which got him eager to keep up with it.

This led him to upskill through the Institute of Data’s Cyber Security Programme, and not even one month after graduating, he successfully got a job as a Threat Analyst Manager at Cofense!

Congratulations to Andy! Read more to learn about his exciting journey:

You have a background in Aviation Security! Can you tell us how you got motivated to pursue a Cyber Security career?

Cyber Security slowly developed as a passion with my years working in security, watching the technology around me quickly advancing and providing new ventures/procedures.

Pursuing cyber security stemmed from the love I had for catching threats and providing safety to members of the public around me.

The rapid growth of the cyber security industry was also a key factor in my transition into the field.

What were the highlights and lowlights of the Cyber Security Programme?

The most challenging aspect of the programme would have to be familiarising myself with all the digital operating systems and getting used to working in a fully digital world (very different to my physical security job).

A lot of the information was foreign to me and seemed almost impossible to understand, but with the help from the teams at the Institute of Data this quickly grew into something I felt comfortable with.

The most enjoyable aspect would have to have been understanding how specific threat actors gain access to systems, the exact methods they use to compromise devices and what we can do as individuals to protect ourselves against them.

How did you land a new role within less than a month of graduating from the programme? 

The Job Outcomes Programme team at the Institute of Data helped revamp my resume to an industry standard and made my social media accounts project professionalism, which was crucial when applying for jobs.

That’s great to hear. Can you tell us about your current role?

I manage a small cyber security team based in Australia and work on email security for clients worldwide.

We help identify threats and patterns within email attacks and protect our clients from various types of social engineering and phishing/malware attacks.

I regularly use some of the knowledge I gained from the programme, like understanding ports and communications between devices.

What I learnt at the Institute of Data was an extremely useful baseline to understand all the different types of roles that are available within the cyber security field.

How did you balance your study with the rest of your work and life commitments?

I’m not going to say it was easy.

But, the programme’s trainers and content motivate me to make an effort and spend time on my coursework – as they do care.

I managed to enrol in the 6-month part-time cohort, which gave me flexibility around work.

Even if I missed a session once in a while, the trainers recorded sessions and were happy to answer questions after hours to help me catch up.

How did you find the pre-course work? 

The pre-course work was a bit intimidating at first glance, but when I started working through it, it was a simple yet effective introduction to what was expected from us throughout the programme.

Learning about major cyber-attacks and how threat actors gained access to multi-million-dollar organisations was not only an enjoyable project but also further motivated my passion to learn about and enter the cyber security field.

Tell us about your capstone project.

Coincidentally, where I work, and the topic of my capstone project happen to be effectively the same thing.

Writing up a capstone project around “How email monitoring can improve network security” seemed like a perfect starting point, as we learned that the majority of cyber attacks actually happen through email clients (either through social engineering attacks or credential harvesting websites).

This gave me a topic where information was plentiful but still a problem that most companies could drastically learn from.

How about the support that you received from the trainers in the programme?

My trainer, Raza, was not only extremely knowledgeable, with 15+ years of experience within the information technology (IT) field, but was one of the main reasons the programme was so enjoyable and insightful.

He motivated our whole class to go above and beyond what was expected and always offered to help us with any aspect of work.

He made the programme easy to understand and never overcomplicated topics, ensuring we all understood before moving on to new topics.

Our assistant trainer helped guide us through the course and answer questions we had along the way.

What advice would you give a working professional who wants to kick-start their cyber security career if they don’t have an IT background? 

As to transitioning into cyber, nothing is without risk, but looking at the current market, I don’t think there is a much better time to make the transition with the jobs available around the globe.

This programme will provide you a true vision of what the cyber security world holds, and just how many different types of jobs are available to you.

If you have the self-motivation and enthusiasm to learn and go out there and apply yourself there shouldn’t be a second thought if you are wanting to transition into cyber security.

If you’re thinking about transitioning into the exciting field of Cyber Security, consider downloading the Institute of Data’s Cyber Security course outline for free.

If you would like to speak about the programme in more detail, consider booking a free career consultation call with a member of our local team.