Keith works in our Cyber Threat Intelligence team at our London office, specialising in malware analysis. As one of the more technical roles at PwC, his day-to-day usually consists of tracking threat actors and analysing malware.
"I’ll find everything I can about a specific sample of malware, pull out the most interesting information I can find, and then write up an analysis report on my findings. I’ll link these findings together to build an idea of which threat actor might have produced the sample, and how it fits into the wider narrative of their campaign."
Since graduating from the University of Plymouth in 2016, Keith’s seen nonstop changes in the cyber threat landscape. Every day new techniques are being used to exploit individuals and organisations. He admits it can sometimes be difficult to keep up, but it also means that he’s constantly learning.
"As a Graduate I had an expectation that I might be thrown into a consulting role within Cyber. I feared I might never get to touch a programming language ever again! However, joining the Cyber Threat Operations team couldn’t be further from that. I get to spend most of my time tackling technically complex challenges and work directly with clients."
He’s recently had the chance to travel through Thailand with his partner, an experience he will never forget. He admits that one of his favourite things to do wherever he travels is to go into local supermarkets to see their local food and snacks - “I guess I’m just naturally inquisitive!”
Over the years Keith’s seen some highly skilled and complex attacks on his clients. It’s the response from his team and his individual efforts which he’s most proud of.
"When these attacks happened, the pressure was on to be able to provide technical analysis and strategic recommendations as quickly as possible to our clients. Sharing knowledge within our team meant we had a deliverable intelligence report ready for release on the very day of each attack. These reports were used by multiple organisations to make informed security decisions going forward."
But you don’t need to have this level of experience to join our Cyber Security programmes. One of the great things about an evolving team like Cyber means we’re looking for all types of experience and background.
"Managers are very much focussed on helping everyone play to their strengths. If there’s something that we’re passionate about, a new technology we want to try out, or a particular sector we want to focus on, we’re generally given the time and resources to pursue it."
When he’s not learning at work, Keith’s recently started to learn to play the guitar. “It’s been a real test of my patience! I’ve never learnt an instrument before so it’s a whole new world for me, but it’s been really rewarding to see myself progress”.
Keith’s also a champion of the social aspect of working at a large firm; “each week there’s a newsletter section called “pet of the week”, where employees send in pictures of their pets. I think it might be the highlight of every friday for me.”
One of Keith’s proudest achievements has been a Cyber Threat Intelligence training course that he helped build at the start of 2019. The course pulled together most of what he’d learned over his first few years in the Threat Intelligence team. It made him realise just how much he’d learned in quite a short amount of time.
"I think we’re going to see a lot more attacks through supply chain compromises. It’s been eye opening to see the kind of control that some threat actors have over key infrastructure, and how much direct damage could be caused from them.
On a more positive note, I think many organisations have realised how important cyber security is to their business. I’ve seen some real dedication to the task, with many businesses having installed impressive security solutions. I’m sure this is only going to continue and I’m looking forward to seeing the new and novel ways it can be tackled."
