2017: New challenges for a new year

Happy new year, and welcome to this long overdue post! 2017’s barely begun, but I already have a lot to update you on and I’m sure it’s going to be quite different to any year of my life so far.

My first major news is that I’m leaving Business Reporter, where I’ve served as web editor for the last three and a half years. I’ve had some great experiences, met some lovely people and learnt a lot – and not just about journalism – in that time, so I’m grateful to everyone at Lyonsdown for the opportunity and wish them all the best with the future of the supplements, website and events.

As for where I’m going… Well, I wrote a little while ago about the government’s £1.9 billion investment in cyber security, and now I’m officially a part of it. I’ve secured a place at the Cyber Retraining Academy – a government project that, in partnership with SANS, educates workers from other industries and equips them with the skills they need to fill security roles.

Over the last few years I’ve covered this industry as a journalist, and it’s an exciting and crucial space that’s always changing (as a side note, my reading for the Christmas break was Edward Lucas’s Cyberphobia, which is an excellent place to start for anyone who wants to learn about the key issues). I’m very excited to learn the more technical skills that I’ll require to understand the sector in more depth and do what I can in the fight against cyber crime.

Naturally, I’ll still have an itch to scratch when it comes to the written word. I’m hoping to contribute to this blog more frequently, and with luck my new security knowledge will help me to share more insight on goings-on in the sector. If I have the time and the opportunity, you might also spot freelance work of mine elsewhere on the web, and I’ve also got a roughly 75 per cent-complete draft novel that I’m hoping will see the light of day at some point in 2017.

All in all, it’s set to be an interesting year. I’m both massively excited and a little bit nervous, but more than anything I’m looking forward to learning new skills and taking on new challenges.

Photo © Matt Brown (CC BY 2.0). Cropped.