If you’re exploring cyber security careers, you’ve probably come across the role of penetration tester. Also known as a ‘pen tester’ or an ‘ethical hacker’, a penetration tester identifies vulnerabilities in computer systems and network infrastructure, and finds solutions to patch those weaknesses.

Here we look at what a penetration tester does and how you can get into this rapidly growing field.

Australia's attack surface is growing – and so are the consequences of poor cyber governance.

In the past few years alone, breaches have hit healthcare providers, telcos and government agencies. When sensitive data is leaked, services stall or systems collapse – the scrutiny falls fast and hard. Someone needs to own the risk, and increasingly, that rests with the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO).

Cyber security is a rapidly growing profession in a world that’s reeling from increased cyber attacks in the form of ransomware, phishing and hacking. However, it’s a profession that often lacks diversity.  

According to industry experts, women held 25 per cent of cyber security jobs globally in 2021, up from 20 per cent in 2019 and around 10 per cent in 2013.   

While the coronavirus pandemic appeared to bring all that we know and love to a grinding halt, it had the opposite effect on data collection. As more and more of us pivoted to online solutions for our groceries, healthcare and education, data science went into overdrive.

Against a backdrop of global economic uncertainty, investing apps are enjoying unprecedented success. Despite the far-reaching impacts of COVID-19, apps such as Robinhood are reporting record numbers of trades, with retail investors flocking to these stock-picking platforms.

For better or worse, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is here to stay. Algorithms are gathering and processing information about us all the time from our taste in clothes and music to spending habits and health.

Data science is an attractive career option for anyone looking to enter a profession that provides great career outlooks and which sits at the forefront of many technological innovations occurring today. There are many ways to gain the skills to become a data scientist from self-learning courses to more formal education like UNSW's Master of Data Science.

The ongoing development of artificial intelligence technology is transforming the global economy and creating new opportunities for innovation. However, because only a relatively small number of people possess the skills necessary to develop AI programs, there is a growing movement to make the technology easier to use and more accessible to the general population. This initiative to make AI more accessible is commonly referred to as the “democratisation of artificial intelligence”.

Data science is an incredibly flexible discipline, capable of providing insights into basically any subject that can be described. One of the most prominent subjects that data scientists look at is human language. They use language analysis to investigate a variety of different subjects and to answer a variety of different questions and use a variety of methodologies to do so. This article looks at one particular type of language analysis, known as sentiment analysis.

It’s probably safe to assume that most people view data science as being a strictly scientific discipline—it’s right there in the name after all. Yet, many data scientists describe their discipline as being as much an art as a science. Why is that?