Why Josh wants to crash his own PC!
While most people want to take good care of their new computer, Josh Nicholls was determined to make the first PC he ever owned crash.
The 19-year-old from Dudley, West Midlands, began studying for a diploma in iT (Applications Design and Development) at Birmingham Metropolitan College (BMet) in September 2016 and finishes this month.
he says: ‘i was 12 years old and wanted to know how a computer system could be made vulnerable.
‘i typed into the search engine ‘what is a virus?’ and then ‘how do i make a virus?’
‘i haven’t stepped away from this world since. it’s shaped my ambition to work as a cyber security analyst.’
Through working on his college diploma, Josh has also discovered more about programming, computer hardware, graphic design and how to build apps. he has created 2D and 3D games and an application for a pizza delivery company.
Josh says: ‘Designing an app that a real business could use and testing its functionality is just one of the ways we get to relate what we learn in class to the real iT world.
‘There’s so much more to each subject we cover, and my teachers are always happy to point us to links or books that will tell us more about a certain topic, tool or programme. They’ve even shown us extra things in their own time. having that ability to build on our knowledge should make going to uni a bit easier to handle.’
Josh will begin studying for a computer science degree at lancaster University in September.
in the meantime, he still enjoys thinking like a hacker — to enable him to tackle potential threats to software he could end up protecting in the future.
‘There are two kinds of hackers — the black hat hackers who breach and steal data for profit, and white hat hackers who stop them,’ he said.
‘i’d be one of these white hat hackers, so i’d test the vulnerability of a business’s network to find out if there are any back doors that a hacker could use to break into a system. i’d then have to figure out how to prevent them from getting away with the information they may have accessed and also make sure no one else tries the same thing.’
Josh has thoroughly researched his future career, while undertaking his college studies.
he says: ‘i’ve seen research that says 30 per cent of computer science and 99 per cent of cyber security jobs are out there waiting to be filled.’ For details go to: www.bmet.ac.uk