I gave a talk on our bachelor in information security programme this week. The college had invited 400 pupils who are about to finish school and may apply for our bachelor programmes next spring. Putting together a presentation, I realized once again how many events related to information security there are and how much HiG/NISlab becomes a cluster in information security:
- The online role-playing game World of Warcraft had experienced the virtual death of several thousand avatars a month ago, according to news reports owing to an in-game exploit of a programming mistake.
- Earlier this week, skimming equipment had been discovered at an ATM in Gjøvik.
- Alitalia recently suffered the prospect of financial losses and now a bad reputation after cancelling hundreds of tickets purchased with a higher discount than expected, owing to an exploitable programming mistake in their online sales system.
- In September, the governor of our county (Oppland) was quoted in the local newspaper that the students we educate (in information security) are and become key persons to protect the infrastructure essential for the future of society.
- Den Norske Dataforening, the association of IT professionals in Norway, awarded its annual IT security prize to HiG, also because of HiG’s study programmes in information security.
Probably more important than my talk were the students who have been taking our bachelor in information security programme. I had asked several of them to come and share their experience with studying. I am about twice as old as the young people who are going to apply, so having someone a bit younger to connect with prospective students, might have a positive impact. Thank you, Kjetil, Magnus, and Robin, for providing your insights. Your presentations were well received by the audience.
If you, dear reader, are interested in applying for a bachelor in information security at HiG, and have open questions, please visit our web pages at http://www.hig.no/studietilbud/it/bachelor/bis, get in touch with http://www.hig.no/student/studenttorget/studieveiledning, or send me an email. Since we teach our bachelor programme mainly in Norwegian, you will probably want to ask your questions in Norwegian, too (even if you read this blog in English).