Zak Kyriakou, welcome to the team
This week at Serbus, we’re delighted to introduce you to the latest member of our support team, Zak Kyriakou. Fresh from completing his masters in computing from Cardiff University, Zak joins us as a first-line Technical Support Engineer, here to assist our clients with project support across mobile, device and server technical troubleshooting.
An avid technophile and gamer since childhood, Zak has always been interested in paving a career in the cyber world, and later realised his particular interest in cybersecurity, having realised how easily exploited and dangerous technology can be without the proper protective provisions and support in place.
A keen footballer and supporter of Liverpool F.C., we took a moment with Zak to find out more about him, how he’s settling in, and a few of the things that have gotten him to where he is today.
Hi Zak, welcome to #TeamSerbus! It’s great to have you onboard. How are you settling into the Serbus Team?
Hello, great thank you! I’ve only been here a couple of weeks and I already feel like I’ve been here longer. Everyone has been so welcoming and it’s really a great team. It feels like a family – we joke, laugh, and get on really well.
Having completed your degree and masters and now entering into cybersecurity, what has been a defining moment for you in your education/work life so far?
For my educational defining moment, I would have to say it’s completing the dissertation for my masters. The huge project came at a bit of a tough time, and was programming orientated. I was tasked to write an application in Python for professors and students to write searchable notes and annotations on pdf documents. When you work in a team you can decide and consult together, however when you work alone you question everything – I completed my project in 3-4 months and am proud of the achievement and confidence that moment afforded me.
Where do you hope to see yourself in 5 years?
Ideally still at Serbus! I really like it here as we’re such a tightknit group. I’d love to mirror the successes of my teammates, who have worked their way up the engineering ladder, to become a lead engineer. Plus, the location is great for me so I’m hoping to stick around for a while.
What would you say is the biggest threat in the cyber world right now?
Ooh, that’s a tricky one, because it really depends on the level you’re operating at. For instance, if we’re talking the average person, I would say scams are leaving us very vulnerable (particularly in light of COVID), specifically pandemic-related email phishing and faux eCommerce scams.
From a business point of view, I would have to say intelligence hacking. The risk posed because other governments are intent on getting involved with another countries business, for example acquiring their confidential data, is a real and huge risk. Cyberthreat in general is a constantly evolving environment that we always have to be as ready for as possible, defending vulnerabilities before they’ve been exposed.
And lastly, before we let you get back to your busy day – what would you say is your favourite element on offer in a Serbus Secure solution?
Easy, it’s the secure voice and messaging core. It’s a fantastic messaging/communication service and you really do feel safe using it, because everything is encrypted! Being behind the scenes and able to see the updates made to the application, you can actually see how it’s so secure. It’s the heart of a solution and because of this it’s the most important part.
It’s great to have Zak on the team. For any questions about Serbus, who we are and what we do, please get in touch. You can do so via email on [email protected] or call our office on +44(0)1432 870 879.