About me
Who am I?
My name is Nigel Hanson.
I live in the South Island of New Zealand and have worked for a global technology company since 1997 (with a couple of "breaks" along the way).
I've worked in a number of roles including:
- Software development
- Software licensing, deployment, e-commerce and more
- Process improvement
- Global security
My current role includes developing a new program of work for device/IoT security for my global company.
How did I get started in security?
My original plan was actually to join the New Zealand Police. After looking at joining (including several nights out on patrol), they recommended that I get my degree and then they'd fast-track me through the ranks.
At Otago University I gained a first class honours degree in Information Science, primarily focussing on Computer Security under Dr Henry (Hank) B Wolfe.
The research I conducted back in 1993 was on "Computer Crime in New Zealand".
It was definitely a time where everyone was burying their heads in the sand. Every bank I contacted claimed they had never had any problems, yet the pages of cases I obtained from some sources in the police indicated otherwise.
At the end of my degree I also looked at an opportunity with the GCSB (where I'd do my Masters and then work for them for 2 years afterwards), but in the end I went to work for a government agency in a networking + software development role.
One of my first tasks was to get a proper anti-virus solution in place. When I say "proper", I mean one that has regular updates. Funny thing is, "regular" updates back then was once a month!
Anyway, to cut a long story short, it was a great exercise. I learnt how to get proposals past a board of directors to purchase something they didn't deem necessary - which is still a challenge most of us face to this day when purchasing security tooling.
And of course, once we finally did get it approved and deployed, we discovered we had infections all over the network.