Well, good afternoon.
First of all, thank you all for being here after a long day of work.
I know it's not easy.
And I also want to thank my colleagues in the backstage, who are that gear that keeps this going, that after several days of work, this keeps working and moving.
Without further ado, today I have two young women by my side, with whom I am very excited to share this stage, because today they will tell us their experience, both on a personal and professional level, their experience and their concerns in the field of technologies in general,
and cybersecurity in particular.
Here to my left I have Alicia Gómez, who is a first-year technological science student at León.
She is an enthusiast of computer science, cryptography and mathematics.
You will understand later why I am talking about mathematics.
She is currently a student of the Stenthalingar project, as mentioned before.
In addition, she is part of the winning team of the Cyberwoman Challenge.
She has been awarded Math Kangaroo and won the Math Olympiad of León this year.
You understand why I am talking about mathematics, right?
She plans to study computer engineering.
To my right we have Claudia Álvarez.
She is a computer engineer with a master's degree in cybersecurity at the University of León.
She is currently working as a researcher on a cybersecurity project and is also a doctoral student.
She is developing her doctoral thesis within the robotics group of the University of León.
In that sense, I will start with you, Alicia, if you allow me.
You are a high school student.
Possibly you want to study computer engineering.
If so, from this moment, starting from this point, until you get to university and study computer engineering, how do you prepare for that moment?
What have you been doing?
Well, the first thing is to study the right bachelor's degree, which in this case would be the technological one.
But in terms of education, I consider that in Spain we do not give enough importance to what comes to be computer engineering and cybersecurity.
So, for my part, I am studying and taking courses.
As far as possible, I try to make them face-to-face, but sometimes there is no opportunity that where you live you can do workshops or courses.
And when I do not find these opportunities, if I have some free time that the bachelor's studies leave me, which are obviously the first thing, I try to take online courses, in addition to informing myself with books from the library and all the information that I can get from other talks.
What caught my attention, in addition to impressing me as much as I admire, is the fact that you have already decided at this age what you want to study.
I don't know if it happened to you, Claudia, but I'm sure it did to many people.
At that age, I had no idea what I wanted to do later.
It's a matter of luck.
To be more or less sure or to be determined to study something.
Because you go with an advantage point.
And you are also preparing yourself and you know what you can face.
Then reality will tell you something else, or it will let you know that you were at the right point.
Knowing it right now is a great advantage, Alicia.
Also, I want to know when did you feel that you started to be interested in computer science?
Really, since I have memory, I have always been curious about how the computer works.
And of course, when I was very little, my hypothesis was that the computer was magical.
We had a little elf inside the CPU that made the numbers appear.
With time, when I told my parents my hypothesis, they told me, no, wait, there are some mathematical calculations that make the numbers appear.
And I agree with the idea of ​​mathematical calculations and I decide that I am going to study mathematics.
And this idea is twisted, curiously, in a language class.
I had to do an oral presentation and I said, well, I'm going to do it from a computer scientist, in this case Richard Stallman, because the language teacher, if I'm wrong, will not know him.
So, I finish the talk and I leave the language class saying, this man has used computer science and has helped a lot of people.
I could apply mathematics in the world of computer science and thus I could help a lot of people.
And then I decide that I have to study computer science, yes or yes.
Well, look, how good.
In your case, Claudia, computer science, master's degree in cybersecurity, a project, you work as a doctoral researcher at the University of Lyon and you are also doing your doctoral thesis.
Tell us a little about that project in which you work at the University of Lyon, which I also know firsthand, because it is a project in which collaboration coincides, and in which I have the luck, or the joy, of learning from them and in which I participate in the part that concerns us from INCIBE as collaborators.
Tell us a little about that project.
Well, as she says, we collaborate with INCIBE, I am part of the University of Lyon and I am managed within SKAILE, which is the Supercomputing Center of Castilla y León, from which the regional network of Castilla y León is managed.
CIRIS is at the national level and SKAILE, which is how we call it, would be at the level of Castilla y León.
And the objective of this project is to detect threats within this network.
The project has been going on for a year, practically more or less a year, and well, we already have the first models, the first things with which we are starting to investigate and already applying supervised learning techniques, which today is what is most in vogue,
learning techniques.
In addition, as far as I know, and because I know it, I come with an advantage, you have to work right in the part with the honeypots.
That's why for me you are the honeypot girl.
That's right.
And on the other hand, Alicia, I come back to you.
Generally, before, we have an idea of ​​what computer science is.
Many times it is correct, then it comes to reality when you get to study it and when you leave after graduating, that you still had a correct or incorrect idea of ​​what computer science was for you.
But in your case, what is it that attracts the most attention of the specialty in which you want to focus?
Well, nobody can say that computer science is not in their lives.
From the moment an alarm wakes us up to go to work, or we are listening to music on the phone, or we are communicating with our loved ones, we are applying computer science.
And it has ended up becoming a very, very broad world.
But behind all this, we only have zeros and ones, which, thanks to a lot of mathematical calculations, become what they are today.
So, of course, I want to know what those calculations are like.
I'm sure you can do it, I have no doubt.
In your case, Claudia, we already have the side.
Before, after.
Tell us a little bit, why did you decide to study this specialty?
What was it that really caught your attention?
From computer science and, in this case, after cyber security.
Well, the truth is that I don't have a turning point that would tell me that from now on I want to study computer science.
I'm a bit like her.
I say that mine is a vocational thing.
I mean, since I was little, the subject of computers has always caught my attention.
In my school, we only had two computers for all the students that we were in the village of those.
And I always tell a very curious anecdote, and it is that on my fourth or fifth birthday, I don't remember exactly, the so-called furbies were very fashionable.
I don't know if you remember them.
The oldest, for sure.
The oldest, yes, but the youngest, I don't think so.
And on my birthday, my parents were going to give me a furby.
And just before they went to buy it, I said, no, I want a computer.
And my parents said, well, and I, no, no, I want a computer.
And they bought me a little interactive computer, which also served to learn things like addition, subtraction, multiplication, division.
And since I was little, I learned to type.
And well, when I was older, in high school, for example, a teacher organized an excursion here in this community.
It has a history with Valencia.
It has a history with Valencia, yes.
We visited the Universidad Jaume I in Castellón.
In it, they showed me some little robots, the Nao, which many people know because they appear in programs like El Hormiguero and things like that.
And I saw that and I said, my God, it seemed incredible to me how those little robots could move like that.
Well, and a little later, well, I was already very clear that I was going to study computer engineering.
A little later, in the Open Doors Day at the Universidad de León, I visited the University's robotics group.
There, they showed me those robots again.
And I said, my God, here I am.
So, well, I enrolled in computer engineering with the goal of finishing my degree and then dedicate myself to things related to robotics.
Because I knew that there was a robotics group inside the University, but I didn't know that students could collaborate in it.
I always thought that it would be researchers and teachers who had already finished their degree.
With such good luck that when I started my third degree, I received an email one afternoon from the robotics group offering me to collaborate with them.
For me, that was the dream come true.
I said, of course, yes.
And since then, I have my connection with the robotics group, in which I am now developing my doctoral thesis.
And, on the other hand, cyber security, throughout my career, while I studied computer science, based on attending all kinds of events, such as Cyber Camp, which we are here today, or INIS, etc., many of them organized by INCIBE, I started to get interested in cyber security.
And I said, it seems to me a very interesting field, and it seems that it looks like it will have a lot of future, and that in the future it will be in everyone's mouth.
And that's it.
The truth is that I finished my degree, I enrolled in the master's in cyber security research, and this same year I finished it.
And here I am.
Well, Alicia, you participate in the Stental Engard program.
What have they told me?
And I know in advance, because I am their mentor, in the program.
I want you to tell me what this program is about, and how they support you and help you on a personal level, even professional in the future.
Well, Stental Engard is born from the need of companies to have more employees in the Stent careers, and to realize that there are no women.
So what the program is about, is that they try to inspire a group of women so that we end up in these STEM careers.
And what is basically done are some talks where a woman comes, where she has triumphed in this area, and anyone can go to see them.
In addition, then they go up to YouTube, and in those talks this person tells you a little about his life, how he got to get all his achievements, all the impediments he had, and you come up with an idea of if she could do it, I can do it too.
In addition, we also see companies, they make us workshops, for example, last year they made us one about HTML to get us started in the world of web pages.
And if we are curious, we can continue on our own.
In the end, it is also about having references.
Yes.
And in that sense, Claudia, tell us a little...
Do you have a professional reference?
Someone who, for example, may have influenced your goals in the short term, for example, or where do you want to go?
Someone who has influenced that path.
Yes, well, my reference right now, if you are listening to me, my name is Pelota, but my reference is Vicente Matellán.
Hopefully one day you will know half of what he knows, because I think he is a spectacular man, not only in the world of robotics, but in the whole field of computer science.
And I am also very lucky to be able to work with him on a daily basis, because he is my manager within the project that we have in collaboration with INCIBE, and he is also one of my three thesis directors.
The other two are also spectacular men, but it is true that they do not have that academic trajectory that Vicente has.
From here, greetings to Vicente, who could not participate in CIBERCAM.
And also, I was not lying when I told you that I am excited to have both of you here, because somehow I am involved or I have some kind of relationship with them, at a professional level and at a personal level, being your mentor, but that is why I am so excited.
You have told us that you want to study computer science, and you are interested in cybersecurity, and we are going to see something that you have already achieved within cybersecurity, without working on it right now.
But tell us a little, for you, when we talk about cybersecurity, what comes to your mind?
What does it suggest to you?
What do you imagine?
I imagine it as a police agency.
After all, an expert in cybersecurity has a job close to that of a police officer, since when we go down the street, we do not have to be afraid of being attacked, but we can feel safe, because we have the police.
At the same time, on the Internet, we have cybersecurity experts who guard our security, so we do not have to be afraid all the time that the data will be hijacked and I will not be able to do anything, because you can call the phone, or any of these things.
I like that vision, the online minions.
I like that vision.
And in a few years, do you see yourself dedicating yourself to something related to the world of computer science and cybersecurity in particular, or is it something that you still see very far away?
I really see a job very far away now that I am in high school, but I am very clear that I want to study something in computer science and also something related to cybersecurity, because it is what catches my attention.
My studies now are not based on studying this to have a stable future, but they are based on curiosity.
I want to get rid of this curiosity.
How do I do it?
By learning.
Learning more about computer science, more about cybersecurity.
So, well, I can say that I will end up in this world, but it seems very far away to me.
The important thing is that this curiosity does not die.
In your case, Claudia, let's say, well, in part, yes, we can say that you are dedicated to this.
Have you encountered any difficulties or barriers along this path that you are taking right now?
Do you think you will encounter any barriers in the future?
Well, getting to where I am today has not been easy.
In the end, I have to reject, put many things aside from my life, I have to reject going out to parties or things like that to stay at home studying.
In the end, if you want something, it costs you something.
And well, the truth is that I have not encountered a barrier as such, but it has taken me a long time to get to where I am today.
Also, I come from a humble family of farmers and ranchers, where, for example, despite my academic background, I have only had a one-year scholarship.
And it is because when it comes to applying for the scholarship, the children of farmers and ranchers see us as very disadvantaged in that sense.
So, my only goal and the only way to somehow reduce those enrollment rates, which are quite high, was trying to get honors.
I got some, not all of them, obviously.
I got some, and that way I managed to reduce the enrollment of my parents, who had to pay my parents.
I have to say that my parents never put any kind of pressure on me, like, you have to pass all of them.
And well, they told me, if you have a certain second enrollment, then you go, don't worry, we will do everything possible to pay it, etc.
But yes, it has been hard to get to where I am.
And for the future, I'm sure we will find problems.
But well, a few years ago I attended a lecture.
I don't remember who it was or the place.
I only remember one sentence from that lecture, and that is that there are two types of people.
Those who find three problems in each solution, and those who find three solutions in each problem.
I consider myself to be in the second group, and that is that no matter how many problems life puts in your way, one way or another, you have to solve them and follow the path.
In that sense, in that line, I think it is important, both in the early stages and later, or in the middle of the process, the support we can have from both our families and our friends, in the decisions we are about to make, in what we have decided, and in the path we finally decide to take or are taking.
In that sense, Claudia, about support and motivation, I understand that you motivate yourself, but do you also feel that friends and family have supported you, motivated you to reach those goals, the goals you have achieved so far and the ones you have left?
Yes, of course.
The truth is that both my parents, my brother and my partner trust me much more than myself.
The truth is that I have a lot of support from them, and from my friends as well.
I have always been the geek of the group, the one who likes computer science.
But, well, the truth is that I have always had a lot of support.
And, well, the truth is that I thank them for that, for having all the people around me supporting me and being always by my side, and all the decisions I make are always supported.
Great.
In that sense, Alicia.
The same thing happens to me.
All my loved ones have always trusted me much more than I trust myself.
And everything I have achieved I consider to be thanks to all the support they have given me.
Behind every contest there has been a time when I have said maybe I shouldn't go, I won't be able to do anything.
And they have told me to go.
Go and try.
And behind all the projects, encouraging them so that I don't give up, I consider that everything has been thanks to all those people.
You know, you have a pending task, which is to trust yourself more than what everyone else trusts.
You go with tasks.
You don't have to know it, but maybe some of you know it.
These two girls participated in the Cyberwoman Challenge.
The first Cyberwoman Challenge in Spain, and they won.
Alicia won, who is not yet in cybersecurity.
And she says she is not sure yet.
And in that sense, Alicia, I want you to tell us how the experience was.
Tell us what the competition was about, and how you felt.
Well, when I signed up, I was super excited, waiting for the day to come.
And when the day came, the competition was in the afternoon, and in the morning I had to go to class.
And I got very nervous.
I told my friends, I can't, I'm not going, I'm not going.
And they told me, go.
You have already signed up, you have already told everyone to go.
Go.
What's wrong with you?
Well, you go out and go home and that's it.
And in the end, I went there and I found a very welcoming environment.
And we were divided into teams because of the arrival.
And the competition was a capture the flag with the microtrain tools.
They explained to us how it worked and everything.
And they made us do the challenges, they described this file, there is a file deleted by someone from the company, find it.
And everything related to problems that could arise in a real company.
So, in the end, I came out with a lot of experience.
I came without experience of reading a book.
And I came out with a lot of experience with the tablet, in this case.
And I had a great time.
So, I encourage everyone that if they find these opportunities, don't say, I'm not going to go, I'm going to do the fool.
No, go and you will get a lot of experience.
You don't win, you have gained experience.
You don't have to win a prize.
The worst thing that can happen to you is to lose.
And in your case, how was the experience?
Well, the truth is that since an event of this type was held in my city, in Leon, I decided to sign up.
And I said, well, let's try it.
Let's live the experience.
And the truth is that it was a very comforting experience.
I met three spectacular girls.
We got along very well from the beginning.
And little by little we were overcoming challenges and we created seconds.
And the truth is that I am very happy to have participated.
I learned a lot.
In addition, in a while you will participate in the CYBERCAN CTF.
What are your expectations?
How do you feel about it?
Well, I think I'm not a rival for all these boys and girls who have been preparing for a whole year.
Who are practically dedicated to this.
I hope one day I can dedicate myself to doing CTFs.
But I can't.
Because of work, the doctorate, time prevents me.
But the expectations are to go, have a good time and learn as much as possible.
Great, that's the attitude.
And in your case, Alicia, closing, we have little time left.
What is it that you are most passionate about?
What do you dedicate your free time to?
In addition to learning and doing all those online courses that you tell us about.
Obviously, it is related to computer science.
And it is to put myself to the test.
Maybe one day I see that someone has done something with Arduino and I say, I also want to.
This was a case that happened to me this summer.
I bought the Arduino board, I bought some components and I started to assemble it.
I had never done anything like this in class because we were not lucky enough to have Arduino or anything.
And I started watching YouTube videos, taking books out of the library and until I had done it.
Then I have the robot there that I don't pay attention to, but the challenge was not to play with it, but to be able to do it.
And to finish, and this question is for both of you, I want you to send a message.
Send a message to all those girls and boys who are curious at first and then we will see if they want to dedicate themselves or not to the world of computer science or cybersecurity.
Let's start with Alicia.
Well, if you are curious, the best thing is to learn.
Maybe later you learn and you say, uff, in the end I didn't like this.
But well, then you dedicate yourself to something else.
But if it catches your attention, it is better to dedicate yourself to something that catches your attention, to learn, than something that you feel that learning is an obligation.
Because if learning is for you out of curiosity, you are going to learn a lot of things and you are going to have a lot of concepts left unnoticed.
So what I encourage you to do is to try to look at courses that are available in your area, write down absolutely everything, any talks, as in this case the CyberCamp, and try to see, if not on the Internet, courses, talks and everything.
We have a very wide world on the Internet that you can form, or if you are not lucky enough, you can form it in your city.
In this sense, it seems that there are no barriers to knowledge.
Before making a decision, at this early stage, you have the resources to know a little more about what gives you curiosity and finally decide, or not decide.
Because in the end, if we don't really like technology, nothing happens.
But you will like something else and knowledge is there.
And in your case, Claudia, what message can you give us?
Well, I want to encourage them that although the road is hard, every effort has its reward.
And if you really like this world, bet for it.
I have a phrase out there on my Twitter, which is that if you want to be good at something, first you have to be willing to be bad at it.
And with this, what I want to say is that no one was born knowing anything.
So, as Alicia said, attend all events, all congresses you can.
Never be left with a doubt, there are no silly doubts, no silly questions.
Never be left with a doubt, always ask.
At events like this, people are wonderful, they will answer all your questions without any problem.
And also, I want to tell you here that you should not be afraid of failure.
Because in this society it is widespread...
Bah, you have failed.
No.
We have to normalize failure more.
The important thing is to try.
If you try, if you fail, nothing happens.
You have to try again.
With every failure, you can get something positive out of it.
You always have to get something positive out of what you have failed.
And that's it.
In the end, you always get something out of it.
If it goes well or if it goes badly.
This presentation is called the talent that comes, but for me it is the talent that we already have here.
So, thank you all very much.
If you have any questions...
Let's move on to the next talk.
But if you have a question, do not hesitate to ask it now.
Any questions?
So, thank you all very much.
Girls.