My Experience at Africa CyberFest 2024
For my first Cybersecurity outing this year, I decided on Africa CyberFest because I found the theme “Youth-Focused Approach To Tackling Cybercrime” rather interesting. I got a ticket quickly and started to count down the days as I was super excited for all the insights to come and the networking opportunities.
Day 1 started with me forgetting my glasses in my Uber, sadly couldn’t get it back. I got into the event hall and met very few familiar faces during the registration to get in. I had only met one person at this event before and I looked forward to meeting a few mutuals from X (FKA Twitter) so everyone else was a stranger. Being my shy self I found a spot close to the back to seat at first and eventually decided on moving closer to the front cause my plan was to get the best view in order to be able to participate and enjoy the program after all.
Before I go into the details of the program, I’d like to share a huge highlight of mine from Day 1. After changing my seats, I started chatting with the people by me and got to find out the lady beside me is currently enrolled in the Cybersecurity program(CyberLearners) I was in last year; this especially got me excited. As we were talking a few other ladies who were sat in front of me overhead our conversation and joined in as they were also in said program. One of them had been reading my articles and seemed quite excited to meet me. Honestly, she said such lovely things and it tugged at my heartstrings. That day I was even more encouraged to keep writing and documenting my journey as I finally met someone in person who not only loved my writing but also was encouraged and got insight from them too.
There were several lightening sessions and panel sessions and trust me when I say every speaker brought their A game! I’ll briefly highlight some of my favorites starting with Titilope Akerele a HR professional who with practical examples engaged the audience and gave insights on CV writing and how to comport oneself at interviews to ace them.
I also totally enjoyed the 1v1 session on career growth in cybersecurity with Nkiruka Aimienoho and Gbolabo Awelewa. They shared their personal experiences and I found them so relatable and enlightening. I look forward to the day when I’m able to share my experiences with others and hope to inspire just as I’ve been inspired.
My favorite session from day 1 was with Charles Chibueze who spoke on “Why Good Hackers Make Good Citizens”. While Ethical hacking is not my chosen path, I loved how he emphasized on the importance of ethics as a hacker; especially as I also preach on the importance of ethics in cybersecurity. And if you attended you’d agree with me that his session was really needed.
We also had Bukola Fagboun speak to the purple teamers. Citing examples from her job she spoke on the importance of several skills like attention to detail, great communication, teamwork and others in making your job easier. I look forward to learning much more from her as we’re in the same specialty.
A huge highlight of Day 2 for me was participating and winning the Escape Room Challenge. It was so much fun and required a lot of critical thinking and even team work at some point. I enjoyed it so much I had to encourage others to participate just for the experience. There was a cash prize of 50,000 naira and/or (not sure) 2 premium access tickets for the next edition but instead I got a laptop stand and was promised to be called about the cash prize, I never received that call. This is a month later and I still don’t know what to make of this.
I found the panel session with Nanbaan Pwaspo very enlightening as it covered the profiling that we face being cybersecurity professionals of African decent both home and abroad. The speakers Olúmáyòwá Akinkuehinmi, Patrick Essien and ljeoma Onwuka shared stories were they basically lost money, time and were humiliated due to the bad stereotypes attached to Nigerians being fraudsters. I hope some day soon we’re able to change the bad narrative about us for good and get the recognition we deserve for the work we’re doing in the technology and Cybersecurity space worldwide.
The event felt like a family gathering as I finally met a lot of internet friends and also my cyber sisters from Cybersafe Foundations CyberGirls & CyberLearners program. I made new awesome friends too. I took so many pictures I’d love to share here but I’ll need some time to make a shareable folder for my medium audience to be able to view the event through my lens; so come back to this article in 2wks for an updated version. In the meantime you can find some pictures on my twitter and LinkedIn pages. I even bought some merch and got some free merch too and if you know me, you’d know I love to own merch/swags. I got a certificate of participation too!
The Africa CyberFest was a 2 day event that I won’t forget in a hurry, the event lineup was absolutely amazing. From mural painting to live hacking, to Capture The Flag(CTF), The Escape Room challenge plus all the many brilliant and very much needed conversations and so many others I can’t begin to list. A huge kudos to the team and all their partners for making this a worthwhile event. I look forward to the next one!
Until next time, find me where the good guys are!