CWDHS student becomes youngest person in Canada to earn CyberOps certification
June 2, 2020
GUELPH, Ontario – Shane MacDonald, an Information and Communications Technology SHSM student at Centre Wellington District High School, has become the first high school student and the youngest person in Canada to achieve an important certification in cybersecurity.
Shane has earned the Cisco Certified CyberOps Associate certification, which helps prepare people for a career in cybersecurity operations and is targeted at people working in defensive security as what’s called a Tier 1 Analyst. The certification covers common attacks, monitoring tools and technology as well as incident handling and forensic procedures.
Shane earned the qualification by taking two exams: one for conceptual knowledge and the other for operational knowledge. He spent around four months studying for it through CWDHS teacher Timothy King and the Cisco Networking Academy. Out of the four certifications that Shane has earned so far, he said this was by far the largest in terms of time and content.
Shane said he first became interested in cybersecurity though his experience at CWDHS with the CyberTitan cybersecurity competition.
“Mr. King introduced me to it in 2017 and I joined the team for the 2018-19 season. I did the network security portion of the competition and had a lot of fun. It took cybersecurity from just hackers in hoodies to a whole field of study for me,” he said.
Since then, Shane has gone on to work with ICTC, the department that runs CyberTitan. He delivers introductory days to schools that are considering participating next year. He also teaches a digital hygiene/personal cybersecurity class for Level UP Kids in Guelph.
Shane plans to attend Fanshawe College in the fall to pursue cybersecurity.
Congratulations Shane!