Welcome to our ongoing series where we introduce you to the talented members of our Penetration Testing and tech team at Equilibrium.
This time, we’re excited to shine a light on Eve Ashton, a rising star in our Penetration Testing team. Eve’s journey into Cyber Security began in her teens, fuelled by a passion for solving problems and understanding the intricate world of online threats.
With a strong academic foundation in Computer Science and hands-on experience in areas like brand monitoring, phishing campaigns, and cyber awareness training, Eve has quickly become an integral part of our team. Her dedication to continuous learning and her innovative approach to tackling challenges make her a trusted ally for our clients.
What’s Your Journey Into Cyber Security Been Like? Can You Tell Us A Bit About Your Background And What Led You Here?
I first discovered my passion for Cyber Security when I was about 15 years old. I had the opportunity in school to attend a course called Cyber First, an initiative by NCSC to encourage girls into the field. I absolutely loved it. Being able to hear from industry professionals and dive deep into practical techniques at such a young age motivated me to pursue Cyber Security as a career.
I remember learning about the dark web, working on capture the flag challenges, learning how attackers use open-source intelligence to launch attacks, and even got to do labs where I bypassed login of a computer, and understood how malware works. I find it incredibly special that so many of the techniques I learnt on these courses still stick with me nearly 10 years later.
To further this, I decided I wanted to take Computer Science at University, and I completed my Master’s degree in 2024. I found this was a great fit for ensuring I had abroad view of the whole industry and has served me well as I start my career.
What Certifications Or Training Have You Completed That Really Help You In Your Role?
As I have just begun my career, I am still working to be certified in pen testing. I am working towards my CPSA and CRT at the moment.
My degree in Computer Science has helped me prepare for my role in many ways. It gave me a strong background in mathematics and algorithms, helping me problem solve on a day to day basis. My experience in coding and software development is always valuable, and enables me to work on continuous improvement, especially in our Brand Monitoring service which I am involved with both the day to day running of, and the continuous development we strive towards. Other elements of my degree such as cryptography, machine learning and IoT have helped give me a broad foundational knowledge.
Even my dissertation, where I produced an educational app to teach degree level mathematics to secondary students has given me a strong foundation in applying learning theories which I apply every day when I am working on Cyber Awareness Programmes.
What Does A Day In Your Life As A Cyber Security Professional Look Like?
In my current role, every day is different. However, every day I run a lot of our continuous Brand Monitoring services for clients. This means checking on our wide variety of tools, analysing the results we receive and spotting any brand threats for our clients.
Often, I might also be running one of our phishing campaigns which we provide as part of our Cyber Awareness Campaign. I could be crafting a convincing scenario, monitoring a running campaign, or extracting insights from our results and working with clients to mitigate any particular social engineering risks.
I also am often creating Cyber Awareness training content for our clients, working on ensuring our content is accessible, engaging and informative.
Many of my days at Equilibrium I have the opportunity to work on developing our services, brainstorming and problem solving, or continuing my goal to become a penetration tester by completing training or shadowing my other team members.
What Programming Languages And Tools Do You Find Yourself Using The Most In Your Work?
I work with Python a lot – It is the Swiss army knife of programming languages, and is great for most day to day tasks I have at work, such as analysing and extracting insights from data, running requests and fetching data.
I also work a lot with html, CSS, and Javascript, as I craft phishing scenarios for training clients. It is important that our scenarios are realistic. If the cyber-criminals know how to produce a highly convincing phishing scenario, then so should we!
Can You Share A Memorable Experience Or An Interesting Bug You’ve Found During Your Testing?
It’s always interesting seeing open-source intelligence findings. A big part of our service is being able to monitor what information is being shared on the dark web, and I am always interested to see how these cyber-criminals operate. When I started to get into Cyber Security all those years ago, the dark web felt like a mysterious and confusing place – but now I get to work on helping people gain back control and understand what data is out there, which is pretty cool.
I was also very excited that during my first opportunity to work on a penetration test at Equilibrium I managed to find a persistent cross site scripting vulnerability, which was pretty special for me!
What Do You Enjoy Most About Working With Your Current Team?
I love that everyone at Equilibrium is curious, driven and passionate about Cyber Security. Any call I have with my team members I learn something new. Everyone is genuinely passionate about Cyber Security, and in a career where you have to be constantly learning, it is so valuable to be surrounded by people I can learn from every day. Everyone is constantly working on upskilling and building our collective knowledge and skills, which is really exciting.
In Your Opinion, What Are The Biggest Challenges Facing The Cyber Security Industry Today?
The rise of artificial intelligence is of course on everyone’s lips, and for good reason. The way AI can enable attackers to deliver attacks easily and more convincingly, is something everyone should be aware of. AI can make our jobs easier, but also the criminals, so it really is a double edged sword.
What Advice Would You Give To Someone Interested In Starting A Career In Cyber Security?
I could go on about which websites to look at, what YouTube videos to watch, which training courses to do and what to study at school. But at the end of the day, if you’re interested in Cyber Security, and have a keen eye for problem solving and love learning new things, you will get there. The biggest barrier for me, and I think for a lot of other people, was always my confidence that I could make it in this area.
When I was younger, I saw fellow students who seemed to know anything and everything about Cyber Security. They were absolute whizzes at coding and could do things with Kali Linux that seemed like magic. I would sit in computer science lessons, listening to kids bragging about their coding projects and hackathons and capture the flag wins and feel like I was miles behind, even though I was barely 15.
The best thing I ever did was see this as a challenge. I wanted to know anything and everything about cyber, and I could see that there was a lot to learn, and at times it felt very overwhelming. But taking it one step at a time, knowing that I’ll get there in the end, and persevering through that feeling of thinking I’m less than these other people. Have confidence in yourself and your ability, and just keep going.
It’s difficult, but I encourage everyone who is younger, to not be intimidated by other people who seem to know more than you or put off by the amount of knowledge and skills others know. You can learn so much online and through courses and you’re not behind, far from it! Learn from your peers, see what information you can gain from them, get any tips or points in the right direction. But whatever you do – don’t feel like you’re less because you know less – see it as a challenge.
Outside of work, what are your hobbies or interests?
I am a keen puzzler, and I’ve lost count of how many jigsaws puzzles I own. I also love crafts such as embroidery. I also love walking my dog and being out in nature. My down time is usually spent playing Switch games.
How do you balance the demands of your job with your personal life?
I am very lucky to be in a position where I find my job rewarding and I have always been passionate about this industry, which always gives me energy.
I am also so grateful that working at Equilibrium is incredibly accessible. I am neurodivergent, and I am supported here and have accommodations that allow me to work to the best of my ability and balance my work and personal life. I know that a traditional workplace environment would be very challenging for me. However, I am very lucky to be at a company that accommodates me and enables me to do what I love.
Partner with Passionate Professionals in Cyber Security
Eve is just one of the many passionate professionals on our Penetration Testing team, working to uncover vulnerabilities and empower organisations to stay ahead of cyber threats. Whether you need expert guidance or tailored security solutions, our team is here to help you strengthen your defences.
Want to learn more about how we can support your organisation’s Cyber Security journey? Reach out to us at 0121 663 0055 or email enquiries@equilibrium-security.co.uk. Don’t just take our word for it—check out our 5-star Google Reviews to see why so many businesses trust us to keep them secure.
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