At Splunk University, the precursor event to our Splunk users conference called .conf23, I had the privilege of meeting Tan Jia Le, the winner of the prestigious "12th Singapore Cyber Conquest" contest. Jia Le, a student with a passion for cybersecurity, graciously shared his story about the Cyber Conquest and his experience with Splunk, the powerful security platform that played a pivotal role in the competition.
The Cyber Conquest was a thrilling contest that brought together students from various Institutes of Higher-Learning in Singapore, along with teams from other ASEAN countries. The participants were tasked with using Splunk's Boss of the SOC (BOTS) suite of security tools to answer challenging questions. The faster and more accurately they responded, the more points they earned.
I was curious to learn how Jia Le's team emerged as the winners. He explained that their success was attributed to their strategic approach. They swiftly tackled questions they knew how to answer, and if they faced challenges, they didn't dwell on them for too long but moved on to other tasks. This efficient strategy allowed them to surpass all other teams with a comfortable margin.
It was evident that the contestants needed to be well-versed in using Splunk to excel in the competition. Jia Le and his teammate were aware of this from the beginning, and they prepared accordingly. Prior to the contest, they attended 1-2 short Splunk trainings, and they were granted free access to relevant Splunk courses. They also familiarized themselves with BOTS by exploring previous versions of the competition on TryHackMe and studying online write-ups from past participants.
As the winning team, Jia Le and his teammate were awarded an all-expenses paid trip to Splunk University and .conf23 in Las Vegas. At Splunk University, Jia Le attended the Architect and the SOAR Administrator Bootcamps. He found the Architect Bootcamp enlightening, although some aspects were beyond his current role as an end-user. On the other hand, he deeply enjoyed the SOAR Administrator course, as he had a keen interest in automating tasks and saw firsthand how the solution could benefit a Security Operations Team.
Through the Splunk University courses, Jia Le gained a deeper appreciation for Splunk's suite of tools, and he believes this knowledge will be beneficial in his future roles. He now has a better understanding of the tools and capabilities required in a modern SOC to combat ever-evolving cyber threats, and he believes this knowledge will support future SOC implementations and improvements.
Jia Le began using Splunk in 2018 during an internship. During his journey in cybersecurity, he has observed that the most common use case of Splunk in the industry is as a Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) tool - ingesting logs from various sources and using Splunk to search through them with ease. “My favorite aspect of Splunk is the combination of SQL-like syntax and the ability to chain complex operations using pipes (|),” said Jia Le. “These features allow me to generate intriguing insights from logs, making my cybersecurity tasks more efficient and insightful.”
For Jia Le, however, the best part of the contest was not just winning. “It was a great opportunity to showcase my skills, make connections in the cybersecurity community, and celebrate our shared passion for defending against cyber threats using Splunk software,” he said.
From using Splunk as an intern, to winning the "12th Singapore Cyber Conquest," to attending Splunk University, Jia Le believes he is even better equipped with the skills needed to pave the way to a promising career in cybersecurity defense.
We really appreciate Jia Le’s willingness to share his story! If you have a similar story, please reach out to me, cskokos@splunk.com.
-- Callie Skokos on Behalf of the Splunk Education Crew
