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The rise of cyberthreats, in both scale and technique, has brought an increased attention to and demand for cybersecurity. However, academia and the publication of academic papers, struggle to keep up with the frequent shifts in trends and methods. Coupled with the fact that many people interested in cybersecurity are working professionals who may not have the time to read more lengthy academic papers, we are seeing more people turn to conference papers and blog posts for this information.

Patrik Hudak, a young cybersecurity researcher and developer, has written a master thesis that shines a new light on cybersecurity and introduces new techniques to the academic field.

Patrik has also started a blog on this topic, conveying the information he presented in his master thesis in a less formal and more easily accessible way for the masses. All of this, while doing numerous bug bounty programs and running his own company, Aleph Infosec.

We met up with Patrik while he was attending BlackHat Asia in Singapore and talked with him about his blog, the most interesting bug bounty programs, and what the cybersecurity industry is like in his home country, Slovakia. SecurityTrails: You are from Slovakia.

How is the cybersecurity industry in your country in contrast to America?

Patrik Hudak: It’s very poor here. I’m originally from Slovakia, but I studied in Czech Republic, which is a little different in that sense, but not much. Companies in Slovakia and Chech Republic are not at all worried about cybersecurity. I do know some people working for banks and insurance companies here, but they do not have anything like US companies have in terms of cybersecurity.

For that reason, I was so lucky to work in Honeywell and see things in action, since that wouldn’t be quite as possible if I was working for any Slovakian company. I’m also very skeptical of any European company being on the same level as a US one. For companies here, it’s buried money — investing in cybersecurity doesn’t bring any profit, and that’s the main goal here. The mentality is different — data breaches don’t happen often, and they don’t get the deserved PR and media coverage when they do. That’s definitely one of the reasons why US companies are more aware and proactive in investigating cybersecurity.

Whole interview: https://securitytrails.com/blog/patrik-hudak?fbclid=IwAR2dZmXEuKEkOTOfli6XZJmYG8blOBeKi4aq0bTDKG2Lp1PjA8qEK64zlNs