Interest in e-security piqued after playing Diablo II

All he wanted was to play his computer game, Diablo II, more efficiently.

But when he went online to search for a programming script to help level up his virtual character, 17-year-old Long Jia Jun's life was changed.

That was about 10 years ago.

The experience sparked his interest in the cyber world, and he took part in the 2010 Cyber Conquest - a cyber security competition - and finished second.

The competition, now in its seventh year, kicks off on Monday (Oct 10), as part of Singapore International Cyber Week. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong will launch Singapore's new cyber security strategy at the inaugural three-day event.

It is organised by the Cyber Security Agency (CSA) of Singapore, which was set up in April last year to keep our cyber space safe from attacks.

Mr Long, now 28, told The New Paper last week how he ended up becoming a forensic analyst with the CSA.

Mr Long Jia Jun went from being a gamer to being a e-forensic cop. TNP PHOTO: OH XING YEE 

Diablo II is a fantasy role-playing game where players defeat monsters and collect treasures.

"I was just trying to find a way to get my character (in Diablo II) to level up without me actually sitting at my computer and playing," he said.

"If someone like me could find a script so easily on Google, surely there must be more to it."

With his curiosity piqued, he pursued a diploma at Nanyang Polytechnic's School of Information Technology.

In 2010, his lecturer persuaded him to take part in Cyber Conquest, where participants, in teams of two, have to solve, or hack, about 20 programming scenarios to gain as many points as possible in eight hours.

Mr Long and his partner finished second, and won an iPad each.

He joined the CSA last year, having previously worked as a programmer for about a year.

Today, he looks for digital evidence in the event of a cyber attack, keeping our digital doors sealed against cyber attacks.

In the past year, 16 attacks on Government networks made it past firewall systems, according to the CSA.

The malware was detected and destroyed, thanks to defences put up by cybercops. In such cases, forensic cops like Mr Long would head to the crime scene to collect evidence.

"We would take the infected machine, look through the electronic files for evidence of whatever software that attacked it, and trace it back to the source," he said.

He added that many cases happened because users had clicked on malicious links from phishing e-mails, where attackers pose as reputable organisations to try to obtain a user's personal information.

"What I learnt is that many people fall for it after repeated attempts. If it's just once or twice, people usually won't believe. But these scams come so often," he said.

He said the best way to prevent this is to practise good cyber hygiene. 

Singapore's cybersecurity market is worth $570 million today, according to accounting giant PwC.

With so much at stake, there still remains a fine line between a cyber defender and a hacker, but Mr Long insisted he made the right choice.

He said: "As an attacker, all you need to do is break in once. As a defender, you have to block out all sorts of attacks. The job keeps you on your feet. So why limit myself?"