CyberSoton Internship at the NATO
A year ago, at the end of my Master, I was about to start my three months thesis project at the University of Southampton. In that period I was planning my future, I started applying for several job positions, unaware that a PhD was waiting for me in the Cyber Security group at Southampton.
One of the many applications was for an interesting internship programme at the international organisation NATO.
The NATO internship programme
The NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) is a politically and military alliance of countries from Europe and North America. The NATO’s purpose is:
Guarantee the freedom and security of member countires through political and military means.
Currently NATO is composed by twentynine members (UK and Italy are two of the founder countries) which cooperate in the fields of defence and security, participating to multinational crisis-managment operations.
The NATO internship programme seemed a great and prestigious opportunity for a newly graduate student like me, so in April 2017, I applied for a job position as cyber security intern.
NATO is an active institution, constantly adapting itself to be aware of the current and future threats. It aims to ensure efficient methodologies, structures and policies to guarantee the security of the alliance. As an international organisation, NATO looks with interest to the new generations of students with different backgrounds, from International and Political studies to more technical profiles like Engineers and Scientists. For this purpose in 2004 it was introduced the NATO Internship Programme.
NATO enrols every year a small number of students and graduates under 30, for a six months internship at the NATO Headquarters (HQ) in Brussels. The internship has the main objective of bringing lates knowledge in technical and theoretical topics to the organisation.
During the NATO Internship program, interns are integrated within the NATO context, in a fully multicultural environment, and trained for a better understanding of the NATO’s scope. Interns have the possibility to work inside the fascinating NATO HQ in Brussels and participate to several working activities. Each intern is assigned to a division based on their background and on the needs of the organisation, then she has to carry out tasks assigned by a supervisor pursuing a research objective.
On November 2017, I was in Southampton, doing the usual morning breakfast with my friends, when I received an email from the NATO HR manager which started saying:
“Dear Mr. De Angelis,
I have the pleasure to inform you that you have been accepted for an internship position at Joint Intelligence and Security/NATO Office of Security/ Communication and Information System Security.”
The NATO Internship Programme receives over thousands applications every six months (internship period), from people of different countries. It was for me a big pleasure and matter of pride to be selected for such a prestigious position. I was assigned to the International Staff division NOS — Nato Office of Security. NOS cares about security and administrative support of NATO and of national delegations, coordinating, monitoring and implementing NATO’s security policies and NATO HQ security overall.
After a short interview to check my background, I was assigned to the Communication and Information Systems (CIS) security section. Specifically, they were interested in my expertise in blockchain and IoT technologies gained within our research group in Southampton.
Brussels
I arrived to Brussels at the end of February. Since then I have been impressed by this city. Brussels is really the institutional centre of Europe. Besides NATO, there are many European organisations such as the European Parliament, the European Commission, and The European Central Bank. The city is beautiful and rich of peoples coming from several countries, most of them working in these organisations. However, beside organisations and work, in Brussels you can have a lot of fun, enjoy the attractions and events organised throughout the city and most of all enjoy many types of very good Belgian beers! :-)
My NATO Internship
I started the internship on the 1st of March and when I arrived I was really impressed by the organisation. It is a very serious, military and politics environment. Security is the main concern of the organisation and you immediately start to familiarise with their way of behave and act. They assigned me a nice office and gave me taks related to my research on IoT and blockchain technologies.
The NATO HQ is nice and well organised, however it is an old building given that NATO is based in it since 1967. Fortunately, during my internship I am participating to the historical moove to the New Nato HQ (NNHQ)!
The new HQ is a huge and modern building who will ospitate all the NATO employees, all the national delegation and the agencies. When I entered for the first time in the NNHQ I was really impressed about its futuristic design which nearly embarrass you. I had the impression of enter in a Star Wars military base!
Now, after a few months I can say that I am really happy of this experience at NATO. It is exiting to be in a big institution, observe how things work and meet peoples who participate on it. The feeling is to collaborate in a small way, to the protection of the alliance!
I am working on interesting and practical stuff, related to what I am doing in Soton. It is very facinating observe how my research can be applied in a real and practical scenario and discuss about the use of it in NATO’s context with other experts . Anyway I am just at the beginning of this experience, more and more exiting things are expecting me. I will prepare other blogposts for updating all of you about my experience here at NATO.
Even if the experience here is very interesting and I am having the possibility to learn a lot and know many new people, I miss all of my friends and collegues in Soton. I am continuously in contact with some of you for still carrying on my PhD research and our activities, but it is not the same as being there in our wonderful University Lab! I can’t wait to see all of you again in September!
If someone is interested in NATO and is thinking to apply to the Internship Programme, do not hesitate to apply. The candidatures for the new programme in 2019 are just opened, you can find it at the following link
If you have questions or whant any type of information contact me!
