A Year of Learning, Growth and Real-World Experience
Introduction
As another successful placement year comes to a close, we're proud to celebrate the achievements of our latest cohort of university interns. Over the past 14 months, they have gained hands-on experience across a range of Solis teams, including Digital Forensics and Incident Response (DFIR), Cyber Incident Management (CIM), Cyber Threat Research Labs (CTRL), and Global Security Operations (GSO).
Throughout their placements, they have contributed to real-world investigations, supported clients during cyber incidents, developed research and automation projects, undertaken industry training and certifications, and worked alongside experienced cybersecurity professionals. As they prepare to return to university, they reflect on the skills, experiences and lessons that have shaped their placement year at Solis.
Tim:
As I come to the end of my placement year at Solis, I've been reflecting on just how much I've learned and experienced over the past year. During my first rotation with the Cyber Threat Research Labs (CTRL) team, I had the opportunity to work on threat intelligence and research projects, from researching emerging threats and exposed services to identifying vulnerable customer assets and notifying vulnerable customers. I also developed my technical skills through vulnerability triage, malware analysis, new detection tooling, and earning the SentinelOne SIREN certification. More recently, I've extended my placement to return back to CTRL to work on an exciting project focused on training a large language model (LLM) to automate the extraction of unstructured cyber incident data into a structured format, helping the team identify trends, analyse gaps, and improve detection capabilities.
For my second rotation, I have been part of the Cyber Incident Management (CIM) team, where I gained hands-on experience responding to real-world cyber incidents. During this rotation, I independently triaged and managed Business Email Compromise (BEC) and loss of funds incidents, working directly with insureds to understand the scope and impact of an incident and providing tailored remediation advice to help contain the incident. I also supported ransomware, website compromise, and other cyber incident investigations, while producing threat intelligence assessments covering compromised credentials, vulnerabilities, and exposed services. Presenting these findings directly to customers helped me develop my technical knowledge and my ability to communicate complex cyber risks in a clear way.
I'm very grateful for the opportunities and support that Solis have given me throughout my placement year and every member of both the CTRL and CIM teams played a big part in my development. I've really enjoyed my time at Solis and I've learned far more than I could've imagined when I first started. I'm excited to take my experience and knowledge from this placement into my last year at university.
Rei:
It's been one year since I started at Solis and I've had such an amazing experience.
For the last six months I've been on the Solis GSO team, working alongside analysts as part of the SOC. Day to day I've been handling customer queries, working to troubleshoot technical issues and providing support off the back of analyst escalations. I was also able to work on threat hunting. This involved creating and tailoring queries to find threats before they are able to manifest into full incidents. Off the back of this I was able to escalate issues to customers, giving them technical advice on how to best secure their environments.
I've been able to learn so much from my time with the team. Primarily, I've sharpened my technical abilities, getting a better understanding of the behind the scenes of SOC work, and having the opportunity to get very hands on with alerts, troubleshooting, and threat hunting. I've also massively improved my soft skills, working on communication both in the team and with customers, as well as getting amazing experience in customer management.
The year overall has been such an amazing experience and I'm glad to take back all the skills, knowledge, and connections back with me into my final year at university. A huge shoutout to both the GSO and the DFIR teams for being so amazing to work with and teaching me so much, as well as the wider team for making this year an amazing experience.
As my placement draws to a close I'm back with the DFIR team working on forensic investigations, ending on such a high note after this phenomenal experience. This year has really solidified my love of cybersecurity and I know I would like to pursue it as a career after my final year at university.
Sam:
14 whole months at Solis. From almost no knowledge or direction in the cyber space to a career I'm ecstatic to have a headstart in chasing. I spent my first rotation in Global Security Operations, investigating cases and working through alerts to figure out if there had been a compromise, then escalating straight to the client when their attention was needed. From ClickFix to generic malware, what's stuck with me was that these were real incidents hitting real organisations and causing real damage. You pay attention differently when someone is relying on you to get it right.
I also got SentinelOne SIREN certified, which was awesome. CTRL was the opposite side of the coin, less reacting to threats and more trying to stay ahead of them. Alongside vulnerability research I picked up the project that defined my year: automatically matching a vulnerable IP address to the company that owns it, with a confidence score attached. It was a manual process that ate a lot of triage time. The edge cases were the hard bit, since cloud hosting, ISPs and MSPs all blur the line between who owns an address and who is actually responsible for it. Mostly I learned to be patient, making small changes and testing them one at a time until the team could rely on the results. It's going into production now, so every triage case will carry a confidence value, and automations are on their way. That's the outcome I'm most proud of this year.
Thank you to everyone at Solis for making this year such an enjoyable leap into the real working world. Huge gratitude particularly to Isabel Finn, who has been a great mentor even when she had no obligation to be, and whose passion for cyber security I find genuinely inspiring. Off to my final year at university, hoping to come back. What a blast it's been.
Reila:
It has now been past a year since I joined Solis and for the second part of my rotation I have been part of the Digital Forensics and Incident Response (DFIR) team at Solis, and, it's been one of the most valuable experiences of my placement year.
Moving into DFIR gave me the opportunity to get closer to the technical side of cyber incident response. I worked on a wide range of investigations involving ransomware, business email compromises, phishing attacks and data breaches, helping to analyse logs, review evidence and piece together what had happened during an incident. Every case was different, which meant there was always something new to learn.
One of the biggest lessons I took away from DFIR was that successful investigations aren't just about technical knowledge. They require curiosity, attention to detail, problem-solving and the ability to work effectively with others under pressure. Seeing how experienced responders approached complex incidents helped me develop both my technical skills and my confidence.
More broadly, my year at Solis has been an incredible opportunity. From starting in Cyber Incident Management (CIM) to finishing in DFIR, and going back to CIM for my last 3 months in Solis, I've gained exposure to real-world cyber incidents, worked alongside talented professionals and developed skills that simply can't be learned in a classroom.
As my placement comes to an end, I'm grateful for the support, mentorship and opportunities I've received throughout the year. The experience has strengthened my passion for cybersecurity and given me a solid foundation as I prepare for the next stage of my career.
Summary
At Solis, we're passionate about helping the next generation of cybersecurity professionals develop practical skills alongside experienced industry experts. Tim, Rei, Sam and Reila have each made valuable contributions across multiple teams during their placements, supporting real-world investigations, research projects, security operations and incident response activities.
We would like to thank them for their hard work, enthusiasm and commitment throughout the year and wish them every success as they return to university for their final year of study. We look forward to seeing where their cybersecurity careers take them next.
