Cyber Security Executive, Rajinder Tumber (MSc Information Security 2007), was awarded an MBE for his services to the industry in the 2021 New Year’s Honours. He talks to us about his less than straightforward career journey.
After graduating from Royal Holloway in 2007, the nation was in the midst of the financial crisis which meant that Rajinder did not land a job in the cyber security industry from day one. However, after a confidence-shaking year in retail, he joined the graduate programme at a large security consultancy where he flourished until his life took an unexpected and almost fatal turn.
One morning, at the age of 27, Rajinder was rushed to hospital with meningitis and almost died. Thinking that it could be the end of his life, he struggled through exhaustion and began writing his will. “At the time, I felt severe disappointment in myself,” he recalls. “Even with years of study and hard work, I surprisingly felt as if I had achieved nothing in life. That is the moment when I realised love and helping others are the most important things in my life.
“After around a month of recovering, I went back to work. But I wasn’t the same. I became very philosophical and felt the urge to make an impact in this world. The comparison of my life, before and after this near-death experience, is enormous.”
A couple of years later, Rajinder joined a boutique consultancy where he was given the opportunity to write articles which were all successfully published. Without realising it at the time, he had entered the realm of ‘thought-leadership’.
“The thing I enjoy most about working in cyber security is that it is a relatively new and evolving subject,” he says. “Considering we now live in a mobile, connected world, the threat landscape is increasing so cyber security is essential to our digital way of life. My line of work enables me to liaise with senior company executives and help steer their security capability into a better direction. However, I particularly enjoy the thought-leadership and networking side of things, which has opened doors and has allowed me to reach a much wider audience, creating a greater impact upon society.”
During his time at his next security consultancy employer, his article-writing was acknowledged with invitations to prestigious roundtables with executives from major organisations. “After writing further articles, I was then being invited to attend some more amazing events, with some very high-profile attendees, including a prime minister. Although I was outside my comfort zone, I didn’t waste the opportunities. I contributed to discussions and networked.”
He soon realised that he wasn’t being invited to these significant events due to his position, it was because of the initiatives he was pursing in his spare time so he expanded these. In time, doors opened to join prestigious groups and societies, some completely unrelated to cyber security, but related to his newly discovered philosophical and esoteric nature.
Rajinder’s first award came in 2015, as a finalist in the ‘Personality of the Year’ category for the cyber security industry which spurred him on to push himself further and make more efficient use of his spare time. In 2017, he was awarded ‘Security Consultant of the Year’ and the following year he was invited to became a contributor for Forbes, writing articles based on cyber security, before receiving the British Community Honours Award (pictured above) for his contribution to the industry.
In 2019, he created the Women's History Month series ‘THE VOICE’, in order to attract more women into the world of cyber security and artificial intelligence for which he interviewed some of the world's most prestigious organisations and esteemed individuals.
During 2020’s Coronavirus pandemic, Rajinder produced cyber security guidance for the Conservative Party and in December he was awarded an MBE for services to the cyber security industry in the 2021 New Year’s Honours List. “It’s an absolute honour to be awarded an MBE from Her Majesty the Queen,” he says. “I am proud to represent the industry.”
It is not only within the cyber security industry Rajinder is making waves. In 2017, he was recognised internationally for breaking a 100 year old world record, by writing the world’s longest love poem: Divine Verse, and he plans to release more of his creative work this year.
For someone who has already achieved a great deal, he still has many aspirations “I aspire to become an MP and represent the cyber security industry,” he says. “I wish to drive the country forward as being at the frontier of cyber-related matters, making it a safer nation. I also desire to continue contributing my unrelated creative work. Creativity is our soul’s gift to the world. Creativity is formed from imagination and knowledge and I aspire to embrace and develop these elements as much as possible, in order to help others.”
