I first became interested in cybersecurity when I read Clifford Stoll’s, “The Cuckoo’s Egg” around 1992. The kinds of puzzles he solved and the innovative technical solutions he employed to establish attribution of the attacks he saw intrigued me. It’s still my favorite cybersecurity related book. Then, in the early 2010’s, I discovered a total lack of cyber risk assessment in a company I worked for. I stumbled upon a security vulnerability while performing my duties as a non-IT department user. I reported it to the IT department after confirming the vulnerability with my supervisor. The IT department told us that it was not a security vulnerability and that I had “circumvented security measures”. We were also told that an insider threat was “not an issue.” The message was clear, stop talking about it. Although there was no disciplinary action, I believe they were telling me that my “circumvention” could have been grounds for termination. I wasn’t necessarily looking for a pat on the back, but at least an acknowledgement of the issue and a fix deployed. As it stood, all company data, including PII from human resources and PHI of patients was exposed to read and write access by anyone logged onto the network, even to an account shared by all medical and non-medical staff. Those chainable vulnerabilities remained for 2 years. It was then that I decided I wanted to work in cybersecurity, raise awareness, help people understand the risks and how they can be mitigated.
Dr. Gwen Britton, SNHU’s Executive Director of STEM programs has been an invaluable mentor. I had no mentor when I started my journey. However, since that time she has been an invaluable asset in my cybersecurity education and professional development. It is because of her that I and my school were able to begin participating in NCL competitions. She has given me an opportunity to expand my leadership experience by assisting with getting SNHU’s cybersecurity club, the CyberSNHUpers, up and running. I would not be where I am today without her support.
I chose an undergraduate degree from Southern New Hampshire University. Three years ago when I began looking for Information Security related degree programs, I was unable to find any in my state, Kansas. Since I am a non-traditional student, I began looking for out-of-state programs that offered completely online degree programs. After comparing several options and talking with admission advisors at a couple of different Universities, I settled on SNHU. They satisfied all of my requirements for a degree program and found their customer service to be second-to-none. Since that time I have found the courses to be challenging and the instructors knowledgeable and approachable. Perhaps I will continue on for graduate level education but I am undecided at this time.
I would like to secure a position in some type of research or analysis position. Digital forensics, incident response, Cyberthreat intelligence, or malware analysis are strong possibilities. I really enjoy sharing my knowledge with others. Perhaps someday I can teach new cybersecurity students.
In my dream job, I would love to telecommute in private industry for a position in digital forensics, incident response, cyberthreat intelligence, or malware analysis and reverse engineering. I don’t have any specific company in mind as I believe this could create an unconscious bias when evaluating employment opportunities. For me, it’s more about enjoying the work than who I work for. Ideally my position would be a telecommute. I have family in my home state, Kansas, and would like to be able to stay close to them. I believe since my degree program is exclusively online, I have essentially been training to work in a telecommute position for the past three years. With VPN technologies, this should be a very real prospect.
