Applying Course Knowledge

I’ve had plenty of experiences at work though where I’ve had to work with something that I had prior experience learning at ODU but when I had been taught it, it was for a very specific use case. When I began to learn these things and gathered a better understanding of them I was able to harness and use the small foundational knowledge that I had before to my advantage. Overall though, there were far more experiences where I ran into technology or situations that I was unfamiliar with than those that I was familiar with.

Skill Development

Prior to going into this internship I had a decent amount of knowledge pertaining to different kinds of technology and network fundamentals but by no means was it robust enough to consider myself a proficient technician. I also had a decent grasp on cybersecurity concepts and theory but I’d had very little practical use and how to really apply it to the work that I’d be doing in real life. Throughout my tenure at Ntegra I gained a lot of practical knowledge and experience with so many different kinds of technologies and real-life cybersecurity softwares and concepts.

I had experiences where I had to configure different DNS and DHCP setups with clients and workstations. I also had a lot of experience with vulnerability patching, reading firewall rules, understanding different compliance frameworks and how they all tie into enterprise networks, as well as dealing with things such as legacy authentication in relation to different types of communication (think SMTP, POP, etc.) and replacing it with better forms such as Microsoft’s OAuth. I definitely gained a lot of insight on different sectors of network security and I feel like that has better prepared me to gather interest for career paths within the field.

The most important goal in my eyes was to begin getting some entry level experience with cyber security. I was extremely happy when they began shifting me primarily to this form of work, it initially started with working on understanding the different compliance standards that were necessary for our clients and how to apply them to their networks and internal procedures; some examples of these are SOX, NIST 800-53/171/etc, HIPAA, and CMMC. I then began doing other security related tasks such as Microsoft 365 tenant hardening, which is essentially the process of making conditional access policies and enabling different configurations to help protect our clients. This resulted in far safer digital environments for our clients and less compromises (which saves time in the long run and makes us more efficient. I still do plenty of other security stuff and am encouraged to stay up to date and continue learning. Currently, I’ve also been tasked to assist with building up our security side of the business which involves monitoring our EDR and SOC alerts. It’s been amazing and I see myself learning so much everyday.

Personal Development

A lot of challenges that I faced mainly stemmed from two things; lack of experience and a lack of confidence. Situations where I dealt with unfamiliar situations or technology would become extremely difficult if it was something I had no foundational knowledge in. Googling something that requires the building blocks of knowledge to understand in the first place isn’t helpful to me and was something that I had to understand along the way. 

When it came to a lack of confidence in the challenges that I faced it was usually situations where I had to come to a final consensus on things. Examples of this were scenarios in which I had to decide on the best course of action for meeting a certain compliance standard or making an official decision on whether to call a client over a potential compromise or malware. Lacking experience in these areas added onto my lack of confidence as I felt I wasn’t qualified to make these decisions or would end up hurting the client and the company. As time went on though I felt more comfortable in the decision making process and gained more experience in the range of areas within the field. 

Taking the time to slow down, ask for help, research, and move forward is so beneficial and should not be taken for granted. I understand that people get worried that other people will judge them for lacking knowledge but that is not an environment that is conducive to efficiency and worker growth. In my opinion, I think not asking for help consistently can cause more harm than good as you are not working in the customers best interest.

Looking towards the future of my career, I’ve been offered to stay even after this internship is over and I joyfully agreed. I’ll be working nearly full time this summer and am looking forward to all the experience I’ll be getting. The owner and I have already discussed the option of me staying full time post-graduation and I’d be more than happy to stay so long as other things in my life permit. I think that enjoying where you work is an extremely important part of your career and life and I couldn’t think of a better environment for me to thrive and grow. This has been an amazing experience and I’m glad I’m able to document it via this course. I hope others interested in this field reach out to me for an opportunity as great as I had