I am interested in studying cybersecurity technology for a multitude of reasons. My life has been a journey leading to studying this topic now. From a young age my interest in technology was sparked by video games and a remote controlled robot that I had.

Then throughout elementary and high school I always enjoyed computer classes. While in community college, I was actually preparing to study biology, but it was the computer and technology oriented classes I enjoyed more. Then when it was time to transfer for Old Dominion University, I transferred in as a computer science major with a minor in cybersecurity. As time progressed, I felt worn down by the heavy programming work of the computer science degree path, while finding more enjoyment in my cybersecurity minor coursework. Eventually, I made the choice to flip my major and minor around, which leads to me here. Looking back there have been a few assignments throughout my college experience that have stood out that I feel help explains what has led me to here.

First, there was a discussion board about the Stuxnet worm. To get started I had to read some articles on the Stuxnet worm and its history. It is believed to have been a case of cyberwarfare created by the United States and Israel to target the centrifuges utilized by the Iranian nuclear program. From there it spread to computers outside of its target network. Then the discussion board was about the ethics of cyberwarfare in general. It was a very engaging discussion amongst my classmates.

Then I was assigned a research paper on a cybersecurity incident that had occurred in the past several years. I ran a quick google on recent incidents and settled on the Equifax breach as my topic. As I did deeper research on the topic what stood out to me was how this massive disaster, was largely avoidable. A few simple oversights left millions vulnerable. A digital certificate had expired for nearly a year because someone just forgot to check on it, and it resulted in the theft of vital personal information from millions of people. Then in the end it was revealed to by state sponsored espionage from China.

Thirdly, there was hands on lab going through the ethical hacking process, where I got to set up and run attacks against a network in a controlled virtual machine environment.

While all three of those tasks were cybersecurity assignments, they were very different and engaging in there own ways. I got to examine the topic of cybersecurity through many different lenses. I got to see the human impact, the geopolitical aspect, the ethical controversies, the legal side, and the step by step process of how cyberattacks work, all while studying the topic of cybersecurity. So, why am I interested in cybersecurity technology? Exploring the many facets of cybersecurity is what I have enjoyed most, so I am excited to take a course dedicated to embracing the many dimensions of the subject.