In looking at the NICE Workforce Framework, two areas in particular pique my interest the most. Those areas are: Protect and Defend, and Securely Provision. In general, I am highly interested in the idea of working to defend individuals and our nation, so any operational area that contributes to that end is where my interest lies.

For Protect and Defend specifically, I have interest in both incident response and vulnerability assessment and management. The ability to both defend and respond to cybersecurity incidents is in my opinion the most critical component of cybersecurity, as it is impossible to prepare for all eventualities, and as a result there must always be procedures in place to mitigate and respond to cybersecurity events. It is equally important to review and prepare for as many known vulnerabilities as is financially reasonable. The aspect of juggling financial viability and security risk when defending against cyber-attacks is paramount for businesses and educational institutions alike. Protect and Defend and Securely Provision are two aspects of the Nice Workforce Framework that work incredibly closely.

In addition to identifying and mitigating threats, Securely Provisioning is the underlying architecture that makes this defense possible. Through developing secure and defensive software, to planning the requirements of systems from a Cybersecurity perspective. Learning how to better protect people from cyber-attacks is something that I am passionate about. Conversely, collecting and analyzing data is something that I am less enthusiastic about. I would generally prefer to have narrow lists of problems put in front of me to more easily identify solutions than to sift through data to prioritize and identify problem areas of focus. Although I do understand and appreciate the importance of doing this, I generally find more enjoyment in actively working to defend systems and people rather than through more passive means.