Justice Gideon

CYSE 368

Old Dominion University

My internship with Valdez International Corporation would be possible without the help of my supervisor.  In my first week I was introduced to my Supervisor, Josias Sop. He oversaw the Vulnerability management office with several teams under his care, the team under his care and supervisorship were the Patching, Host Based Security System (HBSS), Assured Compliance Assessment Solutions (ACAS) and Network Monitoring teams respectively. Mr. Sop was my point of contact for the duration of my internship. Mr. Sop had been with Valdez for over four (4) years now and has held the lead role for about the same time. He is an experienced Information Technology and Cybersecurity subject matter expert who is well vex in the systems security and vulnerability management. I was so grateful to have started my internship with Valdez on this contract as they were in the process of a big yearly audits and the vulnerability management office was very key to the success of the audit. I was given an assignment to do a review of scans and create reports for the Information assurance (IA) team to ensure that all identified vulnerabilities are resolved meeting the threshold to pass the audit. It was a such a tedious work because it requires a lot of attention to details and critical thinking. As this was my very first attempt at doing this, I relied on the rest of the team to ensure I was doing the right thing while also self-identifying some of the solutions and trying as much as possible to be independent so as not to slow my colleagues down. The audit is usually two weeks long, but my department was able to help the reduce the time by being on time with their portion of the audit. After the audit, I was able to interview one of my colleagues who is the work center lead for the ACAS team I was interning with. My interviewee’s name is Jordan Shepherd, who is also a United States Navy Reservist with over 7 years of IT background with the United States Navy. I asked him these two interviewing questions, and below is his response to my question:

  • What is the most important knowledge, skills, and abilities needed by someone in this field?

The field being cyber security, I believe the most important skill and knowledge to possess is understanding the environment in which you work and how all the pieces of a network interact, knowing the purpose and function of all the small moving pieces in a network is vital to keeping it secure.

  • What would good entry-level jobs for gaining experience to become Lead Vulnerability Management Analyst.

Help desk positions are a great entry-level job when getting into the field of IT, as you get the experience of interacting with and assisting a customer in a timely manner, it helps improve vital skills such as expedient trouble shooting, phone and email etiquette, and working with a ticketing system. Which are skills you will use throughout your entire career.