I have always been interested in Cyber Security Technology. For some back story, my father and brother both have careers in Cyber Security. So maybe I can say it runs in my blood. But my fascination has really peaked since I have been in the IT field. When I earned my associate degree in information systems, I entered the field as a Level 1 help desk technician. As I progressed in the field to an administrator and working for a small no profit organization, I started to dive more into enterprise security. Specifically, security around our end users. I was flabbergasted to see how easily our end users would click on E-mail links from unknown senders and I decided as the only help desk administrator it was my job to educate our staff. Lo and behold, one day in November a few years ago, we were hit with a ransomware attack. The attack took weeks to clean up. The root cause was an employee who clicked an email that harvested his credentials, in a matter of hours, they had full access to our network and server. It was at that moment on I decided to go back to school for Cyber Security.
I also have a fascination with cyber crime. I wanted to join law enforcement as a junior in high school, but my life path took me elsewhere. I like to contribute directly to my community, helping people and making the world a better safer place. Since I’ve always had a knack for computers, I started getting more interested in computer forensics and bringing criminals to justice who use technology to commit horrendous crimes. If I can protect just one person, one family, or critical infrastructure, I’ll consider this to be all worthwhile. Cyber Security is a constant problem that requires vigilance from everyone, and whether I’m educating people on the importance of cyber threats or hardening a network to keep the criminals out, I know I would be proud of my job and the work I do.