Happy Cybersecurity Awareness Month! While we spend the month empowering all individuals with the tips and skills to #BeCyberSmart, this week’s theme is Explore. Experience. Share. The theme highlights cybersecurity careers and builds awareness around what they do. Today, we want to introduce you to two of Brite’s security co-ops to share their experience and entrance into the world of cybersecurity.
Jaime and Brian were part of the Summer ’21 co-op group in Brite’s Security Operations Center (SOC) working on a team with security analysts actively monitoring and managing clients’ security environments. Since Brian accepted a full-time role as a security analyst and Jaime is continuing her co-op through the fall semester as she continues her studies at RIT.
They can tell you about it better than we can, so let’s hear from Jaime and Brian…
What is your favorite part about being a security analyst at Brite?
Jaime: The resources and projects I have been working on are very interesting and cool.
Brian: I get to be a part of a program that’s growing at a fast pace and be a part of the process for creating new capabilities and security features. I also get to work with the best people at the best company every day!
What is the top takeaway that you learned during your co-op?
Jaime: “Good Enough is Never Enough” and how important it is to collaborate with others to ensure security and privacy.
Brian: I got to learn the ins and outs of our services and develop playbooks for responding to security events that I got to build on in new client relationships when I
moved into a full-time role on the SOC team.
Did anything surprise you?
Jaime: How attackers can disguise any malicious activity as many different things. In addition to how in-depth everything needs to be analyzed to make sure it is not malicious.
Brian: The many ways in which attacks can start and how quickly everything changes in tactics and techniques. Taking these changes and creating new detections and monitoring is a constant thing that being in the thick of it shows you.
The coolest project you worked on?
Jaime: Setting up honey users and deploying a deception sensor.
Brian: Our ongoing automation efforts and improvements allow me to work on cool scripting projects that improve the efficiency of our processes and allow us to spend more time looking at real security events and fewer false positives.
How have your studies translated into your work?
Jaime: My studies have translated into my work greatly. A good amount of information I learned at RIT in lectures or projects has been directly related to the work I have been doing here.
Brian: My classes at RIT prepared me for the real-world SOC work we do every day. I learned a lot about cyberattacks and defense, networking and forensics that come in handy everyday investigations of security events.
What’s your dream cybersecurity job?
Jaime: Working as a Security Director or a related position in a government agency or contractor.
Brian: I’d love to learn more about penetration testing and ethical hacking so that I can look at things from an attacker’s perspective and improve defense capabilities for the good guys.
Thanks to Jaime and Brian for giving us a BTS look into their experience as security co-ops. We wish you the best of luck in your studies and careers. If you want to learn more about security analyst roles, Nick and Sean also shared their insight here.
