Career Notes
Episodes
Encore: Matt Devost: Solving hard problems and pursuing your passions. [CEO]
21 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
CEO, Matt Devost, describes many firsts in his career including hacking into systems on an aircraft carrier at sea. He shares how he enjoys solving ha...
Encore: Kathleen Booth: Get your foot in the door and prove your worth. [Marketing]
14 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Vice President of Marketing, Kathleen Booth, shares her career path from political science and international development to marketing for a cybersecur...
Encore:Johannes Ullrich: Superhero origin stories and lessons that last. [Education]
07 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Dean of Research, Johannes Ullrich, relays his experiences from studying the hard sciences to his career shift to cybersecurity. Basic principles, sup...
Encore: Tom Quinn: The mark of making a difference. [CISO]
31 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Financial firm CISO, Tom Quinn, takes us from his first experience with modern computers in the military to his current role as a Chief Information S...
Oren Koren: Crossing music and cybersecurity.
17 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Oren Koren, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer from Veriti sits down to share his amazing story. Before entering the vendor side of the cyber world,...
Encore: Tracy Maleeff: Ask more people to dance. [Analyst]
10 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Cyber analyst, Tracy Maleeff, shares her unexpected journey from the library to cybersecurity and offers advice for those both seeking to make a chang...
Bernard Brantley: Tomorrow is a new day. [CISO]
03 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Bernard Brantley, CISO from Corelight sits down to share his inspiring career path with others. Bernard started at the very bottom of the tech stack, ...
Chris Hare: Find just three people. [Development]
26 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This week, we invite our very own Chris Hare, N2K's Project Management Specialist Content Developer, to join and discuss her career. Growing up, Chris...
Ian Blumenfeld: Swimming in a pool of cyber. [Research]
19 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Ian Blumenfeld, a Research Director from Two Six Technologies sits down to share his story with us. Ian begins his story by sharing he wanted to be a ...
Grace Cassy: Actions speak louder than words. [Associate Fellow]
12 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Grace Cassy, and Associate Fellow from Ten Eleven Ventures sits down to share her career path, getting her to where she is now. Grace spent 10 years i...
Jeffrey Wheatman: Sometimes you just need to open the raincoat.
05 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Jeffrey Wheatman, Cyber Risk Evangelist, from Black Kite joins to share his amazing story. As a strategic thought leader with extensive expertise in c...
Nicole Sundin: Women helping women. [Chief Product Officer]
29 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Nicole Sundin, a Chief Product Officer from Axio sits down to discuss her career path and what it is like to be a woman in the cybersecurity field. As...
Jennifer Reed: Balance the gender scales. [Principal]
22 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This week, we welcome Jennifer Reed, a Principal Solutions Architect at Amazon Web Services (AWS) to sit down and share her amazing story. After Jenni...
Susan Hinrichs: The cross between computer science and security. [chief scientist]
15 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Susan Hinrichs, Chief Scientist at Aviatrix sits down to share her story, with over 30 years in experience spanning a variety of networking and secu...
Suzie Squier: You're never alone. [President]
08 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Suzie Squier, President of the Retail and Hospitality ISAC, or Information Sharing and Analysis Center, sits down to share her incredible story starti...
Ted Wagner: Get that hands on experience. [CISO]
01 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This week, we are joined by Ted Wagner, Chief Information Security Officer at SAP National Security Services, or SAP NS2. Ted sits down to share his s...
Merritt Baer: No one has to go down for you to go up. [CISO]
24 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This week our guest is Merritt Baer, a Field CISO from Lacework, and a cloud security unicorn, sits down to share her incredible story working through...
Karl Mattson: Remaining operationally focused. (CISO)
17 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Karl Mattson, CISO at Noname Security, joins us to share his story. Having started out as a "military brat," traveling the world as the child of a Mar...
Caroline Wong: A passion for teaching. [CSO]
10 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Caroline Wong, Chief Strategy Officer from Cobalt sits down to share her story of her 15+ years in cybersecurity leadership, including practitioner, p...
Rick Doten: There is a rainbow of different roles in cybersecurity. [VP]
03 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This week's guest is Rick Doten, the VP of Information Security at Centene Corporation, he sits down to share his story and provide wise words of wisd...
Dina Haines: Keep the boat afloat. [Partnership manager]
27 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This week, we welcome Dina Haines, an Industry Partnership Manager with the National Security Agency's Cybersecurity Collaboration Center. Dina found ...
Luke Vander Linden: With age comes knowledge. [VP]
20 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This week, our guest is Luke Vander Linden, Vice President of Membership & Marketing from RH-ISAC and host of the RH-ISAC podcast here at the CyberWir...
Dr. Georgianna Shea: Don't wait to take the initiative. [Technologist]
13 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Georgianna Shea, the Chief Technologist at the Transformative Cyber Innovation Lab at the Foundations for Defensive Democracies (FDD) sits down to...
Manuel Hepfer: Discipline, self motivation, and steam. [Research]
06 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Manuel Hepfer a cybersecurity researcher from ISTARI sits down to share his story with us. Manuel shares as a kid he was very interested in STEM, and ...
Morgan Adamski: Seeing around corners. [Collaboration]
30 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Morgan Adamski from the National Security Agency (NSA) sits down to talk about her path to getting into cybersecurity. Remembering back to when she wa...
Don Welch: Being a good leader. [CIO]
23 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Don Welch, Chief Information Officer from New York University sits down to share his exciting start into his cyber career. Much like many other people...
Jennifer Addie: Finding creative solutions. [COO]
16 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Jennifer Addie, COO and CWO from VentureScope and MACH37 Cyber Accelerator sits down to share her incredible story, bringing creativity into the cyber...
Eric Tillman: A creative way into cyber. [Intelligence]
09 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Eric Tillman, Chief Intelligence Officer at N2K Networks sits down and shares his incredibly creative journey. Eric loved being creative from a young ...
Liji Samuel: Leaping beyond the barrier. [Certification]
02 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Liji Samuel from NSA sits down to share her exciting career path through the years until she found a job working for as Chief of Standards and Certifi...
Slavik Markovich: Time is of the essence. [CEO]
25 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Slavik Markovich, CEO of Descope joins Dave to discuss his career as a serial entrepreneur. Before Descope, he co-founded and was the CEO of Demisto, ...
Lorna Mahlock: Build bridges. [Combat support]
18 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Major General Lorna Mahlock, Deputy Director for Combat Support from the National Security Agency (NSA) sits down with Dave to discuss her long and im...
Nadir Izrael: Play to your strengths. [CTO]
11 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Nadir Izrael, co-founder and CTO from Armis, sits down to share his story. Nadir started his love of cyber when he became a software developer at the ...
Galit Lubetzky Sharon: Doing your chores brings the best out in you. [CTO]
04 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Galit Lubetzky Sharon, Co-Founder and CTO of Wing Security sits down to share her story and how years in the business lead her to be where she is now....
Stacy Dunn: My superpower and my kryptonite. [Engineer]
28 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Stacy Dunn, a Senior Solutions Engineer from the SANS Institute sits down and shares what it is like to work through her own adversity to get to be ...
Dawn Cappelli: Becoming the cyber fairy godmother. [OT]
21 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Dawn Cappelli, OT CERT Director at Dragos, sits down to share what she has learned after her 25+ year career in the industry. She recalls wanting to...
Steve Benton: Mixing like a DJ. [VP]
14 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Steve Benton, Vice President at Anomali Threat Research & GM Belfast, sits down to share his story as a cybersecurity expert with a surplus of strateg...
Shelley Ma: The mystery behind cybersecurity. [Response Lead]
07 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Shelley Ma, Incident Response Lead at Coalition sits down to share her story, starting all the way back when she was a kid and fell in love with playi...
Perry Carpenter: Turning composition into computing. [Strategy]
30 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Perry Carpenter, Chief Evangelist and Strategy Officer at KnowBe4 and host of the 8th Layer Insights podcast, sits down to share his story trying ...
Maria Varmazis: Combining cyber and space. [Space]
23 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Maria Varmazis, N2K's Space Correspondent and host of N2K's newest podcast T-Minus, sits down to share her journey on combining her two passions of sp...
Jack Chapman: Shielding against the bad guys. [Threat Intelligence]
16 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Jack Chapman, VP of Threat Intelligence at Egress sits down to share his story on how he found his way into the cybersecurity field as well as his jou...
Karen Worstell: Keep your feet planted. [Strategy]
09 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Karen Worstell, Senior Cybersecurity Strategist from VMware, sits down to share her journey and discuss her experience as a woman in cyber. Starting h...
Alon Jackson: Sometimes you feel like an octopus. [CEO]
02 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Alon Jackson, chief executive and Co-founder of Astrix Security, sits down to share his story to rising success. Before being on the vendor side of th...
Tanya Janca: Find a community who supports you. [CEO]
26 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Tanya Janca, CEO and Founder of We Hack Purple, sits down to talk about her exciting path into the field of cybersecurity. Trying several different pa...
Kathleen Smith: Translating the cyber world. [CMO]
19 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Kathleen Smith, CMO from ClearedJobs.Net, sits down to share her story as she remembers having big shoes to fill in her childhood. She strived for gr...
Bat El Azerad: Find your niche to bring to the table. [CEO]
12 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Bat El Azerad, CEO and Co-founder of mobile phishing protection company novoShield, shares her personal account of her experience as a female leader ...
Gabriela Smith-Sherman: Thriving in the chaos. [Cyber governance]
05 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Gabriela Smith-Sherman, Director of the Governance Risk and Compliance Department at MindPoint Group, sits down to share her journey. A former federal...
Mike Fey: Highs are high and lows are low. [CEO]
26 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Mike Fey, CEO and co-founder of Island.io, joins to share his story, falling in love with technology and being fascinated by it at a young age. Mike q...
Rachel Tobac: Find a way to laugh. [CEO]
19 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Rachel Tobac, CEO from SocialProof Security sits down to share her amazing story on becoming what's known in the industry as an ethical hacker and CEO...
Jaden Dicks: It is never too early to start. [CyberVista intern]
12 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Jaden Dicks, a new intern at CyberVista, a company that merged with CyberWire to become N2K Networks, shares his story as a young man growing up tryin...
Yasmin Abdi: Find your community. [Security Engineer]
05 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Yasmin Abdi, a Security Engineering Manager at Snapchat and the CEO and Founder of NoHack, sits down to share her story on how she got to be in her...
Charlie Moore: Pilot to head honcho in cyber. [Cyber Command]
29 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Our guest, Charlie Moore, is a recently retired USAF Lieutenant General who sits down to share his story from flying high in the air to becoming a big...
Miriam Wugmeister: Technology's not as complicated as you think. [Data Security]
22 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Miriam Wugmeister, co-chair of Morrison & Foerster’s Privacy and Data Security practice, sits down to share her in-depth experience and understan...
Gene Fay: Lead from the front. [CEO]
15 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Gene Fay, CEO of ThreatX sits down to share his experience rising through the ranks to get to where he is today. He shares how even at a young age he ...
Teresa Rothaar: Outwork the competition. [Analyst]
08 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Teresa Rothaar, a governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) analyst at Keeper Security sits down to share her story, from performer to cyber. She fell in...
Encore: Simone Petrella: Fake it, until you make it. [CEO]
01 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Simone Petrella, CEO of cybersecurity training workforce firm CyberVista, spent her career in the Department of Defense as a threat intelligence analy...
Encore: Michael DeBolt: From acting to cyber. [Intelligence]
25 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Chief intelligence officer at Intel 471, Michael shares his story where he started as an actor and quickly changed over to intelligence and what the t...
Don Pezet: Stepping stones are the start of your career. [CTO]
18 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Don Pezet, CTO of ACI Learning, sits down to share his over 25 years of experience in the industry. Don previously spent time as a field engineer in t...
Jameeka Aaron: Sometimes you just have to follow two paths. [CISO]
11 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Jameeka Aaron, Chief Information Security Officer at Auth0, a product unit of Okta, sits down to share her story following two different paths that...
Rohit Dhamankar: Never close doors prematurely. [Vice President]
04 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Rohit Dhamankar from Fortra’s Alert Logic sits down with Dave Bittner to share his experiences as he navigates the industry. Rohit has over 15 years...
Laura Whitt-Winyard: Securing the world. [CISO]
27 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Laura Whitt-Winyard, CISO from Malwarebytes, sits down to share her story, beginning with a desire to be a pediatric oncologist that she later discove...
Omer Singer: The offense and the defense of cybersecurity. [Strategy]
20 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Omer Singer, Lead Cybersecurity Strategist from Snowflake, sits down to share his experience getting into the cybersecurity field. Growing up, he kne...
Lauren Campanara: Learn to forgive yourself. [SOC Analyst]
13 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Lauren Campanara, a SOC Analyst from ThreatX shares her story as she made the decision to break into cybersecurity after spending twelve years in the ...
Gary Brickhouse: Riding the wave of growth. [CISO]
06 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Gary Brickhouse, CISO from GuidePoint Security, sits down to share his story, looking back over the last 25 years of his career working for Fortune 10...
Jenny Brinkley: A cybersecurity rollercoaster. [Security]
30 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Jenny Brinkley, Director of AWS Security at Amazon Web Services (AWS), sits down to share her empowering story working through the ranks, and even ...
Megan Doherty: Conquer barriers in the workforce. [Technical Specialist]
23 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Megan Doherty, a Technical Specialist from Microsoft Canada sits down to share her story of overcoming barriers in the workforce to get to where she i...
Amanda Adams: Pivoting into the tech world. [VP]
16 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Amanda Adams, VP, Americas Alliances at CrowdStrike, sits down to share her story as she pivoted into the tech field. She started her career wanting t...
Payal Chakravarty: Overcoming bias in the workplace. [Security and Risk]
09 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Payal Chakravarty, Head of Product for Security and Risk from Coalition, sits down to share her story of working at several different organizations, i...
Kayla Williams: Not everything related to cybersecurity is a fire drill. [CISO]
02 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Kayla Williams, CISO of Devo, sits down to share her story, from graduating with a finance degree to rising to where she is now. She quickly learned...
Adam Marrè: Learning to be a leader. [CISO]
25 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Adam Marrè, CISO from Arctic Wolf, sits down to share his story of rising through the ranks. After 9/11 he decided he wanted to make a difference in ...
Jaya Baloo: Don't be afraid to bounce ideas off your teammates. [CISO]
18 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Jaya Baloo, a Chief Information Security Officer from Avast sits down to share her story, sharing how she got into the technology field at a younger a...
Mark Logan: March towards your goals. [CEO]
11 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Mark Logan, CEO of One Identity, sits down to share his story, explaining how he fit into different roles growing up in different companies. Mark has ...
Anjali Hansen: Cross team collaboration works best. [Privacy Counsel]
04 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Anjali Hansen, a Senior Privacy Counselor from Noname Security shares her story as she climbed through the ranks to get to where she is today. When An...
David Nosibor: Taking calculated risks. [Product Lead]
28 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
David Nosibor, Product Lead for SafeCyber at UL Solutions, started his career in a unique way by not letting himself be pigeonholed. Within his compan...
Roya Gordon: Becoming a trailblazer. [Research]
21 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Roya Gordon, a Security Research Evangelist at ICS cybersecurity firm Nozomi Networks, started her career as an intelligence specialist in the U.S. Na...
Christian Lees: It's not always textbook. [CTO]
14 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Christian Lees, CTO at Resecurity, shares his story and insight on coming into the cybersecurity world. He considers himself a late bloomer because he...
Anna Belak: Acquiring skills to make you into a unicorn. [Thought Leadership]
07 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Anna Belak, Director of Thought Leadership at Sysdig, shares her story from physics to cyber. Anna explains how she went into college with the thinkin...
Larry Cashdollar: Always learning new technology. [Intelligence response engineer]
31 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Larry Cashdollar, Principal Security Intelligence Response Engineer at Akamai Technologies, sits down with Dave Bittner to discuss his life leading up...
Mary Writz: Take a negative and make it into a positive. [VP Product Strategy]
24 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Mary Writz, Vice President of Product Strategy at ForgeRock, shares how each career path she has taken has led her to where she is now. Mary describes...
Mike Arrowsmith: Facing adversity in the workplace. [CTrO]
17 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Mike Arrowsmith, Chief Trust Officer at NinjaOne, leads the organization’s IT, security, and support infrastructure to ensure they meet customers’...
Simone Petrella: Fake it, until you make it. [CEO]
10 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Simone Petrella, CEO of cybersecurity training workforce firm CyberVista, spent her career in the Department of Defense as a threat intelligence analy...
Richard Melick: Finding the right pattern to solve the problem. [Threat reporting]
26 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Richard Melick, Director of Threat Reporting for Zimperium, talks about his journey, from working in the military to moving up to the big screens. He ...
Lauren Van Wazer: You have to be your own North Star. [CISSP]
19 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Lauren Van Wazer, Vice President, Global Public Policy and Regulatory Affairs for Akamai Technologies, shares her story as she followed her own North ...
Deepen Desai: A doctor in computer viruses. [CISO]
12 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Deepen Desai, Global Chief Information Security Officer at Zscaler, shares his story as a doctor that treats computer viruses. He describes how he got...
Laura Hoffner: Setting your sights high. [Intelligence]
05 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Laura Hoffner, Executive Vice President at Concentric, shares her story about her time working as a Naval Intelligence Officer and supporting special ...
Michael Scott: A team of humble intellects. [Information security]
29 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Chief Information Security Officer at Immuta, Michael Scott shares his story from working at a forgotten internet service provider to leading the secu...
Charity Wright: Pursue what you love. [Threat intelligence]
22 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Threat intelligence analyst at Recorded Future, Charity Wright, shares her story from the army to her career today. Transitioning from the army to cyb...
Eric Escobar: Collaboration is key. [Pen tester]
15 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Principal consultant and pen tester at Secureworks, Eric Escobar, shares his career path translating his childhood favorite Legos to civil engineering...
Amanda Fennell: There's a cyber warrior in all of us [Information]
08 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Chief security officer and chief information officer at Relativity, Amanda Fennell shares her story from archeology to cybersecurity. She shares the p...
Jon DiMaggio: Two roads diverged. [Strategy]
01 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Chief security strategist from Analyst1, Jon DiMaggio shares his story on how he grew to become a part of the cybersecurity world. He describes differ...
Danielle Jablanski: Finding the path to success [Strategy]
24 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Operational technology cybersecurity strategist from Nozomi Networks, Danielle Jablanski shares her story of building a target map to end up where she...
Satya Gupta: Rising to your contribution. [CTO]
17 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Co-founder and CTO of Virsec, Satya Gupta shares his story of how he has over 25 years of expertise in embedded systems, network security and systems ...
Chenxi Wang: Overcoming the obstacle of fear. [Venture Capital]
10 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Founder and general partner of Rain Capital, Chenxi shares her story and how she conquered and got over the obstacle of fear to reach her goals in lif...
Michael DeBolt: From acting to cyber. [Intelligence]
03 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Chief intelligence officer at Intel 471, Michael shares his story where he started as an actor and quickly changed over to intelligence and what the t...
Arti Lalwani: Supporting and being the change. [Risk Management]
27 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Risk Management and Privacy Knowledge Leader at A-LIGN, Arti Lalwani shares her story from finance to risk management and how she made the transition....
Derek Manky: Putting the rubber to the road. [Threat Intelligence]
20 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Chief Security Strategist and VP of Global Threat Intelligence at FortiGuard Labs, Derek Manky, shares his story from programmer to cybersecurity and ...
Kristin Strand: Be firm in your goals. [Consultant]
13 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Cybersecurity Associate Consultant at BARR Advisory, Kristin Strand, shares her journey from the military to teaching and now to cybersecurity. Krist...
Chetan Conikee: Create narratives of your journey. [CTO]
06 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Founder and CTO of ShiftLeft, Chetan Conikee shares his story from computer science to founding his own company. When choosing a career, Chetan notes...
Sloane Menkes: What is the 2%? [Consultant]
27 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Principal in PricewaterhouseCoopers Cyber Risk and Regulatory Practice, Sloane Menkes, shares her story of how non-linear math helped to shape her lif...
Joe Carrigan: Build your network. [Security engineer]
20 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Senior security engineer with the Johns Hopkins University Information Security Institute and the Institute for Assured Autonomy, Joe Carrigan, shares...
Roselle Safran: So much opportunity. [Entrepreneur]
13 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
CEO and Founder of KeyCaliber, Roselle Safran, takes us on her circuitous career journey from startup to White House and back to startup again. With ...