Ayman Elsawah

Getting Into Infosec

Business EN ↓ 62 episodes

Interviews with people who have transitioned and got jobs in #infosec and #cybersecurity so you can learn and be inspired from their experience. There is no linear path into the field of Information Security, so the hope is that you will resonate with at least one of the guests. Some of my guests were teachers, paralegals, librarians, military vets, developers, and IT help desk techs (to name a few) before transitioning. Also featuring "spoof" ads poking fun at the industry.

Be sure to visit the podcast's website and support the creator: www.gettingintoinfosec.com

Author

Ayman Elsawah

Category

Business

Podcast website

www.gettingintoinfosec.com

Latest episode

Aug 3, 2023

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Episodes

DEFCON 2023 03.08.2023

Hey folks, I'll be at DEF CON in Vegas this year! Would love to see you all there! Jack's Parties: https://twitter.com/JackRhysider/status/1686785376327987200 Checkout Miscreants at the Vendor Area: https://www.miscreants.com/ yFDrTl54ZSu3KAmLWbmi Mentioned in this episode: Stay In Touch

Rana Khalil - From Cryptography to Pentester! 11.03.2022

Journey into Cybersecurity and OSCP Certification with Rana Khalil This episode features Rana Khalil, a Senior Cybersecurity Assessment Analyst with a rich background in pen-testing, especially in the financial sector. Rana shares her non-traditional entry into technology, starting with a dislike for her first laptop and phone, transitioning from biochemistry to a math degree, and eventually findi...

Norman Weekes— From Contractor To Security Ops Analyst 25.02.2022

Norman Weekes is on the Security Operations Team at Salesforce. He is in charge of scanning their infrastructure and ensuring that everything is set up and operating properly. Norman already spent almost a year in the information security world. This is also his first official full-time security job. After going through different job contracts, he believes that if everything's shut down early...

Niru Ragupathy - From Almost Biotech to QA to Google Security Lead 05.08.2021

Niru Ragupathy is a Security Engineer at Google and works as the Offensive Security Lead and manages part of the Offensive Security Team. She is currently the Tech Lead Manager. Niru sees managing as a challenging, interesting ride yet undervalued skill. She also considers it rewarding although it demands the investment of both time and effort.  She believes that it is important to start lead...

John Gates - From Car Mechanic to Lead IT Security Analyst 16.06.2021

John Gates is a Lead IT Security Operations Analyst for a global food brand. John has always liked to know how do things work - and that has proven to be a beneficial trait - from his first job as a car mechanic to IT consultancy and education to his current role. He’s also an advisor and former board member at OpsecEdu, an organization educating technologists in state, local, and education...

Samantha Cowan - From National Parks Service To Head Of Compliance 01.06.2021

Samantha Cowan is the Head of Compliance at HackerOne. She's the former Director of Compliance at OneLogin and former Security Engineer at CoverHound, Cyber Policy, and Zenefits. Sam initially perceived Infosec as an "unhappy job", but later found herself taking her MBA and paving her way into the security industry. Despite having her master's degree, she was not an exemption to facing rejections...

Betsy Bevilacqua - From Almost Lawyer to CISO and Security Leader 01.03.2021

Betsy Bevilacqua is the current VP of Information Security at Chainalysis. Initially, she had her mind set on law school until she did a self-audit and realized that she enjoyed computers and tech much more. Her journey into infosec led her to move from Kenya to the US to obtain a degree in Security and explore various companies involved in academia, food and facilities, healthcare, telephone comm...

Dr. Eric Cole - Accidental CIA Hacker To Fortune 500 Security Advisory To Entrepreneur 11.01.2021

Dr. Eric Cole is an accomplished cybersecurity hacker and executive advisor. His career has been a mix of sixth-sense chance encounters and wisdom/foresight of the future. His uncanny ability to see the opportunity in cybersecurity combined with the wisdom to listen to those smarter than him is why he is where he is today. His interview is chock full of poignant advice and tips. Dr. Eric Cole also...

Lisa Jiggetts - From Navy Cook To Pentester To Non-Profit Founder! 24.11.2020

Lisa Jiggetts knew from an early age that she was going to be in tech and cyber. A navy veteran who started off as a cook, she always found herself gravitating towards technology. She is also the Founder & Board of Director of the Women’s Society of Cyberjutsu, a non-profit that is dedicated to increasing the opportunities and advancement for women in cybersecurity. Check out her journey...

Eric Strom - From Lawyer to FBI Cyber Division Unit Chief 24.10.2020

Eric Strom is the Unit Chief of the Mission Critical Engagement Unit, Cyber Division. In this role, Mr. Strom oversees the FBI Cyber Division’s private sector outreach efforts to the 16 critical infrastructure sectors, forging partnerships with companies in those sectors to develop and share threat intelligence related to activities by sophisticated criminal organizations as well as nation-s...

ICS Gabe - Electrical Engineer to Accidental Cybersecurity ICS Expert 11.10.2020

Gabriel Agboruche (@ICS_Gabe) is a senior ICS and OT cybersecurity consultant, helping organizations solve their most challenging industrial control security problems. And that was a mouthful, but that's what he does. His journey's unique one, and almost didn't happen. Notes Gabe was a math whiz in the Detroit Public school system During college, he had some unique experiences as an African Americ...

BONUS - Lisa Jiggetts - Salary Negotiations 16.08.2020

Lisa Jiggetts is the founder of the Women's Society Of Cyberjutsu. After recording, we continued talking and the topic of salary negotiations came up. It was so good I started recording again. This topic is super important. I have seen both experienced and inexperienced people make these mistakes. Links Salary Negotiation Tips: https://www.thebalancecareers.com/what-can-employers-say-about-former-...

Switching Into Infosec Success Story And Lessons Learned 16.07.2020

Today's episode features a story that was sent to me by a listener.  He reached out to me on LinkedIn, telling me of his success story posted on Reddit. This is the audio version.  I think you're going to be really interested in what he had to say.  He talks about his struggles and what he went through in his journey to Information Security. Original Reddit post:   https://www....

Black Lives Matter 02.06.2020

Transcript Hey everyone…  So, as if this time was not hard enough as it was with Covid, the American Black community has been affected yet again. It's difficult to post motivating content while so many are feeling a sense of outrage and so much going on. So I'm going to pause, slow down, or at least take into consideration the posting of new content during this period. Of course, peopl...

BONUS - Announcing Getting Into Infosec BITES 14.05.2020

Hello! Wanted to let you know I'm creating daily (almost) videos on YouTube called Getting Into Infosec BITES: https://www.youtube.com/c/gettingintoinfosec Please like, subscribe, and spread the word. The best thing you can do to support this media is to spread the word and let others know. Thanks! Links: Site: http://gettingintoinfosec.com/ Book: http://breakingintoinfosec.com/ Twitter: https://t...

Kavya Pearlman - From Hairstylist to CISO to XR Superhero 18.04.2020

Kavya Pearlman is an award-winning cybersecurity professional with a deep interest in immersive and emerging technologies. Kavya is the founder of the non-profit XR Safety Initiative (XRSI). XRSI is the first global effort to promote privacy, security, ethics, and develop standards and guidelines for Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and Mixed Reality (VR/AR/MR), collectively known as XR. Kavya...

BONUS - Pandemic and The Coming Recession / Depression 03.04.2020

We are in the middle of a worldwide pandemic (COVID-19), a recession is here, a depression might be coming, and everyone is remote! Everything has changed. What can you do? How can you find a job in these crazy times? What are the challenges? How can you make yourself valuable? What's going through the company or hiring manager's mind? Please share or leave an awesome review if you found this help...

Syntax - Arrested Teenager to Motorcycle Racer To Pentester 10.03.2020

Syntax, an internal pentester for a large organization, had an interesting ride into infosec, filled with pitstops, detours, and countersteering along the way. At an early age, he was influenced by his father, got started hacking, and was wrongfully arrested for reporting a vulnerability in his High School. Hear his exciting journey into infosec, filled with life lessons. Shownotes Was arrested in...

Bonus - Cyber Security Job Search Frustrations (Ivan) 07.03.2020

These are quick hallway conversations with recent graduates discussing the difficulties they've faced in their job search. I did not know any of these people before interviewing, and it's the first time I'm asking them these questions. This was recorded at RSA Conference 2020. Getting Into Infosec: Breaking IN: A Practical Guide to Starting a Career in Information Security:  https://www.amazo...

Bonus - Cyber Security Job Search Frustrations (Zoe) 06.03.2020

These are quick hallway conversations with recent graduates discussing the difficulties they've faced in their job search. I did not know any of these people before interviewing, and it's the first time I'm asking them these questions. This was recorded at RSA Conference 2020. Getting Into Infosec: Breaking IN: A Practical Guide to Starting a Career in Information Security:  https://www.amazon.com...

Bonus - Cyber Security Job Search Frustrations (Jayesh) 06.03.2020

These are quick hallway conversations with recent graduates discussing the difficulties they've faced in their job search. I did not know any of these people before interviewing, and it's the first time I'm asking them these questions. This was recorded at RSA Conference 2020. Getting Into Infosec: Breaking IN: A Practical Guide to Starting a Career in Information Security:  https://www.amazo...

Bonus - David Zeichick - Cybersecurity College Professor 04.03.2020

So as I was at RSAC, I was trying to keep an eye out for those looking to get into the field. RSA is not usually the place for that, but I saw the NetWars tournament and figured that might be a good place to start. On my way there, I met David Zeichick, who had "College Day" on his badge. Intrigued, I asked about "College Day," and he told me all about it. I sat down with him for an impromptu inte...

Tanya Janca - From Insecure Developer to Appsec, Diversity/Inclusion Advocate, and Mentor 23.02.2020

BIO Tanya Janca, also known as SheHacksPurple, is the author of ‘Alice and Bob Learn Application Security.’ She is also the founder of We Hack Purple, an online learning academy, community, and podcast that revolves around teaching  everyone to create secure software. Tanya has been coding and working in IT for over twenty years, won numerous awards, and has been everywhere from s...

Nick Vissari - Engineering Dropout to Math Tutor to Security Architect/Engineer 04.02.2020

Nick Vissari went from being an engineering dropout (he didn't like creative writing) to a tech consultant to a math tutor. His penchant for fixing things homed him back into tech, where he is now responsible for security in a large school district. He recently went back to school and received his cybersecurity degree as well. Notes At 10-years-old, his Dad had problems putting the computer togeth...

Page Glave - Professor of Kinesiology to Cybersecurity Analyst! 16.11.2019

Page Glave was a tenured Associate Professor of Kinesiology with a focus in exercise science and was successful in her field. However, she came to the realization that she can't see herself doing this for the rest of her life. She offers lots of great advice on resume tips when switching, homelabs, certifications, and how she was able to break into the field. This is her story.  BIO I am an a...

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