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Defense in Depth

What We Love About Working in Cybersecurity

We talk a lot on this show about what makes cybersecurity such a hard job, yet there are so many people who are in it and love it. What draws people to this profession and why do they love it so much? 

Check out this post for the discussion that is the basis of our conversation on this week’s episode co-hosted by me, David Spark, the producer of CISO Series, and Geoff Belknap, CISO, LinkedIn. We welcome our guest David Cross, CISO, Oracle SaaS Cloud. Here’s what we discussed.

You can see real impact from our work in cybersecurity. While many may complain that nobody appreciates security, others see results from their work. "I like being able to influence the organization and leadership," said Drew Brown of the Federal Aviation Administration. And similarly, Christophe Foulon of Capital One said, "I love knowing that I can make an impact by helping people and businesses with safer behaviors and activities."

It’s a game that never ends. The ‘winning’ is staying in it. "It’s an infinite game (a nod to Simon Sinek) rather than a binary one. If you frame the strategic goal as ‘staying in the game beyond your own involvement’ then the intermittent losses aren’t failures," said Dutch Schwartz of AWS. And Dan Watkins of The Ohio State University College of Engineering likes being able to play around in the dark side: "To think like a bad guy while being a good guy."

“The cybersecurity industry is a ‘melting pot’ of personalities and talent,” said Prasad Shenoy of Cisco. Prasad has worked with cyber professionals who were once athletes, mortgage consultants, gamers, entrepreneurs, nurses, medical professionals, actors, entertainers, mathematicians, physicists, and obviously IT consultants. And the work of cybersecurity attracts a certain breed of people. “If you’re in cybersecurity or GRC I’ll bet that you’re incredibly resilient, loyal, determined, hold a high EQ, practice some level of humility, work your tail off with little to no recognition or appreciation, and you genuinely care about your work and those whom it directly or indirectly affects,” said Jessie B. of Bolt Resources.

The opportunity to mentor provides an enormous level of job satisfaction. There’s a sense that working in security is a fraternity. There are an endless number of ‘hell weeks’ but it’s very satisfying to be able to impart wisdom on those going through the toughest parts. "Giving back the years of experience makes all the past pains seem worthwhile," said Kent King of State of Ohio - Department of Transportation & Department of Health.

Please listen to the full episode on your favorite podcast app, or over on our blog where you can read the full transcript. If you’re not already subscribed to the Defense in Depth podcast, please go ahead and subscribe now.

Thanks to our podcast sponsor, Orca Security

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 Cyber Security Headlines - Week in Review 

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Cyber Security Headlines 

with CISO Series reporter Richard Stroffolino. We do it this and every Friday at 3:30 PM ET/12:30 PM PT for a short 20-minute discussion of the week's cyber news. Our guest will be Rich Gautier, former CISO, Department of Justice Criminal Division.

Thanks to our Cyber Security Headlines sponsor, Normalyze

Cyber chatter from around the web...

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"Online bank only allows 6 characters in passwords" (

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"CEO Wants God rights" (

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Coming Up On Super Cyber Friday...

Coming up in the weeks ahead on Super Cyber Friday we have:

• [05-12-23] "Hacking Security Culture"

• [05-19-23] "Hacking the Software Supply Chain"

• [06-02-23] "Hacking the Future of Risk Management"

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