CyberWire Daily - Ask more people to dance. [Career Notes]

Episode Date: June 7, 2020

Cyber analyst, Tracy Maleeff, shares her unexpected journey from the library to cybersecurity and offers advice for those both seeking to make a change and those doing the hiring. It's not just about the invitation, it's more than that. Our thanks to Tracy for sharing her story with us.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to the Cyber Wire Network, powered by N2K. and VPNs, yet breaches continue to rise by an 18% year-over-year increase in ransomware attacks and a $75 million record payout in 2024. These traditional security tools expand your attack surface with public-facing IPs that are exploited by bad actors more easily than ever with AI tools. It's time to rethink your security. Thank you. More at zscaler.com slash security. Tracy Mayleaf. I am a cyber analyst with a Fortune 500 company. I spent a total of 15 years as a librarian, mostly in law firms. I have a Master's of Library and Information Science degree.

About, say, three years ago, I decided that I had reached everything that I could accomplish. And I just didn't find any opportunities that interested me. So a friend who was a long-time IT person moved into security, saw me spinning my wheels, and finally just said, let me tell you about, you know, the back end. I took a very librarian approach to it, and I set up Google Alerts for different tech issues, security issues. And I realized that I kept clicking on the articles that were security related. So then I was this librarian with security as my quirky hobby. I created my own company, Sherpa Intelligence. In February 2016, I was finished at the law firm. I had quit, you know, quit my job that had the office with the floor-to-ceiling windows and the door.

And two weeks after that, I was on a plane to San Francisco to attend RSA. It was exhilarating. There were some nights when I first started that I was just so happy and ecstatic that I couldn't sleep. And I wanted to go to as many conferences as I could just to learn and to meet people. And I really enjoyed going to the exhibit halls, which I know most people avoid, because I wanted to know who the players were. I don't think people understand how crucial, you know, human-to-human contact is. You're selling yourself, so you need to be your best salesperson and your best advocate. Know that your skills that you have have value, but you need to be able to explain them to people. I ran into some people who just dismissed me as soon as they heard the L word of

library. I had to be ready to explain my skill set. And you need to be able to do that. So you need to have confidence and you need to be bold enough to go up to someone. Be courageous, be curious, and be thoughtful. And what I mean by that is you need to be able to put yourself out there and be vulnerable. You know, hiring managers have an open mind when it comes to diversity. And that means many different things. That means looking at liberal arts majors. You know, it's enough to, you know, say that you're open to diversity, but you actually need to include people. Diversity is inviting someone to a party. Inclusion is asking them to dance. So ask more people to dance.

I've just embraced it. I've just embraced it. I went all in. And I like to bring with me this special brand of viewing security through this library science lens. So I'm just doing my part to represent library sciences and security. Hey everybody, Dave here. Have you ever wondered where your personal information is lurking online? Like many of you, I was concerned about my data being sold by data brokers. So I decided to try Delete.me. I have to say, Delete.me is a game changer. Within days of signing up,

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