CyberWire Daily - David Nosibor: Taking calculated risks. [Product Lead] [Career Notes]

Episode Date: August 28, 2022

David Nosibor, Product Lead for SafeCyber at UL Solutions, started his career in a unique way by not letting himself be pigeonholed. Within his company, David was able to grow to the position he is in now and says that his position feels like a lot of roles tied into one. He says that on any given day he is tackling all sorts of elements, such as marketing, operations, working with the engineering team, figuring out ways to acquire customers, retain them, and also working on sales and business development capabilities. He also says that constantly learning and getting new opportunities was how he ended up being where he is today. David states that staying focused and being on the lookout for ways to accomplish the mission is the best way for him in his company to democratize product security. He quotes the famous singer Sean Carter in saying that he firmly believes in taking calculated risks to get where you need to be going. We thank David for sharing his story. 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. Learn more at zscaler.com slash security. Hi, my name is David Nocebor, and I'm a product lead for SafeCy player at the very beginning. And ultimately, this evolved into wanting to work in the basketball industry in any shape or form, being part of the NBA league or ultimately being part of a team. But then I quickly realized that none of that was going to happen. So I shifted my focus to being a programmer.

My dad was working for HP and taught me a lot about hardware, software, and pretty much getting my way around a computer. Since I grew up in France, I went through prep school and ultimately prepared to enter a business school. And I studied marketing and new media communications there. Ultimately, I wanted to leverage on my marketing skill set and my previous websites that I created when I was a teenager. And yeah, that's what I did for my studies. And ultimately, ironically enough, I started working in the sports industry in a TV channel, actually, Eurosport, as part of their communications team. I was part of their communications team and then went on to work for a financial auditing company and tackle social media marketing over there. The way I reached my current position is it's actually not academic at all and not the typical way of reaching it. But I think ultimately it's it's always been about opportunities, always being willing to learn new things and ultimately not wanting to be pigeonholed to just one specific skill set.

That could get me to great places moving forward. As a product lead, I have to say that I'm acting as a sort of a CEO within the company operations, obviously working with the engineering team, figuring out ways to acquire customers, retain them, and also working on my sales and business development capabilities. So it's a bit of everything that is happening typically within a day from liaising with the development team to work on what we've been hearing from customers and their requests and things that we can improve to strategizing about the future, the relevant areas to focus on

and take the opportunities as we go, looking into partnerships as well with promising and bright talent in working in some mature startups that we can definitely leverage on. I would define myself as being quite approachable, making people comfortable in the way they can come up to me and express their ideas and share their points of view. I'm all for healthy debates and constructive criticism. So I like when people are convinced about their beliefs and if they can back it up with data

points, I'm all for a healthy conversation. That's probably my French trait, liking arguments and healthy debates. But yeah, I would say approachable, having a vision and being convinced about what we're doing is quite important in instilling confidence. I'm quite convinced about that. And well, also finding opportunities and being on the lookout

for ways to essentially accomplish our mission, which is to democratize product security. stay curious and keep being curious even though for some people it could be thinking about they're not necessarily up to uh specific things and because they don't have the official credentials for it, especially when they could be looking for a career change. To that, I would say this is no longer valid today. It's all about who shows the most curiosity and ultimately is able to pitch ideas and getting to meet with new people to convey these ideas across, the ability to stay curious, network, and be bold. There's a great lyricist that I like to quote often.

That's Mr. Sean Carter, who's usually saying, I can't knock the hustle. I truly believe in that. I believe the people should be taking calculated risks and if they've been curious enough to explore an idea and exchange with professionals in the cybersecurity field, for example, including myself, I would be very happy to hear that. This is what, in my opinion, creates opportunities with people that are bold and not afraid to show themselves out there with their flaws and all. It's not about being perfect or being the one that knows everything. It's about daring.

My way to deal with adversity is to remember those other days where I got wins or I got things that went my way. So this is my way to cope with bad days. Remembering the wins that were achieved earlier on and essentially reminding myself of the journey that got me there. It's not the end in itself. It's just a bump along the way. There's only one way to look when When we're down, it's up. Hey everybody, Dave here. Have you ever wondered where your personal information is lurking online?

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