CyberWire Daily - Encore: Liji Samuel: Leaping beyond the barrier. [Certification] [Career Notes]

Episode Date: March 31, 2024

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 Certification at NSA's Cyber Collaboration Center. She starts by sharing that she had always wanted to work in the STEM field, explaining that growing up she was surrounded with older cousins who were choosing STEM careers and it became an interesting topic for her. She accounts working for a number of companies that helped her grow into the role she is in now. Cybersecurity became a big buzzword for her, causing her to step out of the agency into US cyber command to help take up a management position for the architecture and engineering division. From there, she continued her cybersecurity journey first as the exploration director before moving into where she is now. Liji shares that there were barriers along the way that she had to endure and hop over to get to the right path. She says "So there are challenges and barriers that come across constantly with our work. Um, one just has to pause and reflect on how we can work with it, around it, or influence like our stakeholders and jointly create a vision around it." We thank Liji 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. Learn more at zscaler.com slash security. Hi, I'm Liji Samuel. I'm the Chief of Standards and Certification at NSA's Cyber Collaboration Center. So as I was growing up, I've often changed what I wanted to be. Sometimes it was a teacher, sometimes a doctor, a researcher. But I often leaned towards STEM-specific careers.

I was surrounded with older cousins who were choosing STEM careers. And it was interesting how each of our holiday conversations or gatherings would be around what's the latest and what's the greatest. Additionally, as I was growing up, my dad, who has an electrical background, he worked on space and maritime research. So as a side hustle, he would like be fixing radios and like solar ring boards were always on his research. So as a side hustle, he would like be fixing radios and like soldering boards were always on his table. So just walking around that, I felt I was leaning towards STEM careers

from a very young age. So I have a bachelor's and master's in electrical prior to coming to University of Maryland and an additional master's in telecommunications engineering from College Park. And the reason I was immigrating and it was still like a study was still something that I was pursuing. And so I decided to look at colleges that were good at telecommunications and had some business flavor to it. And UMD telecommunications program did stand out. So when it comes to my career progression, I will say that I've had four technically diverse jobs. I can say that I'm uncomfortable being comfortable in a certain position, right?

So if my learning stops, I will want to move. So my very first job was with corporate. It was in a private company that deployed telematics and internet solutions over satellites. As a very naive employee, I did not even know how to maneuver the career path, know the concept of mentors, and truly learned a lot from watching my peers and colleagues and how they progressed. So I knew I had to use the skills that I learned at another organization and was ready to move to a position. And being in the Maryland, D.C., Virginia area, federal careers was an option. And that's when I started with NSA in Jan of 2013. My next job was with high performance computing office, a completely different technology. And I've held both management and technical positions there. After about five to six years there, I was like, cyber is the buzzword. Let me see what I can do. So combining it with just stepping out of the agency into U.S. Cyber Command, took up a management position for architecture and engineering division there, which helped me to see the enterprise at large and get that big

picture. From there, I continued my cybersecurity journey, first as the exploration director, overseeing about 30 innovative efforts, and now in my current position as the standards and certification chief. So there are challenges and barriers that come across constantly with our work. One just has to pause and reflect on how we can work with it, undergrad students, I recognize that they are having a lot of online schools and now are in a market where they are not finding jobs. And I will want to focus a period in my life, which I often quote as my null period, where whatever I did, nothing was working out. And this was after my master's degree in India, and I was waiting for my immigration paperwork to complete. And I was also trying to volunteer, do some jobs, but nothing was called as true accomplishments, right? And I saw my peers like progressing, finding jobs, you know,

moving on to their next phase in life. And it's kind of, it adds to the pressure. But honestly, today, when I look back and reflect, that was the time when my character was built to be, and which is helping me to take up leadership position. It helped build my perseverance, resilience, patience, you name it. And that phase of life taught me a lot. So when it comes to legacy, I'm a true believer of the word that there is nothing that'll last.

Some efforts are honestly five years in fact, years and 100 years right it just depends on where you are and what you do but having moved about four different jobs I will say that everything I have worked on has left an impact in every organization and it has helped me scale and I have helped scale and scope the initiatives. Additionally, working at the National Security Agency, one gets to frequently hear how our collective efforts are keeping the nation secure and how we have saved lives. So it's pretty exciting to know that there is an impact. there is an impact. When it comes to people, I really think my investment and focus is on the next generation of technical SMEs that are coming up, both inside the agency and outside, and I do invest my time working with them.

There is an aspect of accomplishment when it comes to private where at the end of it, it's money that matters. There has to be a profit factor. When it comes to our federal government, we value every bit of money that is taxpayers. And so it is well planned and the resource is carefully executed. But I'll say like the true goal and mission is, especially at NSA, is to keep our nation secure. So the whole, the goal, the main goal and agenda is different. So that kind of translates down in how the policies are and how the leadership responds. And so I do think personally, like there is an advantage pro and con to both organizations. Like when it comes to money, there's of course private sector giving a lot more. But when it comes to the benefits, when it comes to the accomplishments and feeling that you've met

some purpose in life, I do think working at an IC community has helped me with that. Thank you. are evolving every second, and staying ahead is more than just a challenge. It's a necessity. That's why we're thrilled to partner with ThreatLocker, a cybersecurity solution trusted by businesses worldwide. ThreatLocker is a full suite of solutions designed to give you total control, stopping unauthorized applications, securing sensitive data, and ensuring your organization runs smoothly and securely. Visit ThreatLocker.com today to see how a default deny approach can keep your company safe and compliant.