CyberWire Daily - Simone Petrella: Fake it, until you make it. [CEO] [Career Notes]

Episode Date: July 10, 2022

Simone Petrella, CEO of cybersecurity training workforce firm CyberVista, spent her career in the Department of Defense as a threat intelligence analyst before founding CyberVista. She says that running a company has a new set of challenges each day thrown at you. She explains that the way she finds the most success is by letting her team contribute to each matter, and having a say in the decisions made as they pertain to each department. Simone says "I would say is I am a firm firm believer in the idea of empowering people to really own and kind of run with the things that they're passionate about." She notes that people will do amazing things when they are passionate and that faking it until you make it is true, because you will get where you're going by having that passion and that inspiration. We thank Simone for sharing her 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. Hello, my name is Simone Petrella, and I am CEO of CyberVista. I was very into national parks, and I wanted to be a national park ranger, more specifically, maybe a research scientist to study parks. And I wanted to be a national park ranger, more specifically, maybe a research scientist to study volcanoes. So I know there's not a lot of logical link to cybersecurity there. But I did discover that the fatality rate of volcanologists is quite high, because you cannot

study them without actually entering an erupting volcano. So it turns out it's a scary field to go into. 9-11 was a very transformational event for me. I had gone to undergrad in Washington, D.C. thinking I would get involved in something in government or something in the policy realm, and I think also being in Washington, D.C. at the time, actually really changed my focus and interest in international relations and specifically counterterrorism. But it was very much driven by, you know, the war on terror and things that we were dealing with in the post-9-11 era. that we were dealing with in the post-9-11 era. I got into the DOD, thought I would stay there,

and I actually ended up leaving to stay within the industry. I went to work for a defense contractor ostensibly to do similar work to what I had been studying, trained, just with a different color badge, if you will. And I distinctly remember I was in between contracts and I was fortunate enough to have a clearance and I had a manager that said, hey, can you go help out on this contract? And we have a small team that's supporting one of our clients doing intelligence support

to computer network operations. And I had no idea what that meant. I had no concept of the subject matter or anything else. But I was like, sure, let's give it a try and see what happens. And I walked onto that team and it was very small. And I have a distinct memory of one day being asked by my manager, would you like to stay on and do this full time with this team and this mission? So I jumped headfirst. I said, great, let's give it a try. And I, in some ways,

feel like I have been riding a wave ever since. But as our team continued to grow and I rose up, what I learned was that when it comes to being an analyst, I ended up having a zero percent success rate taking someone with a purely technical background and turning them into an analyst. But what I could do was take journalism majors and pre-law or people with all these unique backgrounds that may have been like mine or maybe biology majors, just anything. And if they had an interest and an ability to learn, I could teach them the technical. And when the idea of CyberVista started, it was, how can we tackle the skills gap in a way that actually solves the need of the employer and the mission. It's actually from the perspective of only the individual. Go get this degree. Go sit for this credential. Go take this training course.

But then as the employer on the other side, we're looking at these job roles that are changing. They're morphing. We're starting to evolve them as the mission space evolves. And there's really this massive chasm between the two. So I really felt like there was a way to help bridge that gap by looking at more of a organizational and employer centric way to how we kind of fill the talent gap and the skills gap that was around how do we think about the roles and kind of the measurable need we have for these types of skill sets in these jobs, as opposed to putting the responsibility on individuals to do it themselves. I've learned that every day is a new set of challenges when you are running a company.

There's pretty much not a facet of the business that I don't have to touch on a day-to-day basis. My leadership style is around, it's impossible to build consensus, but you can gain buy-in. And so I think it's incredibly important as a leader that everyone has a say and input into every decision that we make as it pertains to where they are.

And it's important for everyone to be heard. And I think co-opting people into the process is really important there as a leader. I am a firm, firm believer in the idea of empowering people to really own and kind of run with the things that they're passionate about. I always say to new people that come on to our team, I would always rather have to rein you back in because you've stuck your neck out a little bit too far than push you forward. And I think that's just about like trust and accountability. People will go and do amazing things, but my job is to give them the tools to really excel in those areas. The first thing I would say is to not be afraid to pursue and,

in some cases, jump into something that's totally outside your comfort zone. and in some cases jump into something that's totally outside your comfort zone. There's the old adage to fake it until you make it. But it's true because it's not that you have to fake it. It's that if you are interested and passionate about it, you will get there. And the second thing I would say is to spend the time to start to form relationships and a network of people that you admire and respect and find interesting to engage with, regardless of the industry or the work that they're in, because you never know, A, what opportunities that will present over time. And B, it's amazing how much that diversity of what I consider to be informal mentors

can provide perspective-wise as you think about those kind of next moves moving forward. The end of the day, when they close the box, what do you want to be remembered for? I want to be remembered for having a, you know, compassionate and big heart and having even if just a small piece to play in someone's life experience, I think that in itself is rewarding. And now, a message from Black Cloak. Did you know the easiest way for cyber criminals to bypass your company's defenses

is by targeting your executives and their families at home? Black Cloak's award winning digital executive protection platform secures their personal devices, home networks, and connected lives. Because when executives are compromised at home, your company is at risk. In fact, over one third of new members discover they've already been breached. Protect your executives and their families 24-7, 365, with Black Cloak. Learn more at blackcloak.io.