CyberWire Daily - Teresa Rothaar: Outwork the competition. [Analyst] [Career Notes]

Episode Date: March 14, 2024

Teresa Rothaar, a governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) analyst at Keeper Security sits down to share her story, from performer to cyber. She fell in love with writing as a young girl, she experimented with writing fanfiction which made her want to grow up to be in the arts. After attending college she found that she was good at math, lighting the way for her to start her cyber career. Teresa moved to being a writer at Keeper, finding she wanted to spread out and try more, so she ended up becoming an analyst while still doing writing on the side. She quotes David Duchovny in an interview once, explaining how sometimes you need to keep your head down and outwork others. Teresa said this resonated with her, saying, "that's how I went from a foreclosure box on the porch to where I am now. I have a good job and, and I have a career and I have a really good career and I absolutely love it." We thank Teresa 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. Hi there. My name is Teresa Rathar, and I am a GRC analyst at Keeper Security. I wanted to be a performer and that's one of the reasons why I jumped on the chance to do podcasts and webinars and things like that because it gives me a chance to perform yeah I did plays and I would also write a lot too.

I wrote fan fiction before it was a thing. I wrote a Doctor Who fanfic when I was, oh my, probably about 12 years old. I thought I was going to go into the arts as a kid. I wasn't even thinking about science or computers or anything like that. I actually didn't get the opportunity to go to college until later in life. I had family issues that I took care of throughout my 20s, and so I didn't enter university until I was in my 30s. 20s, and so I didn't enter university until I was in my 30s. And I at first thought I was just going to major in business at that point, but then I started taking some math classes, and I hadn't done well in math in high school, and I quickly figured out it was because of the way it had been

taught to me. In college, I began excelling at it, and I ended up getting a bachelor's in math and computer science. I got my bachelor's degree in 2011. We were right in the middle of the Great Recession, and I had no professional network to speak of. I had no professional network to speak of and no idea how to get a job. So I kind of hit out in academia. I got an MBA, which really benefited me. I was going to Wilmington University up here in Delaware, and five more classes, I could get a second master's. So I went and got a second master's in management information systems. Fell into cybersecurity really accidentally.

information systems. Fell into cybersecurity really accidentally. A cybersecurity company, actually a GRC company, hit me up on Upwork because they needed somebody to write blogs and white papers and things like that. I didn't even know what GRC was, but I really needed the money. So I took the job and I started furiously Googling and I figured out, oh, governance, risk management and compliance. That was how my cybersecurity career began. I started to excel just like I did when I found math all those years ago when I entered university. I didn't think there was any money in writing, but I was approaching it the wrong way. Because really, to make money as a copywriter, you need to specialize. And once I started specializing in cybersecurity, I got this one client, did a lot of work for him, built a portfolio. Then I picked up another client. Then I picked up another client.

Then I picked up another one. People started coming to me because I started building a specialty in this area. And I also saw I could go into different directions too. I didn't have to stay a copywriter because I was also interested. I still had that hacker personality. I wanted't have to stay a copywriter because I was also interested. I still had that hacker personality. I wanted to do more security stuff. And so I started, I signed up for TryHackMe and I started learning how to do security things, you know, how to write simple scripts in Linux and use some tools like Burp Suite, stuff like that.

tools like Burp Suite, stuff like that. I started working at Keeper. They started out as a client of mine. I had been a cybersecurity copywriter at that point for, I think, about four years or so, and they found me. I don't even know where they found me. I started writing for them, wrote extensively for them for about two years. From 2019 through 2021, pretty much every article on Keeper's blog, I wrote it. At the end of 2021, the job market was changing dramatically. And I thought, you know, maybe I would like to go and see if I could get a full-time W-2 job because it'd be nice to get some benefits. Keeper heard I was looking for a full-time job, and I didn't want to just be a copywriter anymore. I wanted to do more. They did not want to lose me because upper security copywriters are really difficult to find.

And they decided we could really use you as a compliance analyst. And the only caveat, we want you to keep, you know, doing copywriting for us too. And I said, sure, you know, that's fine. I'm not against continuing to write copy. I just wanted to do more. There is so much demand, I think throughout tech, but I could tell you right now in cybersecurity, if you want to get into cybersecurity and you know how to write, start writing cybersecurity articles. You will never be out of work. You need to be able to translate technical concepts to people who might not be so technical. You need to be able to break that down in the terms they can understand.

And usually these days, especially after COVID, everything's done in writing. You will never get away from the writing, not completely. And it's a fundamental skill. If you can write well, you could always get a job somewhere. And definitely there is a place for you in cybersecurity. There's a great need. I will outwork anybody.

And I've always been really good at that. Just put my head down and outwork anybody. And I've always been really good at that. Just put my head down and outwork you and work on the problem and work on fixing it. And that's how I went from a foreclosure box on the porch to where I am now. I have a good job and I have a really good career and I absolutely love it. I hope that I can help others deal with their adversity because a lot of times I wanted help and I didn't have anybody to turn to. I didn't know who to turn to.

I would like to be looked back on as somebody who helped others in this industry, who helped diversify this industry. That's something I'm really passionate about and who helped make this industry better and who helped pull peopleify this industry. That's something I'm really passionate about and who helped make this industry better and who helped pull people into this industry who maybe didn't see their place here until they heard something I said about it. Hey everybody, Dave here. Have you ever wondered where your personal information is lurking online?

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