CyberWire Daily - Tom Gorup: Fail fast and fail forward. [Operations]

Episode Date: September 1, 2024

Enjoy this encore episode with Vice President of Security and Support Operations of Alert Logic Tom Gorup shares how his career path led him from tactics learned in Army infantry using machine guns and claymores to cybersecurity replacing the artillery with antivirus and firewalls. Tom built a security automation solution called the Grunt (in recollection of his role in the Army) that automated firewall blocks. He credits his experience in battle-planning for his expertise in applying strategic thinking to work in cybersecurity, noting that communication is key in both scenarios. Tom advises that those looking into a new career shouldn't shy away from failure as failure is just another opportunity to learn. We thank Tom for sharing his story with us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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I'm Vice President of Security and Support Operations at AlertLogic. I remember, I think I was 13 or 14 when I built my first website. That's really where it all started, where that interest began. Thinking about communicating with people on the other side of the world in milliseconds. So the internet in and of itself and how it worked was fascinating to me. And I joined the Army shortly after high school

with a different profession. I actually went to work on computers to do a computer-related role in the Army and ended up with an infantry position. So I wouldn't say I lost interest. It was always there. I always continued to dabble in different types of technology and just play with things. But my career, the focus at the time was infantry. So it was a grunt, best way to say it. I was learning a lot more of leadership fundamentals in the military, learning how to lead a team, to train a team. And as I was going through that process, I remember in Afghanistan,

reading the CCNA study guide in my bunk, right? There was no lab for me to test these things out on, no actual hands-on keyboard activities I could be doing. So just laying in the bunk reading, I remember reading the first three or four chapters probably two or three times because I didn't understand any of it. And I finally got to the security section and I was like, this makes sense. I can take tactics that I've learned in the military and apply them

to a computer network. The difference is I'm not using machine guns and claymores. I'm using antivirus and firewalls. walls. Once I got out of the military, I started going to school and trying to find where that passion sat and dabbling in different things. And I realized, you know, I need more experience. So I was seeking internship opportunities. So a lot of late nights, I remember staying up three, four o'clock in the morning, trying to figure out how to do different types of attacks and see what those attacks look like on the wire and how to take advantage. Work ethic is an important aspect, I think, of the security industry. If you want to be in security, it's not just a nine to five, you know, punch in, punch out type position.

If it weren't for the front end hard work, I wouldn't have had the opportunities that I had after that. I built a security automation solution I called the Grunt, where we automated firewall blocks. It was fairly basic in that sense, but I was able to integrate that into six or seven different firewalls, automating a lot of work for our analysts and also driving us into that MDR market, which was super early on. Over time, I moved into director and co-founder of Rook Security because the SOC really didn't exist until before I got there. And it was originally Rook Consulting. We moved to Rook Security because our SOC had grown to be such a large player in our business. So from there, and then Rook Security sold to Sophos,

and I came over to AlertLogic as Vice President of Security and Support Operations here. It's a lot more strategic thinking, which, again, coming from the military background, allows me to draw from when we did battle planning. It all comes back to communication, right? How do we communicate the commander's intent and bring that down into, down to the soldiers? So in this case, you know, I kind of have that commander position and how do I enable my team to execute against the higher level vision? And how do I communicate that across different teams within AlertLogic. So it shifted to a lot more communication and working well with others and that's all been building blocks leading up to where I'm at now.

The things that I've learned were because of the experiences that I've had. I think failure is a good thing. We shouldn't shy away from failure. And failure is just another opportunity to learn. And you need to have that mindset, especially if you're going to a new career or doing something that you've never done before. Fail fast and fail forward.

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