Dispelling Stereotypes in the Field

All industries have their stereotypes. For instance, the adversaries of cyber intelligence analysts carry the stereotype of a hacker in a hoody, hunched over their laptop in the dark. Are there other stereotypes or assumptions about those who work in the field cyber intelligence?

To those outside of the industry, hearing “I work in cybersecurity” may sound cool – or intimidating. Outsiders may envision people in the field as:

• Solely consisting of STEM majors: perhaps the super smart who double-majored in computer science and network engineering
• People who learn programming languages easily and would be polyglots in another life
• Single-minded nerds interested in computers from an early age, who were building their first computer before they hit high school
• Those who effortlessly bootstrapped their way in, starting in a help desk role and quickly gaining momentum

Regardless of an individual’s path, there is an aura around cybersecurity that glows with the rigor of hard sciences. It isn’t helped by the fact that hacker stuff is downright neat.

From Art School to Threat Intelligence Research

When I was in art school in the late aughts, I never considered that I would end up in cybersecurity as I walked around listening to Animal Collective or buying secondhand clothes in the more punk neighborhoods of Chicago. A course in advanced typography wasn’t going to fling me into the realm of malware. Taking attentive notes at a lecture by Chip Kidd wasn’t going to be a stepping stone to pentesting.

However, the cybersecurity field is big. Just as NASA isn’t populated with only astronauts, cybersecurity isn’t populated with only threat intelligence analysts. While astronauts do have one of the most imagination-stirring roles in existence, they need support from engineers, news chiefs and more, all the way down to the graphic designers who design the collectable mission patches. Take the case of Dr. Sian Proctor: She is a geologist who taught in higher education for years, and through a passion for planetary science and space became an analog astronaut, meaning she conducted simulated space missions on earth. Her research lays groundwork for future visits to Mars. (She did, eventually, become an astronaut on a SpaceX mission, but not before publishing a cookbook of the food she ate on these earthside Mars missions.)

Like Dr. Proctor, in my role as a Technical Writing Manager, my skills are needed to make the threat research we publish shine. To continue my analogy, I may not be an astronaut myself, but I still support the “astronauts” of threat intelligence and make sure their work launches high above the stratosphere…maybe even into cyberspace (wink, wink).

Cybersecurity’s Strength Is People Like You

The bottom line is that if you’re a marketer, cybersecurity needs you. If you’re a copywriter, a product manager or a social media wiz, cybersecurity needs you. If you’re told you’re “terminally online” in your professional capacity, then cybersecurity needs you.

This field is for people who are excited by what’s just over the horizon as technology continues to change. You’re more than welcome to join us.