Having a Career in Cyber Security; going down the rabbit hole

first of all I wanna think that besides committee for inviting me and be asked me to be the keynote speaker I was really confused about the topic of the presentation so I started taking the previous presentations or the keynote presentation that besides her before and then I decided that the only value that cannot give to my audiences to share with them my experiences to share my my career path and what are the key success factors that helped me personally in this career so selling all these experiences is like setting my Marvel rabbit-hole saying how I managed to be there and how money to get out there and I think that that that experience it will help you out as well making sure

that some of the points I'm going to share today will help you out in your career or any any challenge may face in the future so definitely I'm not here to just let you know what's right and what's wrong I'm not here to say how to do things and certainly I'm not here to say to tell you the how the what what you need to be successful when you leave from this room we get something from that you're gonna use it in your career at some point in time that's the only goal I have for today so keep your your message that have a message the bottle for you keep that read it if that's good

it's find that it's good enough for you keep it and use it in your career if it's not just forget about my presentation and have a nice rest of the day we'll go back in time so I started remember right I'm for nearly 40 years old the first throw game I used which actually I didn't know that was drawin it was this does anyone remember what this is yeah that's a broad because you are the same age with me so so yeah I was starting the electrical drunk engineer remember by the time they didn't the actually nobody knows about a lot about either in Greece they're all the fastest internet degree was a speed-up Adela I didn't that love so and

then when I went to the college that I was in my dorm I had a full high speed internet in in a networked environment a lot my other colleagues in the next door in the next in the next rooms in in the same environment so what I did with I remember was the year was 1999 by that time matrix the movie was out there so imagine how what impact that was for for people that love computers of either science security in general so that friend of mine was excited but matrix so much that he started dressing like a matrix so when I when I discovered net bus I I created the very nice PowerPoint I stole net bus I transferred the file

to his laptop to keep from user whatever and I I run that the PowerPoint which actually purple was be playing if he anyone remembers the first month which was playing the PC wherever ma were actually neo has to decide between the real and the the matrix world so I played that scene and he was so convinced that something happened like him that someone out there was Morpheus and was invited him to join his group he came back to us and said that is real or what what happened to me and yeah I could not realize that time but this was my first security lab yes as a prime but still it was the first Rogan ever used Bank in 1999 so this was

my first experience I wouldn't realize that this will be my future and I have to protect people from from trillions in the future but still this a knife story that helped me understand that this is my passion this is what I would like to do and this is what we do and for the next 20 years almost 15 to 20 years so when I graduated from from the school from the University I went and started of course computer from a security in our beloved Glamorgan I don't hear any claps around all right yeah and then when I wanna graduate I did of course you know when I started describing to my father's and my parents

what are actually securities the kunal has done nothing right just they just I just said I'm doing something about the computers so so they failed to gets interesting computer right it's strength so I thought that would be someone like this guy oh no actually that's that's too mother for me by that time imagine I graduated in 2003 so actually I thought that would be some like him yeah data but when I went there and I was trying to do all to let my friends understand who I am what I was doing or what I'm going to do the next years and in the in my area actually most of the times the impression they had was something like

this right yeah and that's it that's it that's reality yeah so I had to deal with that now I hope that I kept you a bit awake until now but let's go to the real life this is a very interesting slide describing the problem today there are too many threats other 50 professionals that give us a problem yes that that's an opportunity for some of us because we have the opportunity to change jobs whatever whenever we like other we can get moved from one company the other at the same time - two - jr. - two new people that would like to join the area they give them a button the given it gives them a wrong

impression about what they're gonna do because if they can find easy a job they think that the job is very easy for them and they don't have to evolve they don't have to Train that self all the time they don't understand how difficult is this kind of a job and what needs to be all the time updated all the time trained all the time understanding what's going on and all the time ready to deal with all the modern threats so we we have this new you see new new engineers out there that they are studying subversive goodness here but they know how they don't know how to evolve because they are it's too easy to

get a new job that don't don't care about evolving they don't get about trying so that give us a problem and and and then sometimes what they see is this one with this thing we see only the people part of the iceberg the success part and they don't understand what needs this iceberg in order to be solid what is the bottom part what means to be to have failures and how can use them what this was thought this must followed in order to be successful definitely ethics one of the topics always we had to we had a course in our university the vision the Daha vision they don't really understand the term team it's a very important term related

to security if you don't understand how to use your team how to be part of a team you're never gonna be able to understand what's going what how successfully can be then they don't know how to plan other actions the miscommunication and they don't they don't try to talk to to change the communication ways in order to sir communicating with different personalities and finally they don't do much of research so these are the Kickham the success factor that helped me against I believe to be successful in my career and help me help me how the top part of the iceberg so during my my early stages of early years of our of bills I basically each year I could not

understand this world I can understand what was the appropriate way to interact and cooperate with too many different personalities in in in in a company basketball I used to play busted blog that helped me a little bit about that with that but still will not realize but applause the power of the the power of a team I started realized that when I had my own team when my manager said okay this to New Jersey is yours when I had this to it new engineers that didn't know how to approach them I didn't know how what what kind of strategy should I follow know that we helped them improve as well all I had is my it was my

instinct so I follow my stick on that and what I found later was that I was following this kind of approach have anyone seen that before in their life anyone all right great so the way I was behaving with my team it was exactly I was behaving like like an alpha wolf and I keep doing that what what Sinatra would if you see here and I think I will find some way to so no all right so if you see that in the picture these three ones are the oldest wolves in the pack they're slow might be injured so still they're not allow them to build on the pundit on the back cover of the pack

they love them to walk in the front because if were if this were on the back there will be away from the park that will be live in the half that will be lived left behind and we'll we didn't have any future so they put them in front else also they keep the pace of working because they're old they're moving slow so the pace of the team the pace of the walking of the team is is coordinated but these three old wolves the next five artists are one team of very strong wolves the rest is the team another team of strong walls of course and at the end is their fourth what that means he he is there because he he needs

to to anticipate the possible enemies he needs to see all his team and make sure that they keep on the on the right track and so that we will be ready to dissipate any attack or any challenge and that's the way if you if you start imagining that in your imagine that you understand that's the way a team leaders should act that's why she should not be front will not be always doing stuff but the stench is be on at the end helping the team evolve having the helmet him to be prepared for new challenges and protect them from new challenges and that's what I followed so the next thing was planning that to be honest that was

one of my basic characteristic I will not start a project or a task without asking for proper planning and preparation through my university years I had no idea what that word really meant always I had to run turn up up to the last minute to prepare for an exam for a test for whatever so that seems 100 percent when I started working whenever I had the serious task when I had this had had to find a solid plan to get the best results like like what when I when I started working like my mind started to to change and programming have a new problem in my mind that sayings from not planning at all to start planning

everything probably that was because I was trying to protect myself in a new environment and I didn't want to let down my my manager that decided to hire me so I started I started working everyday with a specific plan every day every day that's that's a key message that I always saves to my junior engineers you have to must have a plan of the day a plan of the week plan plan of the month a plan how to tackle every challenge and to be honest that's what helped me a lot to evolve through my career I'm the only one that do that know this Magic Johnson probably you already have you know him does anyone can imagine the number the

percentage he had through his career on the three throws what what do you believe that that would be the average percentage of free throws who said wait five yeah we have a winner was almost 80 80 80 4.8 do you know why that happened no not because he was Magic Johnson because every of although he was Mark Johnson every every practice spend around an hour pissing on free-throws every practice so all first of all he was an example for everyone of course but still she was practicing although she had the solid career he was magic I had the huge contract he still stayed after practice shooting free-throws by the way it is not the most high percent

as a shooter is on three throws is nobody's awesome stiffness well it's 90% but still I used magic Jones because had he Ricky was a huge name and still while he was a huge name in NBA history staying after practice shooting free-throws oh yeah that helped me a lot so my first successful project and probably most of you will not know that this kind of technology anybody knows what what this is anybody I'm told all right that's a network actually no that's Dutton is a cryptographic it's a cell right so in this device you can store all the your encryption keys and all your capsule encryption world and you connected you can you could connect

it with a microsecond certificate authority and and will protect all the keys in this device which actually 100% secure and had some special characteristics are all security so we had installed this device in one of the biggest banks in Greece and my first project was ok my manager came to me and said hey this is your new project this is the hsm start working on it because you have to stole the disaster disaster site that disaster recovery site for them the disaster server have installed this kind of equipment for a bank keep in mind that the bank so operating right now every exchange every money transfer in order to do to do it you needed this system to be

operated if this was that this system was down the the banking was not actually working you can you can see the balance you can see whatever was in there but you could not transfer or work on a stock exchange you cannot do anything so okay I got it I'd go to spare device I got spare cards I started reading day night then an item and then I reach at some point I knew the system perfect I knew how to upgrade that me and imagine this was not an easy task to operate such a device and at some point in time I had to do my military service so I left the company for it for a year

but during that time the bank had the fail device so the core banking system was down for eight hours and then well then we'll then was one my mobile my my manager called me said we need your help we have an eight hours problem with the device they can know the whole bank and not do anything because I I work all the time I did a very good I stalled in Allah by his told it again and again over 100 times so I can I could install the device again from scratch and and installed the the encryption world that was needed in 30 minutes so imagine the whole Bank was done for 8 hours I went

there and I restored the whole gription keys and everything in 30 minutes how did I do that because I was prepared because I managed to by heart how to install it about exactly steps I needed in order to install this kind of device and that's why I started learning the value of preparing yourself and make sure that you are you're ready for any task a difficult task communication a very important skill that we must always always always develop in my early days I had serious communication issues with my one of my managers right I was worked in the office for an issue but he was so busy that he never actually look at me so when I had to to talk for for a task

or something because he never looked at me right I had to print out my opinion or the result or whatever that needed to be showed him and I present put his side in front of his face but what I did I understand I evolved i alt the communication because I do not find the normal communication part with the specific manager I change the communication to what he could understand to what he will stop from what he's doing in order to pay attention to me so that that's critical if you if you manage you will every day you can interact with so many personalities not everyone is like like you are so you have always to find the

appropriate communication interface in order to make sure that your message is passing through and for the next slide that was very confused but I soon put like a bad example so I selected this one and this is real quote from this guy I think everyone agrees that has very bad communication ways and one why talking them already so explaining what he didn't needed a campaign leader he said this kind of quote I am what I am and I am what I am and I don't need a leader I don't need a leader to lead my campaign because I can do everything probably so yeah that's a wrong message so nobody gonna understand what you're saying

nobody gonna pay attention to your message research in our job in our area there are many many unknowns out there right nobody knows everything so our job has a total formation every day that you can always need to follow up you cannot always generically do a research without a specific a specific goal you need to dignify the task for a specific goal that they did and do a research based on that you cannot do always a research on everything you cannot keep up always with everything and and keep in mind that the disease that does not mean that you can have to sit alone in front of a computer sometimes it is much easier when you

just ask for help asking for help the guidance is not a weakness is the power its power characteristic of your personality share your knowledge and don't be afraid to say I don't know many times in my life and I still do that I said I don't know it's not the bad world say right don't pass phrase you start start using it when you start from I don't know then there is a possibility that some point in time you gonna find out what what the misinformation is another funny example about that I had the know did in my previous job he was a junior engineer and he came to my office with a checklist I think everyone has passed

these procedures right and he tried always although I could convince him that the the this checklist or the specific requirement cannot be covered on this specific environment she could not understand it she could not understand it because people know her because she didn't have the proper background or experience he just had the checklist in his hands so by having a checklist and just following the checklist and without doing any research it will not be any you don't definitely don't have any successful security career vision I have to be honest with you it's one of the characteristics still have to develop even myself definitely what we just spoiled sometimes to be honest reading biographies from other successful people

helped me a lot because I tried to pull that this time the revision and sometimes I was trying I was felt like being like them but definitely the vision would hit your end on a specific goal other personal or business or both and these are the long goals that make up will make you professional on the long run if you have a vision definitely you will be able to build a solid career ethics and one way road may be the only character dishes that I heard from my father to be honest it's like I'm program at always to do the right thing and I say always the truth my friends and people are around them sometimes I

think that my parents did some kind of hypnosis sessions to adopt this kind of ethics still wondering about that but in our job where every day whether they have this kind of challenges right we have we are developing skills that who can use them to do many dangerous stuff and get easy money from various sources but but let's think about this is this kind of history you want to make with this kind of experience that you want to have him in your resume it definitely not me I will not sleep if I had some some kind of experience a real file story about that a colleague of mine huge dinner penetration test in a honorbound back

system where the our car loans were stored so I had a car loan and the record of this car alone was in that system so he called me in the office and said we are just one click away from deleting the record do you do it yet we look at this other four for a minute challenging our ethics and I said oh no and of course I guess I still had to pay my installments until the end unfortunately so yeah you're gonna face this kind of challenges in your career definitely sometimes sold although you put a lot of effort in various tasks although you have your you're prepared you have a plan you have everything

you're missing strategy and that's important as well yeah planned preparation team communication our success factors but sometimes you need to apply specific tactics to get the best results definitely this something I learned during series of incidents that I had in my career that want to create a specific strategy for specific using specific actions even without realizing it strategy plays a major part in my everyday life and not only in my life give you an example if you I find over again basketball if you don't know how to win a game you have to change strategy what that what the coaches are doing every day right the change strategy that they the plan the change they using the of course they

have prepared for that but they change strategy so another funny story and my career had this huge Bank added huge data link cuts of their one of the the employees that we fired he got a lot of critical information and he released in pastebin so they called us of course for advice and for start planning the next day and I was in this meeting with very big personalities from from very big bank and among among them was the CIO and he said me keep in mind that the data is on the best bit right face bill has been everyone right he said now can we extort him somehow Hank are we fed him somehow to get it out of there and I

said and that was his plan right that's what he proposed he proposed to us to find a way to extort him or find a way to threat him to remove the data from Facebook and I said this is an anonymous kind of you know uploading stuff we cannot do anything you have to build a strategy when you want firing someone with critical jewels that he can steal the jewels of your infrastructure you have to make a strategy how how what to do before we fire him so and definitely that his goal should be how to beat the strategy of the next day what he has to do in order to protect from from the data that he leaked what we need to do

in order to protect passwords and chain password stuff like that to apply the next day plant but that was his real proposal I was I was amazed I don't know if you have been already have seen last year keynotes peace day views had a fantastic presentation about failure if you have not seen it at all I recommend you to check in on YouTube and as Yoda said the greatest teacher failure is my life I think everyone lives are full of failures appointments but now I can understand the power of a failure these are the points that made me of course stronger but this word when I had a failure then I could realize what I needed to do not to change not

happen again so he has many failures are if you have many failures you're going to have many points in your life that will stand how to deal with them and what you need to do in order to change not happen again I totally believe that this character is that will make you distinct from the competition how to use your own failures difficult task if you'd not don't know how to do that definitely you have to learn about and I've seen many people doing the same and the same and the same mistakes one comic Herod here essential for its management I don't do anything wrong today I'll not doing it wrong tomorrow and repeat and believe me

that's something that most may have met a lot of people that keep that they think that if you don't do anything wrong he will be perfect and perfect as you already know it's not it doesn't exist I tried to find another example that's probably you everyone can see who that man is he had 14 14 big failures in 26 years big before he became a president most of us who probably would stop the 4 3 4 5 failure he had to pass through 14 failures and yet he managed to began one of the most successful US presidents that what probably helps him become one of the most successful presidents 14 failures in 26 years that's a big number so to wrap it up a

little bit and start helping you out how you can use that all these tips as a process I read in an incident response tactics disturb I don't know how much how many of you have seen that before this is a net load the lip loop what what it means observe orient decide enact and have added one more evaluate so you can apply this kind of strategy in everything if you start thinking yourself in every new task corner every new challenge you can apply that you can do it and you're definitely at the end of this circle you have almost a valued body that before starting again by the way and probably our military guy here

would understand that this is a meter term we was invented by American Air Force observe everything and everyone when I was in the first year of my career I observed literally everything I keep the I kept a note in any unknown unknown Wordie Hut so my two colleagues were discussing with each other I had the unknown word I put a drought I had done to research if there later on you cannot imagine how much that had helped me writing down all the known words ahead and not only of course on observe personalities observe how other peoples are communicating how they react on a failure how everything that that everything is it's a pardonable observation or en okay you have observed

have prepared everything then you have to attend on specific target you have to to to to Oriole your self and prepare towards a target always if you don't have a goal if you don't have a target even every day then you don't have it definitely not gonna have any progress on anything beside always you have at the end to decide a bad decision sometimes it's better than not decision at all and many of my colleagues are doing that they're not decided they're not deciding on anything or whether there's a time to decide they don't sign they they they are freaking out so you have to proceed with the decision at some point in time act the final and

most critical step if you have if you have all followed the process if you are prepared the couple you have observed your know what to do then that's will be piece of cake depending on the situation of course time must can be critical factor on when you have worked and finally evaluate you always you mean you need to evaluate your actions you always need to recall the calibrate your your process always in you need to make sure that the next time you're gonna do the same thing you will do better and your process will be fine-tuned so the next time definitely going to be better even in a bad approach if you evaluate it then you're

going to be better for a fact I don't know how many knows the Greek myth with Sisyphus Sisyphus was the visit there is a myth Greek myth that says that he was actually punished by the gods because he tried to let's say put in say a death so nobody could ever die and when one the gods captured captured him at last they put him in this torture he had to move a rock every day on the top and when he reached the top the rock fell fall down and he had to try again and he had to try again so that was the torture that they decided yes I have seen the story in my life a

lot of times people are tend to recycle the same task the same behavior the same argument everything sometimes I feel like I live the same day I'll feel like living a diesel we must always try and try again but sometime is not the mountain ducks or problem is the rock that you have to carry so when you realize that you have to change the rock you have to change the road that you decide to carry and when you find that appropriate rock then you would definitely want you reach the mountain the rock would stand up I hope that this myth will help you out somehow and your barrier definitely this helped me a lot and before ending my time one

minute that you showed me five minutes

thank you all tell you besides though [Applause]