Patching Your Future: A Guide to a Career in Cybersecurity

well welcome everyone we appreciate you being here uh I think we're going to officially kick off track two um so today we have Patrick Ross joining us uh he's the owner and advisor at info security blueprint LLC um so this session is going to explore career paths and cyber security we'll discuss a few different domains Specialties and niches within cyber uh we will look at common job titles and sample descriptions review job postings um and look at some commonly requested experience skills and certifications we'll review a certification road map and discuss the importance of continual learning and there's a hint in here home Labs readings podcasts uh kind of sounds familiar to my regular days as well so I

was an accounting student here so I don't know how I got roped into cyber security I might be in the wrong room but uh welcome Patrick Roth thank you thank you good morning everybody so that says what he just read so I'm not going to go through that um but there's a note at the top everything throughout this presentation um that's underlined is a link so if you go to oh okay uh if you go to that QR code or you want to email me at my email there take a picture of my email um I'll send you the slides directly um I'm also going to submit them if there's a method through bsides and you can get get through them

but if you email me directly you will get them um so M could go through that if you're interested you go back to a little bit more about info security blueprint why I started it and I want to get right into it and learn about you before uh we continue so who's left-handed who's right-handed raise the hand that you predominately right with left hand right hand let me see couple lefties okay so real reason I was curious about that I was want sure everyone had at least one working arm for the rest of the slide so do we have any high school students here today no okay Ione have graduated this month you're not considering yourself a

high school student anymore okay what about current undergrad students okay few hands there any need you graduate later this month or excuse me last month you graduated last month congratulations um what about graduate students anyone currently enrolled okay there's a couple any recent graduate students that earned their degree okay um anyone in here has no cyber experience you you may be in the workforce but no cyber experience looking for your first cyber position

okay less than 5 years of cyber experience okay and more than 5 years okay awesome so really good mix of people in here um so thanks for being here today uh I'm going to go through my background a little bit um usually I um glance over the bio in my presentations but I want to spend a little time on it just um to share my path because I think everyone has a different path and I think there's value in hearing people's paths so um I went to Alfred State College and received a bachelor's degree in information technology um there see it's the major Network Administration minor in information security Insurance um it wasn't until actually during my

sophomore year that they added enough electives for information security and Assurance to be a minor so right around that time was when you saw that split of information security becoming its own thing Within it um while I was there I ear my associates and applied science computer information systems comp A+ n plus Security Plus work history 13 years of um it and is experience um began four-month internship while I was finishing my bachelor degree went on to spend a year and a half as an it or a help Des technician uh an it man service provider left there to take a position as a system technician going on on site providing support installing um servers

switches all sorts of whatever the equipment is supporting um client offices from there six month in unemployment looking for a job so not something I typically highlight but the reason I included it in here today is because it happens so if you're early in your career looking for that job having trouble finding it if you're getting laid off you're going unemployment it happens it's not you necessarily it that's downsizing right it happens I did it what happened from there rebounded two years since te at a different ISB from there three years as it manager system administrator at a large nonprofit um oversaw a couple staff in that position gain available experience so um just if you put that

work in you'll rebound from your your job search you'll find your first job U just keep going with it continue this is where I kind of make the shift into information security um spent 4 years as a senior information security consultant at accounting firm in Buffalo New York while was there I earned my cissp cmmcp credentials and then from there the past 6 months I've been the owner adviser INF security blueprint uh working with clients to help them address the Cyber risk in their business and um do something about it um in the past couple months I took the elade ccrf and ccrp certifications outside of work uh I've been an active volunteer firefighter since 2013 EMT

since 2018 uh been a board member of the emperor chamber emerging Business Leaders for the past two years and a Junior Achievement classroom instructor for the past two years so like I said I think it's important to learn about other people's paths so uh make sure you're doing it with your peers make sure you're reaching out in the community joining the right um places and learning about what different people are up to people take different paths so couple example infotech uh Western New York if you're a student in the room that happened in April this year if you're going to be a student next April um I highly recommend that keep tabs on the infotech West New

York page um or that shadow buff shadow.com page that allows you to sign up and pick a couple Professionals in the area and you have an hour with them and you interview them and you ask them questions that you want to know so you're in school you want to know what um a career path is like there's a range of um titles there's a range of companies and you have their audience for an hour so it's a great opportunity um I've done that the past two years and I've met um really great students with really great questions who are asking different things and um I enjoy it from my perspective but um they've learned from it as well uh there's also career

notes podcast um those are about 10 minutes long and it's an interview of um different professionals around the around the country around the world and they talk about their path and they share where they started um a lot of them are more senior in their career so they probably started in um it before security was even thought of so uh you can hear how their path has changed there's a lot of younger professionals that maybe came out of the military and transitioned um so that might if that relates to you uh you can hear how someone did that so where's your career path start or what's the next step in your career path there are a lot of um young

professionals um in this room who are in the field looking for the next spot so where's your path go uh so part of this help Des great place to start you're not above getting on the phone and gaining experience with foundational Tech spending time working in the organization so if you're looking for that position and there's an entry level there's a Help Desk position um if that's your door in take it there's no shame in that you're going to learn something from it and when the time's right you you move out of it you pivot out of it you gain knowledge and you and you grow so there's this guy skipped in the networking fundamentals the system

fundamentals the security fundamentals um make sure that whether it's through education job experience certifications self trining whatever you're doing that you're gaining those as you go into cyber um it's tough to get into cyber and not have those and try to um you know Skip a lot of those fundamentals so make sure you're gaining those as you go and you're taking the positions that will help you do that um like the previous slide uh could be help desk Ro and entry level role so you're not going to be able to read it but that's not the point so um you'll see up there it's underlined there's a link to it you can go to it on your own

it's highly interactive um if you hover over any of these it'll pop up it'll tell you uh what the uh link to the um certification is the cost of the certification the full name of it um it'll help you kind of gauge maybe what the next thing you go after is um maybe it'll help you align in what you're going to um specialize in or nich in within cyber so um I won't read through all of them but you can see up here security risk management you can't see well tell you security risk management with the GRC column security operations cleverly split into red team and blue team so um if you're looking more for

the exploitation um and penetration testing you're going to be in here if you're looking more for defensive Ops you'll be here and then it starts at the bottom with beginner and works through intermediate and expert so Security Plus is here so if you have that as an entry level sht and you want to Pivot over into um you know ation testing certified ethical actors here 10 test plus is over here um so it can kind of give you a gauge of what set of skills to um look at next as you're trying to grow into a different um vertical there so other types of continual learning we talk about certifications a little bit um there's free training out

there that you can take advantage of um there's paid or affordable training on top of that um home Labs podcast books all sorts of stuff so this post the only CT on my resume Security Plus I have no degree I coded my free time and spent all my time in my head thinking about how to sell problems at scale most importantly my first year I'm linked and I and there's that list of things so uh there's a link to the post if you want to go through that get some tips on things you could do on LinkedIn and other tips on um how you can grow um if you don't have a lot of formal search if

you don't have a lot of formal education um and you're looking to expand your knowledge so free training these are all cert uh certification related um link will take you right to the post there it it has all of these and More in there and it's all training um practice exams for those certifications so if you're looking for that um security pler that next step whatever you find on that um certification road map um you can head to this post and it'll give you the practics exams for it free practice exams that's important part some more free training one example free Sim training um this post um below General includes links to training for all those platforms so you know entry

level in cyber security you might be um a sock analyst or um something along those lines and you're going to be looking at logs you're going to be correlating things probably using a tool one of these tools are like that so if you're looking to Pivot into um an intro cyber security role um I would recommend heading to this post getting some free Sim training uh learn about um how you can do different reporting and different um correlation of logs and if if you're not looking for Sim train looking for something else there's find posts like this search online there's free tools out there find the good Reddit post that has an answer um this is just one example I included

here uh one I like to share as well is uh practical eal hacking it's a free 15-hour course on YouTube uh by Heath Adams the Cyber mentor um who in here has heard of Heath Adams or the Cyber Mentor handful okay um so he's had this video out I think he's redone it a little bit but he's had this available for at least 5 years now and it's everything from hey here's how you set up a k Linux machine and here's how you do scripting um here's how you do ENT here's how you do mety all the way through setting up different computers setting up your own little environment um to be able to test off of so if

you're looking um ethical hacking penetration testing um great place start for free to set your own tools up and then kind of go where you want with it from there um he also has uh the Cyber mentor.com where he has um paid training um he went from being a free YouTube um content generator to starting his own business um but the PID training is very affordable um his one of his um core foundations is to be affordable and available so they're affordable he has a monthly subscription that has access to all of the training or you can buy them individually um they also have certifications that are BEC coming over the past 2 or 3 years very well known

coming up on um job descriptions and requirements so um after you do that video um you can go there and get very specialized um web exploit training and just all sorts of things on there so I recommend checking that out um there's a cloud resume challenge so if you're looking for a a job in Cloud security um that um tells you how to get into what whichever of the three major platforms it is um there's a training a certification they're all about $100 um it tells you where to start and it tells you how to build a resume online that can showcase your abilities within um that so when you're applying to Cloud security jobs you can send them to that

page and showcase that you've created the page and showcase all of your utilities so home Labs um so this both my certifications do not Define me I will be to find my practical skills and knowledge skipping on the the bolded list my St will consist of routers firewall server setup Raspberry Pi simulate the tax if you're looking for ideas um there's a link to that post there the post goes on a little bit and there's comments and feedback in it um so if you're looking to set up your first physical home lab um that that post is a good resource um one on the top so interviewers didn't care much for my search aside for assessing a base

knowledge of technical ability go read the job description and use that to build your labs around need to use a SIM and write queries create your own in testim so use that Sim training I linked during earlier um use a home lab scenario like this and you could start simulating logs from different devices and correlating them um and practice um running a Sim one thing I want to highlight in there interviewers didn't care much from my SE aside for assessing a base knowledge and Technical ability this isn't a trash Sears but it's only as good as the knowledge you have behind it if you cram for it and you do all those practice tests I shared earlier and then you

forget the knowledge the next day it's just a paper that you're hanging on your wall so that's where the continual learning comes in and that's why every CT requires continual learning it renew it every 3 years or whatever their Cadence is and you have hours of of training it's they want to make sure that you're actually representing that certificate so don't get a certificate move on from it get a certificate and keep up on that knowledge so what when you sit in an interview or you start a job and they say okay you have this certificate that they're expecting that base level of knowledge doesn't mean you have to know everything but they're expecting that you know what that

certificate says so make sure you're staying up on it um so this post how has a home lab helped you in your career and curious if anyone could share their experience with home Labs how they've impacted their careers has it helped you get into cyber security two different responses one I tripled my salary I could pitch Technologies uh I use my home lab that benefit of the employer could solve issues in minutes because I had the same issue in my home lab previously gain more experience with Technologies involved from a through my home lab as through my job I can start my own company thanks my home lab so having that ability to hone your skills

potentially have all those benefits bottom one my home lab is only reason I have an IT career I graduated last year political science and didn't want to work in that field so going to the bottom ended up being enough for them to give me a shot so now I'm 6 months into my first it down at MSP no it degree no CS so again not trashing degrees and Sears you need those but if this individual was able to post they did it without it and you have it imagine how much stronger you become having your degree your Sears and also this real life experience so maybe you don't want all the uh the rack in the in the closet all

the physical Hardware what up Cloud Labs or online Labs um you're Optical hacking it's try hacking hack the Box parot CTF phone Hub um Cloud platforms which I mentioned the cloud resume challenge earlier ad AWS Azure and Cloud all have free tiers you can sign up for a free account and they have um a pretty good offering in their free tiers that you can get started and do a lot with so if you're looking to get in Cloud security or even just Cloud technology in general go pick up free accounts and go test it um games not cyber specifically related but 7 billion humans and human resource machine both available on Steam they're about $15 a piece 25 you get

them both and it's a gamification of coding it starts out real basic and you drag different commands over and you watch people do the things and if they do the right things you move to the next level and it gets a little more complex it goes on so if you're looking for a little intro in the logic of coding um which does come into cyber when you get into um scripting and different um exploits and everything uh you have to have that logic behind your coding I recommend those games um I'm going to stop there with home Labs because there's two sessions later that I think are going to address them pretty good they'll get a lot more

um into it so I'm going to keep going on some other stuff um 2:00 is have lab now what 3:00 from zero to top in 18 months I get involved T FS so U those will both be in this room at 2 and 3:00 okay so there's a list of podcast on here um links to every single one of them so if there's one you're interested in um you can go to the link afterwards um I'm not going to go through what each of them is darket Diaries is probably one of the most well-known ones on there um the that one is a goes back and there's interviews with penetration testers really cool physical penetration

testing stories there's a lot of um coverage of old um Cyber attack cyber events um real engaging um the top three on here are all um pretty weekly cyber security headlines is daily hacking human smashing security is a weekly podcast of current news they bring current stories talk about it for a little bit um so people can stay current on what's going on at least at a high level and then go do your own research on it those are good uh resources books again there's links to all of them um codebook Roose cucko egg um are all super easy reads um every book on here um is based on um true stories from the past except the bottom two are more

educational um so these are great resources um Cult of the dead cow you'll see on there um that's where the art giveaway is from somebody affiliated with that which I didn't know it just happened to me on my slide so um that's about an old hacking organization so you're searching for a job a lot of people in here were looking for their first job and their next job did you rais your hand earlier I was laid off seven weeks ago and have had 21 interviews since then so here's the breakdown 420 applications which came comes out to 15 jobs a day for four weeks that's every day seven days a week not just work days 15 job applications a

day result in 21 interviews six made it to the final round two were offer letters one job acceptance so it's going to be a hall depending on the position you're looking for and um how well aligned your skills it is and what you're doing and um there's a lot of competition especially in the remote world because there's a lot of people that can apply for those jobs so um keep your chin up and keep going for it do the work um obviously in this scenario paid off right seven weeks um and then the right side is some tips that helped so if you go to this post you'll be able to see those tips and the

rest of the post of things that help this individual in uh their job search some more tips stop searching only on those link sites um a list of 11 websites to find remote jobs that paying US Dollars the second one 43 companies currently hiring for 100% remote um both long posts I couldn't really fit them on here but there's links to both of those so um you get the slides for me check those post out and you'll have a lot of resources if you're looking for a remote job okay so we have job descriptions uh associate penetration test here so this a list as entry level position making 73 to 90,000 a year um so red underline does not require

experience solely in a penetration testing position right it's not soci penetration tester position it's entry-level penetration Tester the requirements 1 to two years experience managing it systems certified ethical hacker net plus or similar and the general knowledge of networks Linux windows web app scripting so that all sounds like one or two years of experience and you have your net plus and you're working on a help desk role or um system technici role you meet the requirements for this if you want to Pivot into penetration testing um you have to show that you have some skills and probably home lab CTF experience that you are ready to take this role but it's this is one of

the roles that isn't requiring it is an entry level role requiring 5 years experience entry level role one to two years experience not even cyber so those jobs exist sock analyst we mentioned earlier that might be a good place to start um in cyber this is actually listed as a mid senior level role paying 110 to 140 a year this requires two years experience of related experience strong log analysis skill set in those Technologies and basic knowledge of Sims so again you're working at your entry level it spot help desk system technician part of that going to be troubleshooting servers and firewalls uh potentially looking through logs that's all this experience here basic knowledge of sim you may or may not get that in

that role but like we mentioned earlier you can go get that free training you can set up your Labs you can do that on your own so if you couple your two years of experience um and the experience you're getting on the job with the stuff you're doing at home that makes you a candidate after two years for mid- senior level paying up to 140 so um looking at these job descriptions and seeing uh what they experience they're asking and finding out what your path is is important so that's where that road map comes in and then um tailoring your um self learning your home labs to that so recruiting agencies here's Five Buffalo local ones there's more in

Buffalo there's more outside of Buffalo um top three special on here specialize in computer technology related jobs they have them listed all the time um the bottom two currently have it um and tactical positions listed so um they have a broader range but they also include them if you go there and they don't have a position that fits you currently a lot of times they'll have an open application you can just get your resume on file they'll call you they'll talk to you they'll see um what you're looking for and then they have an account of you and a profile of you so when a job opens it's their job to fill that role so you're going to look at

their entire candidate pool you're now in and say hey I have a role that matches what you're looking for you know I'm going to pass your resume along if you're interested so even if your position is not there reach out to these especially the technology related ones and say this is my goal this is what I'm looking for as my experience and they'll line you up with something appropriate when it opens um they'll work on your behalf networking and no not that networking I already showed you that image of the guy stepping over Network fundamentals I'm not talking about that I'm talking about getting out there meeting people build Making Connections um you know meeting who your peers are

being here today good example um so infotech West New York they have a table out there I think I saw Liz there earlier I saw that Craig posted he's going to be here later go meet them go see what what's up with infotech Western New York um interview days we talked about earlier keep an eye on that for next year um they have their betas Awards coming up in October annual Awards event um where they they give out Awards to different companies in the tech industry and it's a big um sit down dinner there's a big trade show there's a lot of people there um um great networking opportunity to get out and meet people um in technology in Western

New York infos 716 Matt mentioned as an opening address uh he organizes that monthly meetings other Gatherings um of info security related people in Buffalo um so get um that link will take you there you can sign up for the next uh meeting and see who's who in and infos saac in the area T Buffalo has a table out there saw Cameron out there earlier go introduce yourself to Cameron Pac Buffalo Works to um enable Workforce Development in Buffalo in the tech industry and bring um and align um companies with tech so um introduce yourself to him he's a great guy who in here submit the resume uh to get a free ticket today okay lots of hands up meet the

people at the tables like Matt said earlier and like you saw when you submit it your resume is going to all the sponsors so if you go out to the sponsor tables and you talk to them when they go through the resumes they'll go oh yeah there's the person I talk to I picture what their face is maybe they'll connect with you on LinkedIn um if you're just in a stack of resumes with everyone else who put their hand up and is another room you're just another name you're just another resume if you go meet them then you're a face make sure when you're talking to them too you're asking them questions about um if you don't know them already

you're asking them questions about what they do what what their job what their company does what their job role is um you know have a a conversation with them and show them that you understand understand the words they're saying about what about their business um share a little bit about you don't just walk up be like hi I put my application in are you hiring okay have a good day and walk away like that's not going to be effective that's not being memorable um go meet them hear what they're doing see if it's a good fit for

you so here's a post by uh Shannon nick mark mck Mackin um people keep telling you you need a network to get next cyber security job Ching for me at first does that sound like you too so she shared a picture of this book The 20-minute networking meeting um she links to it in her comments in this link so two links to get to that one um so I recommend going there um grabbing this book there's a graduate Edition so if you're in school or recently graduated it's tailored to you coming out of Education in the workforce um then there's also professional Edition in this picture um on top of that I encourage you to follow Shannon she shares daily

she's a recruiter so she shares daily jobs that are out there she'll share she has a post uh um a couple days ago it was here's 30 remote jobs um in cyber here so if you follow her you'll see her post all the time go check out her page um and she's a great referral source for jobs that are opening up in addition to that attention cyber F cyber funds recent grads career transitioners job Seekers uh for cyber fem Friday I want to share a list of groups organization communities you can join help on your journey and there's the list um you can go to that link and get it for yourself as well so lots of

women represented in this room those organizations are there to help you um she said a lot of them are free some of them are low cost um you know women in Tech is growing uh underrepresented women women in cyber especially these organizations are here to help with that to help you along um to help make sure that you have your place represented in the industry so impostor syndrome who in here knows what it is probably a lot I hope who in here has felt impostor syndrome okay about the same hands who know what it is um it's common everyone feels it um it's when an individual doubts their accomplishment skills or talents and they have a fear of being

exposed as a fraud or they feel undeserved undeserving so this is you take a new job and you walk in the office and you're there for a week and you're like I don't know anything am I supposed to be here is this the job I thought I took yes you're new you're growing you took a new position congratulations you're doing what you should be in your career um same thing when you're applying for jobs you look at a thing and you look at all the requirements right you know um s minimum I mean it's not minimum it's preferred requirements since this long you're like ooh I only have 75% of it I don't know if I'm

qualified okay you're qualified apply for the job it might not work out cuz that's how job Jobs go but apply for it it might work out it might be the the position for you you belong that's the most important thing to remember you earned your success and you belong um nobody hopefully did your homework in college went to class for you took your exams nobody went and sat in the interview to get your get your current position or your previous positions no one worked that job for you you did that you earned it you do wrong couple ways to combat the feeling uh list out skills Technologies projects accomplishments don't leave anything out start with a brainstorm blank sheet of

paper here's all the stuff I know and just write until you can't and then stop and think about it and just keep writing and writing and once you've done that pull up your your current role job description your previous job description if you have another job before that keep going pull out all of your job descriptions that you applied for and get ideas and start writing out the things you've learned seeing that all on a paper front back form one paper maybe depending on how you how much you write out will help you realize what you've actually learned go back to Labs you did in college go back to the home Labs you're doing and write it all out

and that way it help you visualize it because when you're looking at a job post for your next position where you should be growing and you don't have all the experience because it's a position that's above what you're doing you're going to feel like you're not you don't belong there but when you list out everything you've done you'll feel like you do don't compare yourself to others there's probably not two people in this room that have an ident iCal amount of experience and education um job role that's why I said it's good to hear perspective from other people that's why I shared mine I encourage you to listen to that podcast and do career interview

days and go meet your peers because you'll hear everyone has a different path and once you start hearing that everyone has a different path you realize you having a different path is a normal thing and you'll stop comparing yourself to others because you can't do it create a professional development plan go back to that c MTH that I put up earlier and say okay I'm here I have these I want to get here what do I have to do what certifications do I have to take what free training I to take what job needs to be my next job where do I need to go from it what's a realistic next step and how do I do it once you

have that plan and how you um can accomplish your goal you feel a lot more um confident in yourself and that you have a plan to move forward um unless like you're endlessly aimlessly looking continual learning we talked about that'll increase the um your confidence and the knowledge that you possess so you'll be able to say I belong here because I did that lab last week and I definitely know it or you know I've been working on that lab for a couple months I I do know this it'll help you with that um sense of belonging um in your own knowledge and like I mentioned talk to peers and mentors talk to people on your team talk to your

supervisor hopefully they're a good uh mentor and leader to you um talk to people who aren't your supervisor um that are outside of your business outside of your job find people at infotech or Tech Buffalo or um today uh find somebody you can go to and just say hey I'm going through this you know I I want to go for another position I don't think I'm qualified what do you think and they'll be honest with you right so if they say okay well you don't quite have the experience or maybe this one skill you should brush up on but everything else you're good on they're going to validate where you've come and help you take that next

step so later today an intro sack um this is um what you'll see if you scan that QR code but in case you don't want to it's here um Zach lick will be up after me talking about tabletop exercises I already highlighted the 2 and 3:00 um talks so with that I got through it pretty quick there's my contact info again um if you want to reach out uh the QR code will give you all my contact info LinkedIn and everything uh email address is on there if you don't want to go to the QR C code um if you do follow uh my business page or even my page on LinkedIn starting next Tuesday running

for the rest of the month I'll have um some giveaways so keep an eye on that um and with that I'll turn it over to you guys if you have questions about anything if you have comments you want to add um I'll leave the rest of the time to you guys maybe I missed it can you share these links um so if you email me I'll send it to you directly um I'm going to find out if it could be provided to bsid and get sent out I don't know I'm sure we can figure out be link to on the Discord server and one other thing like networking in jobs mat does a really good job of having like a job speed on

there too so if you're not crazy about iners networking or you just want another like source of information for that stuff um definitely join the Discord server yeah I'll I'll add just is amazing the breadth of jobs that come through that Discord server like I don't know how Matt keeps up with everything that gets posted out there but he'll send over some uh some pretty interesting unique opportunities so I'll double down on the Discord server perfect other questions or comments okay well thank you oh one right here there's a lot of talk about home lab what would be like the best suggestion on like starting one we're beginning to start one um it depends on

what your goal is so you'll need um essentially a server or a target of what you're trying to do um if if you're doing something like a Sim training you might need several devices that that are doing logging to send to it um if you're just trying to do um like try hack me or hack the box it could just be a virtual machine on your computer and you VPN into it connect to it so it really depends on what you're trying to do what your resources are um you know that example he was talking about buying switches and servers and raspberry pies and all sorts of stuff which is great but that's a lot of stuff

right so um it might be um instead of doing that physical server going and taking advantage of one of those free Cloud um um services and building out some stuff in within the cloud environment and um testing it that way so that help yeah okay yep so what's the difference between right now right now people who are National Security based in the sense like I'm student and people wereing already American right is the same thing that I'm going to practice a difference because I'm going to apply for a job over there lot of options make me

stuff like that so is there like a even something that I can do about it um so you're saying if you apply here to a job you might be excluded from a lot because

of yeah I'm not sure Ian that does put you in a tricky spot that hopefully the job postings are saying that they can't sponsor or that you need a clearance and if you know you can't get one that that they're posting it in there um it's POS possible they don't always do it I don't know if there's a a better way to search for that but I know a lot of times they're in the description so I would just keep an eye out for him in there and um you know hopefully it don't apply to a bunch and find out it wasn't the description and it excludes you down the road

but P yep so you jumped off a cliff when you decided to run your own company what was that like um it took a lot of um confidence so talk about impostor syndrome right so I sat there at that job for a while thinking I'd like to do it but I don't know if I can or should right you have to find a list of clients or know you had clients all that stuff right yeah so um in that position because the business I started was so similar to the role I was in um I it wasn't something I could do on the side because it be conflict of interest so I had to make that decision of I'm

going to have a last day and I'm going to have a first day and I'm starting from scratch and it was tough it's been tough but it's been challenging and rewarding and um I mean the things that are in here that I'm saying to do are you know in in a same way what I'm doing so when I say Network and find people there's been nothing more valuable than the people I've met um you meet someone and even if they're not directly the person that's going to help you they know someone or and they know someone that knows someone and eventually especially in Buffalo um you know has a heard Buffalo's a big living room um you

go somewhere you're going to meet someone that knows someone that you do you're two two degrees away from everybody so um it's just I had confidence in um my previous years you know the four years my previous position minus you know Co and not being able to do some of that to begin that position of the people that I met and the success I could have there um but it's you know even even I was thinking I was going through this yesterday um through the impostor syndrome part I'm like I look at the different businesses that are Buffalo right now that are doing similar things that I'm doing how do I stack up against them sure and part of

me as a business owner has to do that but part of me as an individual could go back to that slide and say don't compare yourself to others right so um I'm doing something that I feel is different and unique from what they're doing and that's what I'm trying to convey so it's if you don't mind me asking what what's a typical client like is it small business is it parts of a large business um typically small so um you know what I'm looking for is businesses who aren't large enough to hire INF security professional internally to help them assess the risk um so that could even include um businesses that have an IT person or it team or Mana service

provider um who even a lot of Mana service providers and it teams don't have that business view of what risk is and how to make risk-based decisions so it's anyone who doesn't have that person so not to monopolize here but um so cyber security insurance is is a huge thing and it's going to only get bigger do you help with that aspect too like what what are the risks that how mitigate that yeah so that's one of the things I talked to um prospective clients about a lot is you get that questionnaire and you're trying to figure out what it covers what it doesn't cover if it's enough coverage um how you're addressing your risk and

they're not going to take it if you're not addressing it to begin with um if you misrepresent something on that form then it might come back on you file a claim so it's in insurance and the client's best interest for that to be as accurate as represented as accurate as it can be um so that's one of the assessments that I I would do is against the cyber security um Insurance questionnaire and uh part of my networking efforts is to meet people in insurance and say how can I help your clients so that you don't have that awkward thing down down the road have to say oh sorry you didn't tell us the right thing we can't actually help you

no one wants to do that you're going to lose a client out of it right so um I really that's one of the things I can help with a lot yeah good luck thank you appreciate it anybody else there's one more out there where is it no okay um I'll be around the rest of the day today um attending some sessions mingling around so um if you have questions for me that you didn't want to raise your hand and ask um please approach me introduce yourself um I look forward to um emails for the slides uh if you have questions when you get the slides uh reach out I'm available to you so um thank you all for sitting and some

standing in today and um enjoying the presentation right can we get a quick