Embarking on the rollercoaster ride of higher education can be daunting, but what if it's the key to unlocking a career in the complex world of cybersecurity? That's exactly what I dive into in our latest episode, as I peel back the layers of my own experience, from the decision to pursue advanced degrees to the unexpected shift from a law enforcement dream to the cutting-edge field of cybersecurity. The journey is fraught with financial strain and motivation hurdles, but the grit needed to persevere becomes palpable as I discuss those pivotal moments that shaped my academic and professional trajectory.
As we navigate through the intricacies of satellite security, you'll get an insider's look at why this lesser-known aspect of cybersecurity is becoming a battleground for future conflicts. The conversation orbits around the emerging threats to our space assets and the gravity of their role in global communications and national defense. My ongoing PhD research on securing satellite-based quantum communications enters the spotlight, offering a glimpse into the preparation necessary to safeguard not just our information, but the very infrastructure that could be targeted by adversaries from miles above us. Join us as we conclude with a heartfelt appreciation for our supportive listeners and a promise to continue delivering content that resonates and informs, all while teasing the thought of a well-deserved weekend break.
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TikTok: Not today China! Not today
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Speaker 1: How's it going everyone?
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This is another Security Unfiltered episode.
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So this is take two of doing this.
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I very rarely do take twos, but somehow the last recording
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didn't record any of my audio after 35 minutes.
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So that's fantastic.
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And you know, this video would have been posted on time if I
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didn't get so frustrated last night after I realized that it
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didn't record the audio.
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I kind of just gave up and went and watched some YouTube.
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But here we are right.
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So I told you yesterday on LinkedIn, if you're following my
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LinkedIn, if you're not, go check it out.
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But I said on LinkedIn that I'm starting my LinkedIn.
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If you're not, go check it out.
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But I said on LinkedIn that I'm starting my PhD.
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So it's actually a little bit late.
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My first semester in the PhD was actually last fall and I
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actually got accepted in the PhD in November of 2022.
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2022.
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So you know, today I want to talk about.
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You know kind of I guess, where I've been with the mentorship
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episodes or the second episode every week, because I haven't
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really been posting those very much this year and I don't know
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if I will post a whole lot of them this year.
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To be completely honest with you, you know I want to talk
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about my master's, how I decided on getting my master's and then
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how I decided on getting my PhD , why I chose the school that I
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did and everything else like that.
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So let's dive in.
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You know, I would say from the beginning of the year, you know,
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I might've been a little bit burnt out, I might've been a
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little depressed, um, very unmotivated to really do much of
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anything.
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You know, um, that includes, like working out and everything,
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like I was just, I was just straight up unmotivated.
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Um, it's, it's really hard when you're behind a camera, you're
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behind a mic, um, you're talking with interesting people, but
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you're not sure if those conversations are helping anyone
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.
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You know, you're just not sure.
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Um, and it's always good to hear from people.
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You know, saying that like, hey , your podcast has helped me
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make this change in my life.
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You know, I'm living a better life now because of it.
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That absolutely happens and I'm very grateful every time that
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happens.
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I feel like it's kind of strategic when it does happen.
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Um, but you know it's difficult .
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You know, because I want this platform to be able to help
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people.
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You know, I want, I want this platform to be able to help
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people.
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You know, I want.
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I want this platform to be able to help people get into the
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field that I love, which is cybersecurity.
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Um, because I had such a difficult time getting into this
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field and it made no sense for why it was taking so long, why
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it was so difficult.
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And uh, yeah, that's what this platform is all about.
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And so, in a part of my journey, I'll start back with my
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bachelor's.
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You know, I got my bachelor's with in criminal justice, with a
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double minor in economics and international relations, right,
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and so I had work experience in it during college.
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It was like high it help desk, you know.
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So I figured the best way to pay these student loans is to
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get a help desk job until I get into my law enforcement career
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that I wanted to get into.
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But, you know, little did I know that law enforcement career
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would never happen.
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Thankfully, it would never happen, you know, and during my
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journey I was having a lot of issues getting into security.
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I was being told I was doing all the right things to just keep
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on going forward, but after a thousand interviews you start to
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question if you're doing the right thing, you know, if this
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is for you, and when I say a thousand interviews.
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I do actually mean a thousand interviews.
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I was doing two to three interviews a day, five days a
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week, for probably a year and a half um, before before I gave my
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into my masters.
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It was pretty crazy, um, you know, because I once I set a
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goal, um, that turns into everything that I do.
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That becomes everything that I do.
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That turns into everything that I do.
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That becomes everything that I do.
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You know I don't take it lightly.
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When I set a goal, I achieve my goals really at all costs, it
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doesn't matter what it takes.
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And I got to the point where I said to myself okay, like you
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have to change it up, this isn't working.
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Whatever you're doing now, you know, getting your security plus
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making connections, trying to learn more, researching that
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sort of thing it's not working.
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We need progress now because you're making $45 a year
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with student loans, a car payment, rent, food, cell phone,
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all the different bills that add up over time, only making
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$45.
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I mean, there was literally days that I would have to choose
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which meal I wanted to have that day.
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You know I never had breakfast, but I had to choose between
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lunch and dinner, for which one I wanted to have.
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You know, because I didn't have enough money to pay for the
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food to.
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You know, have that extra meal.
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You know, I didn't have enough money and a lot of people would
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say, oh, just have groceries.
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Yeah, groceries take money, you know, and I had groceries, I
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just didn't have enough.
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You know, that was a problem.
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And somehow, somehow I get denied for food stamps, right.
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Somehow, somehow I get denied for food stamps, right.
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So I'm in this bad situation and so I started looking into
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master's degrees.
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You know, and you know, my criteria for a master's degree
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that I was going to go down it had to be hands on.
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It couldn't be just theory, just book work, you know, just
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multiple choice tests and whatnot.
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There was some multiple choice tests, don't get me wrong, in
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the program.
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But you know, one day, right, you are talking through some
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slides for an hour or two with your professor about wireless
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security, why it matters, why these other protocols are so
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vulnerable, and things like that .
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The very next day, maybe even that same day, you're doing a
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lab, practicing the exact thing that you were talking about, you
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know.
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So you're talking about why WEP is bad.
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Well, let's go put it in the lab and see why it's bad.
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You know, they teach you how to create your own cybersecurity
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lab, how to do all that work, and I think now they even have
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what's called a cyber range.
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You know where students can go and log into this environment
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and do whatever they want to it, and it's a really good learning
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tool, I would say.
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So that's really what I wanted from a program, and I looked
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around and there wasn't a whole lot of programs, honestly, and
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they were all pretty expensive.
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You know, when you get your bachelor's degree, your
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bachelor's is, you know it's typically pretty significant.
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You know, if you're going to a four-year university, an
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accredited institution, it's a pretty significant amount of
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money.
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I didn't want that.
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I wanted something that made sense for the cost.
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And so, you know, I started looking around and I saw Capital
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Technology University and I did a little bit of research into
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it.
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And you know, in my research I found that essentially, capital
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Technology University was born from NASA and the NSA getting
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together and saying we don't have enough talent.
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There isn't enough talent in the market that is prepared to
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go through any of our training programs, like there's literally
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no one.
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So we need to develop a training pipeline, and that
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training pipeline will be kept Capital Technology University,
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and with that it's going to be a hands-on program.
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They're going to learn skills that we actually need in the
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real world and we'll go from there, and so that's where this
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school came from.
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You know, that's the thought behind this school, and
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everything is actually teaching you real world cybersecurity
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skills that you need to be successful, not just in your job
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, but just to be successful in the field, and that holds true
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in my opinion.
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You know, with that strong background of agencies and
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whatnot, you know the professors are going to be top tier
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professors.
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They are top tier professors, they are experts in the field.
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You know, for a forensics class, I had someone that had been
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doing forensics for 20 years and she's leading Symantec's
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division of forensics and you know she's worked on so many
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cases and you know she's worked on some very high profile, big
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name um.
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You know cases or situations right, and so that's extremely
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interesting, extremely beneficial to you know, have
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that sort of experience in the Zoom call right.
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And so I went and I got my master's in cybersecurity.
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It was a great program.
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I don't regret it at all.
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It was very well worth the money.
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The price was definitely below everyone else and you know,
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obviously I took out student loans but, you know it, looking
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back on it, I could have afforded that like today.
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Today, if I'm making the same money and I had to get my
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master's, I could probably afford that on my own.
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So right after my master's, you know, I started to look into
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getting a PhD.
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I already got the master's.
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Why not the PhD?
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Let's see if it's actually worth it.
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And I think either the year that I graduated, which was 2018
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, or the next year, which was 2019, capital Technology
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University came out with a PhD program in space cybersecurity
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and I looked into the program a little bit, but I couldn't
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really find anything, you know, in the marketplace that would
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indicate you know value, or ROI as I like to look at it from,
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and so I didn't really dive farther into it.
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You know, I would stay in touch with the deans and everything
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and, um, I I would, I would try to get a feel for the market,
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you know, because I don't want to do something that is just
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going to be a paperweight, that's going to take up a whole
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lot of time, money and effort and not give me anything.
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You know, the ROI has to be there and I feel like not
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everyone looks at their education the same way as I do
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with that.
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Well, I look at education as an equation of ROI.
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If I get this bachelor's degree, how much money can I make with
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this bachelor's degree?
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Can I live off of that bachelor's degree?
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Same thing for the master's, same thing for the PhD.
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You know, does it enhance anything that I'm doing right
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now?
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Does it take me to another stratosphere of you know,
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finance and positions and roles and stature within companies and
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things like that?
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Right, those are the things that I factor into my ROI.
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And so you know this was years, right, this was years, every
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year, reaching back out, doing more research, figuring out if
00:12:50
this PhD thing is for me, and, sure enough, in 2022, when I
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reached out, they had a bit more data around it.
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They had people that had gone through the program, that had
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landed jobs, and they had exact numbers of you know what those
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roles you know really commanded in the industry or whatnot.
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Now these roles may not be that big right now, but everything
00:13:15
that is what I would call like a mile marker or a stepping stone
00:13:21
or something in your career.
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I try to plan out five to 10 years.
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So I did this with cloud security.
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I got into cybersecurity and I immediately said what part of
00:13:35
cybersecurity is going to be big in five to ten years?
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I came to the conclusion that cloud security was absolutely
00:13:42
going to be one of them.
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Ai would be another one.
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Ai is beyond my skill set.
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Cloud security is right within my skill set.
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So I got the required experience and I got into cloud
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security.
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Sure enough, you know, it has become what it is today.
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It's basically turning into its own security team where you
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know the cloud security team will have its own domains of
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cloud security infrastructure, serverless.
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You know all these different things because the skill sets
00:14:12
are so broad.
00:14:13
So I did the same thing with the PhD.
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You know where is cybersecurity going, what's going to be
00:14:17
valuable in five to 10 years these different things because
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the skill sets are so broad.
00:14:19
So I did the same thing with the PhD.
00:14:20
You know where is cybersecurity going, what's going to be
00:14:21
valuable in five to 10 years.
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It's very difficult to determine the 10 year part.
00:14:27
10 years you know, honestly, more of a guess, but five years
00:14:29
you can absolutely do an estimate of what's going on in
00:14:32
the world, where the market is going, are there new roles and
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positions, with a new requirement coming available and
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they're not being filled.
00:14:41
You know things like that.
00:14:44
So I looked at the world holistically and I determined
00:14:51
that satellite security is going to be a big field in the future
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.
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I don't know how big it's going to be, but it'll be a
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cornerstone of cybersecurity.
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The reason why I say that is because a lot of the conflict
00:15:08
going on in the world doesn't seem to be going away right.
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The next major war is going to start in space before anything
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ever happens on the ground.
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At least that's my opinion, and I've talked to a lot of people
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in the military that are higher up different generals and
00:15:23
colonels and things like that and they all agree that's
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exactly where it is going, and that's why the Space Force was
00:15:29
actually created, because, essentially, the Air Force owned
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that function and it was becoming too large for the Air
00:15:35
Force owned that function and it was becoming too large for the
00:15:38
Air Force to manage, and it wasn't right because the Air
00:15:41
Force was being pulled in so many areas.
00:15:44
And so that's why the Space Force exists, which is an
00:15:50
interesting name, by the way.
00:15:55
But you know, I determined that this would be an area of focus,
00:15:59
an area that I should pay attention to, you know, because
00:16:02
I always had that mindset of revamping your skills, making
00:16:06
sure that, if you're laid off today, that the skills that you
00:16:10
have are not so outdated that you can't land a job within a
00:16:16
reasonable amount of time.
00:16:17
And a reasonable amount of time is two months in my opinion.
00:16:20
You know it shouldn't be longer than two months, and in
00:16:23
cybersecurity it's really like two weeks.
00:16:26
You know you get laid off from a job, you're getting basically
00:16:29
a little longer vacation.
00:16:31
You know that's, that's what that is, um, and so you know,
00:16:37
that's why I started to choose to go down the PhD route, and
00:16:43
because I had a better understanding of the marketplace
00:16:47
, of what was to come.
00:16:48
And you know, sure enough, right, I started my PhD in the
00:16:54
fall of last year.
00:16:54
And sure enough, just from my podcast, interviewing some
00:17:01
interesting people on my podcast , I have interesting
00:17:05
opportunities coming up that wouldn't have been available to
00:17:08
me otherwise, just solely because of my PhD.
00:17:14
What I'm getting it in?
00:17:15
I'll tell you what I'm getting in it.
00:17:16
So the topic isn't completely locked in yet.
00:17:20
The topic can actually change and adjust as you go a bit, but
00:17:26
I'm focusing on how to best secure satellites to enable
00:17:31
quantum communications from the ground to the satellite and then
00:17:34
to another device, so you can send a text message.
00:17:37
It'll be encrypted with, you know, quantum encryption or
00:17:41
quantum resistant algorithms.
00:17:43
It'll hit the satellite directly because cell towers,
00:17:47
you know, can go down and whatnot right and then it'll be
00:17:52
directed to the recipient.
00:17:55
This seems pretty trivial, but it's not.
00:17:58
In an age where we're moving into AI faster than ever and it
00:18:03
seems to be going at an accelerating pace, not a
00:18:06
decelerating pace, we are going to have a lot of massive issues
00:18:14
and quantum security is going to be a huge part of it, of
00:18:19
actually solving those issues.
00:18:21
And you know, plus, there is a lot of critical infrastructure
00:18:26
in space.
00:18:27
There's a huge amount of critical infrastructure in space
00:18:31
.
00:18:31
You know, internet providers have satellites, gps providers
00:18:37
have satellites.
00:18:37
You know, if you hit the right satellite, you can knock out GPS
00:18:42
for an entire region, if not a country.
00:18:44
Okay, so that's a huge, huge thing, right?
00:18:50
This should be something that we are actively protecting
00:18:53
against.
00:18:54
And people will say well, is there any threats going on or
00:18:57
anything like that in Russia and China and, you know,
00:19:01
potentially even North Korea?
00:19:03
Those countries, those uh dictators, have actually
00:19:10
attacked satellites in space, from another satellite and
00:19:14
whatnot.
00:19:15
So it is not farfetched, it is not sci-fi.
00:19:19
You know this is a real thing.
00:19:23
That's going to become more and more prevalent and so it's
00:19:26
important, you know, for for you as a professional, for you as a
00:19:29
father, um, husband, you know, just as a man, right overall,
00:19:36
maybe even just as a citizen, is to identify areas of interest
00:19:41
and how that outlook looks like and then going after it right to
00:19:46
secure your own success.
00:19:48
That's, that's the thing that a lot of people don't get Right,
00:19:53
and I think this quote really makes a lot of sense.
00:19:57
No one plans to fail.
00:19:58
They fail to plan.
00:20:00
You know you have to be planning ahead for these things.
00:20:04
You know, when I'm doing my finances, I estimate out my
00:20:08
finances in Q1 for the entire year, right, not just my salary
00:20:14
Now I live off my salary, right, but all of the extra stuff that
00:20:20
I'm doing.
00:20:20
I estimated all out for the entire year.
00:20:23
So by December I know exactly what I should have, where I
00:20:27
should have it, everything like that.
00:20:28
You should really have that mentality with everything you
00:20:34
know.
00:20:34
In my opinion you should, and you know it's.
00:20:40
It's something that everyone should be prepared about.
00:20:43
They should be, you know, really kind of driving towards.
00:20:49
In my opinion, wherever that place is that you decide like,
00:20:53
hey, this, in five years, this is going to be big In five years
00:20:57
, this will matter.
00:20:57
Do you have work now?
00:20:58
So guess what.
00:20:58
When five years comes and someone this will matter, um, do
00:21:00
you have work now?
00:21:00
So guess what?
00:21:01
When five years comes?
00:21:02
And someone says, hey, do you have experience in securing
00:21:06
satellites?
00:21:06
Because now we have satellites in space, maybe your company
00:21:09
doesn't even have satellites, maybe they're gonna have
00:21:12
satellites and they can go to you and say, hey, you, you have
00:21:18
this PhD in satellite security.
00:21:20
Right, let's talk, We'll give you a promotion, we'll give you
00:21:24
the raise that you need and all this other stuff, right?
00:21:27
If you don't do the work though way now, if you don't do the
00:21:31
work ahead of time, that opportunity will not exist.
00:21:34
They will not go to you, they will not seek you out.
00:21:36
If you apply to it, you will not get it, and that's just a
00:21:44
fact, you know.
00:21:44
So you have to be planning ahead, you have to be, you know,
00:21:49
really adjusting for everything around you.
00:21:52
You know, um, to be prepared for it.
00:21:55
That's my opinion.
00:21:56
You know, other people live their life differently, whether
00:22:01
I agree with it or not, it doesn't even matter, you know.
00:22:04
But that's just my opinion.
00:22:06
That's how I approach things in life, you know.
00:22:10
And another, another factor that went into deciding to get my
00:22:15
PhD was the fact that I'm a new dad, you know, and I want to set
00:22:21
the bar high for my kids, right , because even if, even if they
00:22:25
don't hit the bar and they hit somewhere else, you don't
00:22:29
probably be in a pretty good place, right?
00:22:31
You know my wife is getting her second master's.
00:22:34
She's already talking about PhD and what that does to little
00:22:41
kids, you know.
00:22:42
And obviously I'm not going to be a drill sergeant and you know
00:22:46
you have to.
00:22:47
You know, get straight A's and that sort of thing.
00:22:49
That's not my personality, that's not how I parent or
00:22:52
anything like that.
00:22:54
But when little kids see, hey, both my parents have their
00:22:58
master's degrees and their PhDs, we're living in a nice, safe
00:23:03
neighborhood, we're driving nice cars, right, maybe there's
00:23:09
something to that, you know, it gets into their subconscious and
00:23:13
says, hey, maybe this is achievable for me, maybe I
00:23:16
should push myself a little harder in this area.
00:23:19
At least that's my thought.
00:23:21
With it, you know, I could be wrong I'd come back in, you know
00:23:28
, 10, 12 years when I'm still doing this podcast and be like,
00:23:29
yeah, that is not how it works, right?
00:23:31
Um, but at least that's my thought with it.
00:23:33
You know, they see that it's possible, they see the value in
00:23:35
it, um, you know, for me, I see the value in it.
00:23:38
You know, for me, I'm the first kid to get my bachelor's degree
00:23:43
, I'm the first to get my master's, and still the only
00:23:47
with a master's, and I'll be the first with a PhD and hopefully
00:23:57
not the last with a PhD, you know.
00:23:59
So I want more for my kids and I think getting that PhD will
00:24:03
open up interesting opportunities that are already
00:24:04
opening up for me, but it will open up interesting
00:24:07
opportunities that wouldn't be available to me regularly.
00:24:11
You know, and that's the whole reason why I'm getting the PhD,
00:24:15
because you know, if you do the same thing that you've always
00:24:18
done, you're going to end up in the same place that you've
00:24:20
always been.
00:24:21
I'm not in a bad place, you know.
00:24:23
I'm in a pretty good place.
00:24:24
I make a comfortable living, I enjoy what I do, you know, and
00:24:30
that's a huge plus compared to everyone else, right, like?
00:24:34
There's a lot of people out there that are doing something
00:24:35
they don't want to do.
00:24:36
Maybe you're listening to this podcast and you're in a field
00:24:39
that you don't want to do.
00:24:40
You're not alone.
00:24:43
You know there's a lot of people out there, but you can
00:24:45
find something that you want to do that you know brings joy to
00:24:50
you and make enough money to survive.
00:24:54
And, you know, live a good life Like not just survive, not just
00:24:58
get by, but you can live a good life.
00:25:00
So you know, that was my whole rationality behind it.
00:25:07
Right is, how do I take my career to the next level?
00:25:10
How do I prepare for that next five to 10 year trend of areas
00:25:16
of cybersecurity?
00:25:16
How do I research something that will make sense, that will
00:25:22
add value to the space?
00:25:23
And, you know, of course, setting the standards for my
00:25:29
kids.
00:25:29
So you know, that's all that I have, guys, you know, going
00:25:33
forward.
00:25:34
I'm not sure how frequent I'll post these sorts of videos.
00:25:37
If you know, if there's a certain topic that you want me
00:25:42
to cover, that you want me to touch on, that you want my
00:25:44
opinion on, please hit me up on Twitter, hit me up on LinkedIn
00:25:50
and comment on a post, send me a message, whatever it might be,
00:25:55
and let me know that you want to hear about it, because you know
00:25:58
, for me it's really easy for me to guess.
00:26:01
You know, put a bunch of things on a board.
00:26:04
Put a bunch of things on a board, you know, throw a dart at
00:26:09
it, and that's what I'm talking about today.
00:26:11
But if it provides no value to you, I don't want to do it,
00:26:14
right?
00:26:14
So if you find value in a certain topic that you want my
00:26:17
opinion on, please send it my way and I will absolutely, you
00:26:23
know, address it in a podcast.
00:26:25
So with that, guys, thank you, hopefully the audio in this one
00:26:31
recorded.
00:26:31
I hope you guys have a great weekend.
00:26:35
I think we have a long weekend this week, so that's always
00:26:38
fantastic.
00:26:39
All right, bye everyone.
Speaker 1: How's it going everyone?
00:00:01
This is another Security Unfiltered episode.
00:00:05
So this is take two of doing this.
00:00:09
I very rarely do take twos, but somehow the last recording
00:00:13
didn't record any of my audio after 35 minutes.
00:00:17
So that's fantastic.
00:00:19
And you know, this video would have been posted on time if I
00:00:24
didn't get so frustrated last night after I realized that it
00:00:27
didn't record the audio.
00:00:28
I kind of just gave up and went and watched some YouTube.
00:00:33
But here we are right.
00:00:36
So I told you yesterday on LinkedIn, if you're following my
00:00:40
LinkedIn, if you're not, go check it out.
00:00:43
But I said on LinkedIn that I'm starting my LinkedIn.
00:00:45
If you're not, go check it out.
00:00:45
But I said on LinkedIn that I'm starting my PhD.
00:00:47
So it's actually a little bit late.
00:00:50
My first semester in the PhD was actually last fall and I
00:00:57
actually got accepted in the PhD in November of 2022.
00:01:00
2022.
00:01:10
So you know, today I want to talk about.
00:01:11
You know kind of I guess, where I've been with the mentorship
00:01:13
episodes or the second episode every week, because I haven't
00:01:14
really been posting those very much this year and I don't know
00:01:19
if I will post a whole lot of them this year.
00:01:21
To be completely honest with you, you know I want to talk
00:01:25
about my master's, how I decided on getting my master's and then
00:01:30
how I decided on getting my PhD , why I chose the school that I
00:01:34
did and everything else like that.
00:01:36
So let's dive in.
00:01:38
You know, I would say from the beginning of the year, you know,
00:01:45
I might've been a little bit burnt out, I might've been a
00:01:47
little depressed, um, very unmotivated to really do much of
00:01:53
anything.
00:01:53
You know, um, that includes, like working out and everything,
00:01:57
like I was just, I was just straight up unmotivated.
00:02:00
Um, it's, it's really hard when you're behind a camera, you're
00:02:05
behind a mic, um, you're talking with interesting people, but
00:02:09
you're not sure if those conversations are helping anyone
00:02:13
.
00:02:13
You know, you're just not sure.
00:02:14
Um, and it's always good to hear from people.
00:02:20
You know, saying that like, hey , your podcast has helped me
00:02:24
make this change in my life.
00:02:25
You know, I'm living a better life now because of it.
00:02:27
That absolutely happens and I'm very grateful every time that
00:02:31
happens.
00:02:31
I feel like it's kind of strategic when it does happen.
00:02:34
Um, but you know it's difficult .
00:02:40
You know, because I want this platform to be able to help
00:02:43
people.
00:02:43
You know, I want, I want this platform to be able to help
00:02:45
people.
00:02:45
You know, I want.
00:02:45
I want this platform to be able to help people get into the
00:02:48
field that I love, which is cybersecurity.
00:02:51
Um, because I had such a difficult time getting into this
00:02:56
field and it made no sense for why it was taking so long, why
00:03:01
it was so difficult.
00:03:02
And uh, yeah, that's what this platform is all about.
00:03:10
And so, in a part of my journey, I'll start back with my
00:03:13
bachelor's.
00:03:14
You know, I got my bachelor's with in criminal justice, with a
00:03:19
double minor in economics and international relations, right,
00:03:23
and so I had work experience in it during college.
00:03:27
It was like high it help desk, you know.
00:03:29
So I figured the best way to pay these student loans is to
00:03:35
get a help desk job until I get into my law enforcement career
00:03:39
that I wanted to get into.
00:03:40
But, you know, little did I know that law enforcement career
00:03:45
would never happen.
00:03:45
Thankfully, it would never happen, you know, and during my
00:03:51
journey I was having a lot of issues getting into security.
00:03:55
I was being told I was doing all the right things to just keep
00:03:58
on going forward, but after a thousand interviews you start to
00:04:06
question if you're doing the right thing, you know, if this
00:04:11
is for you, and when I say a thousand interviews.
00:04:15
I do actually mean a thousand interviews.
00:04:18
I was doing two to three interviews a day, five days a
00:04:23
week, for probably a year and a half um, before before I gave my
00:04:32
into my masters.
00:04:32
It was pretty crazy, um, you know, because I once I set a
00:04:38
goal, um, that turns into everything that I do.
00:04:42
That becomes everything that I do.
00:04:44
That turns into everything that I do.
00:04:46
That becomes everything that I do.
00:04:47
You know I don't take it lightly.
00:04:50
When I set a goal, I achieve my goals really at all costs, it
00:04:51
doesn't matter what it takes.
00:04:55
And I got to the point where I said to myself okay, like you
00:05:00
have to change it up, this isn't working.
00:05:02
Whatever you're doing now, you know, getting your security plus
00:05:05
making connections, trying to learn more, researching that
00:05:09
sort of thing it's not working.
00:05:10
We need progress now because you're making $45 a year
00:05:16
with student loans, a car payment, rent, food, cell phone,
00:05:20
all the different bills that add up over time, only making
00:05:25
$45.
00:05:27
I mean, there was literally days that I would have to choose
00:05:31
which meal I wanted to have that day.
00:05:34
You know I never had breakfast, but I had to choose between
00:05:37
lunch and dinner, for which one I wanted to have.
00:05:40
You know, because I didn't have enough money to pay for the
00:05:43
food to.
00:05:45
You know, have that extra meal.
00:05:48
You know, I didn't have enough money and a lot of people would
00:05:51
say, oh, just have groceries.
00:05:52
Yeah, groceries take money, you know, and I had groceries, I
00:05:56
just didn't have enough.
00:05:57
You know, that was a problem.
00:05:59
And somehow, somehow I get denied for food stamps, right.
00:06:03
Somehow, somehow I get denied for food stamps, right.
00:06:04
So I'm in this bad situation and so I started looking into
00:06:13
master's degrees.
00:06:13
You know, and you know, my criteria for a master's degree
00:06:15
that I was going to go down it had to be hands on.
00:06:16
It couldn't be just theory, just book work, you know, just
00:06:21
multiple choice tests and whatnot.
00:06:23
There was some multiple choice tests, don't get me wrong, in
00:06:25
the program.
00:06:26
But you know, one day, right, you are talking through some
00:06:33
slides for an hour or two with your professor about wireless
00:06:38
security, why it matters, why these other protocols are so
00:06:44
vulnerable, and things like that .
00:06:45
The very next day, maybe even that same day, you're doing a
00:06:50
lab, practicing the exact thing that you were talking about, you
00:06:55
know.
00:06:55
So you're talking about why WEP is bad.
00:06:58
Well, let's go put it in the lab and see why it's bad.
00:07:01
You know, they teach you how to create your own cybersecurity
00:07:06
lab, how to do all that work, and I think now they even have
00:07:12
what's called a cyber range.
00:07:13
You know where students can go and log into this environment
00:07:19
and do whatever they want to it, and it's a really good learning
00:07:23
tool, I would say.
00:07:26
So that's really what I wanted from a program, and I looked
00:07:30
around and there wasn't a whole lot of programs, honestly, and
00:07:33
they were all pretty expensive.
00:07:35
You know, when you get your bachelor's degree, your
00:07:39
bachelor's is, you know it's typically pretty significant.
00:07:44
You know, if you're going to a four-year university, an
00:07:48
accredited institution, it's a pretty significant amount of
00:07:51
money.
00:07:51
I didn't want that.
00:07:53
I wanted something that made sense for the cost.
00:07:57
And so, you know, I started looking around and I saw Capital
00:08:04
Technology University and I did a little bit of research into
00:08:07
it.
00:08:08
And you know, in my research I found that essentially, capital
00:08:13
Technology University was born from NASA and the NSA getting
00:08:20
together and saying we don't have enough talent.
00:08:23
There isn't enough talent in the market that is prepared to
00:08:27
go through any of our training programs, like there's literally
00:08:31
no one.
00:08:32
So we need to develop a training pipeline, and that
00:08:36
training pipeline will be kept Capital Technology University,
00:08:42
and with that it's going to be a hands-on program.
00:08:44
They're going to learn skills that we actually need in the
00:08:47
real world and we'll go from there, and so that's where this
00:08:52
school came from.
00:08:53
You know, that's the thought behind this school, and
00:08:56
everything is actually teaching you real world cybersecurity
00:08:59
skills that you need to be successful, not just in your job
00:09:02
, but just to be successful in the field, and that holds true
00:09:16
in my opinion.
00:09:17
You know, with that strong background of agencies and
00:09:21
whatnot, you know the professors are going to be top tier
00:09:24
professors.
00:09:25
They are top tier professors, they are experts in the field.
00:09:30
You know, for a forensics class, I had someone that had been
00:09:34
doing forensics for 20 years and she's leading Symantec's
00:09:40
division of forensics and you know she's worked on so many
00:09:43
cases and you know she's worked on some very high profile, big
00:09:48
name um.
00:09:49
You know cases or situations right, and so that's extremely
00:09:57
interesting, extremely beneficial to you know, have
00:10:02
that sort of experience in the Zoom call right.
00:10:06
And so I went and I got my master's in cybersecurity.
00:10:10
It was a great program.
00:10:12
I don't regret it at all.
00:10:13
It was very well worth the money.
00:10:16
The price was definitely below everyone else and you know,
00:10:23
obviously I took out student loans but, you know it, looking
00:10:27
back on it, I could have afforded that like today.
00:10:30
Today, if I'm making the same money and I had to get my
00:10:41
master's, I could probably afford that on my own.
00:10:46
So right after my master's, you know, I started to look into
00:10:51
getting a PhD.
00:10:52
I already got the master's.
00:10:53
Why not the PhD?
00:10:55
Let's see if it's actually worth it.
00:10:57
And I think either the year that I graduated, which was 2018
00:11:02
, or the next year, which was 2019, capital Technology
00:11:07
University came out with a PhD program in space cybersecurity
00:11:15
and I looked into the program a little bit, but I couldn't
00:11:19
really find anything, you know, in the marketplace that would
00:11:23
indicate you know value, or ROI as I like to look at it from,
00:11:32
and so I didn't really dive farther into it.
00:11:35
You know, I would stay in touch with the deans and everything
00:11:39
and, um, I I would, I would try to get a feel for the market,
00:11:45
you know, because I don't want to do something that is just
00:11:48
going to be a paperweight, that's going to take up a whole
00:11:50
lot of time, money and effort and not give me anything.
00:11:54
You know, the ROI has to be there and I feel like not
00:11:57
everyone looks at their education the same way as I do
00:12:00
with that.
00:12:00
Well, I look at education as an equation of ROI.
00:12:05
If I get this bachelor's degree, how much money can I make with
00:12:11
this bachelor's degree?
00:12:12
Can I live off of that bachelor's degree?
00:12:15
Same thing for the master's, same thing for the PhD.
00:12:18
You know, does it enhance anything that I'm doing right
00:12:22
now?
00:12:22
Does it take me to another stratosphere of you know,
00:12:27
finance and positions and roles and stature within companies and
00:12:32
things like that?
00:12:33
Right, those are the things that I factor into my ROI.
00:12:38
And so you know this was years, right, this was years, every
00:12:45
year, reaching back out, doing more research, figuring out if
00:12:50
this PhD thing is for me, and, sure enough, in 2022, when I
00:12:54
reached out, they had a bit more data around it.
00:12:56
They had people that had gone through the program, that had
00:13:01
landed jobs, and they had exact numbers of you know what those
00:13:06
roles you know really commanded in the industry or whatnot.
00:13:10
Now these roles may not be that big right now, but everything
00:13:15
that is what I would call like a mile marker or a stepping stone
00:13:21
or something in your career.
00:13:25
I try to plan out five to 10 years.
00:13:28
So I did this with cloud security.
00:13:30
I got into cybersecurity and I immediately said what part of
00:13:35
cybersecurity is going to be big in five to ten years?
00:13:38
I came to the conclusion that cloud security was absolutely
00:13:42
going to be one of them.
00:13:42
Ai would be another one.
00:13:44
Ai is beyond my skill set.
00:13:46
Cloud security is right within my skill set.
00:13:49
So I got the required experience and I got into cloud
00:13:52
security.
00:13:53
Sure enough, you know, it has become what it is today.
00:13:59
It's basically turning into its own security team where you
00:14:03
know the cloud security team will have its own domains of
00:14:07
cloud security infrastructure, serverless.
00:14:10
You know all these different things because the skill sets
00:14:12
are so broad.
00:14:13
So I did the same thing with the PhD.
00:14:15
You know where is cybersecurity going, what's going to be
00:14:17
valuable in five to 10 years these different things because
00:14:19
the skill sets are so broad.
00:14:19
So I did the same thing with the PhD.
00:14:20
You know where is cybersecurity going, what's going to be
00:14:21
valuable in five to 10 years.
00:14:22
It's very difficult to determine the 10 year part.
00:14:27
10 years you know, honestly, more of a guess, but five years
00:14:29
you can absolutely do an estimate of what's going on in
00:14:32
the world, where the market is going, are there new roles and
00:14:39
positions, with a new requirement coming available and
00:14:40
they're not being filled.
00:14:41
You know things like that.
00:14:44
So I looked at the world holistically and I determined
00:14:51
that satellite security is going to be a big field in the future
00:14:58
.
00:14:58
I don't know how big it's going to be, but it'll be a
00:15:02
cornerstone of cybersecurity.
00:15:04
The reason why I say that is because a lot of the conflict
00:15:08
going on in the world doesn't seem to be going away right.
00:15:11
The next major war is going to start in space before anything
00:15:16
ever happens on the ground.
00:15:18
At least that's my opinion, and I've talked to a lot of people
00:15:21
in the military that are higher up different generals and
00:15:23
colonels and things like that and they all agree that's
00:15:27
exactly where it is going, and that's why the Space Force was
00:15:29
actually created, because, essentially, the Air Force owned
00:15:34
that function and it was becoming too large for the Air
00:15:35
Force owned that function and it was becoming too large for the
00:15:38
Air Force to manage, and it wasn't right because the Air
00:15:41
Force was being pulled in so many areas.
00:15:44
And so that's why the Space Force exists, which is an
00:15:50
interesting name, by the way.
00:15:55
But you know, I determined that this would be an area of focus,
00:15:59
an area that I should pay attention to, you know, because
00:16:02
I always had that mindset of revamping your skills, making
00:16:06
sure that, if you're laid off today, that the skills that you
00:16:10
have are not so outdated that you can't land a job within a
00:16:16
reasonable amount of time.
00:16:17
And a reasonable amount of time is two months in my opinion.
00:16:20
You know it shouldn't be longer than two months, and in
00:16:23
cybersecurity it's really like two weeks.
00:16:26
You know you get laid off from a job, you're getting basically
00:16:29
a little longer vacation.
00:16:31
You know that's, that's what that is, um, and so you know,
00:16:37
that's why I started to choose to go down the PhD route, and
00:16:43
because I had a better understanding of the marketplace
00:16:47
, of what was to come.
00:16:48
And you know, sure enough, right, I started my PhD in the
00:16:54
fall of last year.
00:16:54
And sure enough, just from my podcast, interviewing some
00:17:01
interesting people on my podcast , I have interesting
00:17:05
opportunities coming up that wouldn't have been available to
00:17:08
me otherwise, just solely because of my PhD.
00:17:14
What I'm getting it in?
00:17:15
I'll tell you what I'm getting in it.
00:17:16
So the topic isn't completely locked in yet.
00:17:20
The topic can actually change and adjust as you go a bit, but
00:17:26
I'm focusing on how to best secure satellites to enable
00:17:31
quantum communications from the ground to the satellite and then
00:17:34
to another device, so you can send a text message.
00:17:37
It'll be encrypted with, you know, quantum encryption or
00:17:41
quantum resistant algorithms.
00:17:43
It'll hit the satellite directly because cell towers,
00:17:47
you know, can go down and whatnot right and then it'll be
00:17:52
directed to the recipient.
00:17:55
This seems pretty trivial, but it's not.
00:17:58
In an age where we're moving into AI faster than ever and it
00:18:03
seems to be going at an accelerating pace, not a
00:18:06
decelerating pace, we are going to have a lot of massive issues
00:18:14
and quantum security is going to be a huge part of it, of
00:18:19
actually solving those issues.
00:18:21
And you know, plus, there is a lot of critical infrastructure
00:18:26
in space.
00:18:27
There's a huge amount of critical infrastructure in space
00:18:31
.
00:18:31
You know, internet providers have satellites, gps providers
00:18:37
have satellites.
00:18:37
You know, if you hit the right satellite, you can knock out GPS
00:18:42
for an entire region, if not a country.
00:18:44
Okay, so that's a huge, huge thing, right?
00:18:50
This should be something that we are actively protecting
00:18:53
against.
00:18:54
And people will say well, is there any threats going on or
00:18:57
anything like that in Russia and China and, you know,
00:19:01
potentially even North Korea?
00:19:03
Those countries, those uh dictators, have actually
00:19:10
attacked satellites in space, from another satellite and
00:19:14
whatnot.
00:19:15
So it is not farfetched, it is not sci-fi.
00:19:19
You know this is a real thing.
00:19:23
That's going to become more and more prevalent and so it's
00:19:26
important, you know, for for you as a professional, for you as a
00:19:29
father, um, husband, you know, just as a man, right overall,
00:19:36
maybe even just as a citizen, is to identify areas of interest
00:19:41
and how that outlook looks like and then going after it right to
00:19:46
secure your own success.
00:19:48
That's, that's the thing that a lot of people don't get Right,
00:19:53
and I think this quote really makes a lot of sense.
00:19:57
No one plans to fail.
00:19:58
They fail to plan.
00:20:00
You know you have to be planning ahead for these things.
00:20:04
You know, when I'm doing my finances, I estimate out my
00:20:08
finances in Q1 for the entire year, right, not just my salary
00:20:14
Now I live off my salary, right, but all of the extra stuff that
00:20:20
I'm doing.
00:20:20
I estimated all out for the entire year.
00:20:23
So by December I know exactly what I should have, where I
00:20:27
should have it, everything like that.
00:20:28
You should really have that mentality with everything you
00:20:34
know.
00:20:34
In my opinion you should, and you know it's.
00:20:40
It's something that everyone should be prepared about.
00:20:43
They should be, you know, really kind of driving towards.
00:20:49
In my opinion, wherever that place is that you decide like,
00:20:53
hey, this, in five years, this is going to be big In five years
00:20:57
, this will matter.
00:20:57
Do you have work now?
00:20:58
So guess what.
00:20:58
When five years comes and someone this will matter, um, do
00:21:00
you have work now?
00:21:00
So guess what?
00:21:01
When five years comes?
00:21:02
And someone says, hey, do you have experience in securing
00:21:06
satellites?
00:21:06
Because now we have satellites in space, maybe your company
00:21:09
doesn't even have satellites, maybe they're gonna have
00:21:12
satellites and they can go to you and say, hey, you, you have
00:21:18
this PhD in satellite security.
00:21:20
Right, let's talk, We'll give you a promotion, we'll give you
00:21:24
the raise that you need and all this other stuff, right?
00:21:27
If you don't do the work though way now, if you don't do the
00:21:31
work ahead of time, that opportunity will not exist.
00:21:34
They will not go to you, they will not seek you out.
00:21:36
If you apply to it, you will not get it, and that's just a
00:21:44
fact, you know.
00:21:44
So you have to be planning ahead, you have to be, you know,
00:21:49
really adjusting for everything around you.
00:21:52
You know, um, to be prepared for it.
00:21:55
That's my opinion.
00:21:56
You know, other people live their life differently, whether
00:22:01
I agree with it or not, it doesn't even matter, you know.
00:22:04
But that's just my opinion.
00:22:06
That's how I approach things in life, you know.
00:22:10
And another, another factor that went into deciding to get my
00:22:15
PhD was the fact that I'm a new dad, you know, and I want to set
00:22:21
the bar high for my kids, right , because even if, even if they
00:22:25
don't hit the bar and they hit somewhere else, you don't
00:22:29
probably be in a pretty good place, right?
00:22:31
You know my wife is getting her second master's.
00:22:34
She's already talking about PhD and what that does to little
00:22:41
kids, you know.
00:22:42
And obviously I'm not going to be a drill sergeant and you know
00:22:46
you have to.
00:22:47
You know, get straight A's and that sort of thing.
00:22:49
That's not my personality, that's not how I parent or
00:22:52
anything like that.
00:22:54
But when little kids see, hey, both my parents have their
00:22:58
master's degrees and their PhDs, we're living in a nice, safe
00:23:03
neighborhood, we're driving nice cars, right, maybe there's
00:23:09
something to that, you know, it gets into their subconscious and
00:23:13
says, hey, maybe this is achievable for me, maybe I
00:23:16
should push myself a little harder in this area.
00:23:19
At least that's my thought.
00:23:21
With it, you know, I could be wrong I'd come back in, you know
00:23:28
, 10, 12 years when I'm still doing this podcast and be like,
00:23:29
yeah, that is not how it works, right?
00:23:31
Um, but at least that's my thought with it.
00:23:33
You know, they see that it's possible, they see the value in
00:23:35
it, um, you know, for me, I see the value in it.
00:23:38
You know, for me, I'm the first kid to get my bachelor's degree
00:23:43
, I'm the first to get my master's, and still the only
00:23:47
with a master's, and I'll be the first with a PhD and hopefully
00:23:57
not the last with a PhD, you know.
00:23:59
So I want more for my kids and I think getting that PhD will
00:24:03
open up interesting opportunities that are already
00:24:04
opening up for me, but it will open up interesting
00:24:07
opportunities that wouldn't be available to me regularly.
00:24:11
You know, and that's the whole reason why I'm getting the PhD,
00:24:15
because you know, if you do the same thing that you've always
00:24:18
done, you're going to end up in the same place that you've
00:24:20
always been.
00:24:21
I'm not in a bad place, you know.
00:24:23
I'm in a pretty good place.
00:24:24
I make a comfortable living, I enjoy what I do, you know, and
00:24:30
that's a huge plus compared to everyone else, right, like?
00:24:34
There's a lot of people out there that are doing something
00:24:35
they don't want to do.
00:24:36
Maybe you're listening to this podcast and you're in a field
00:24:39
that you don't want to do.
00:24:40
You're not alone.
00:24:43
You know there's a lot of people out there, but you can
00:24:45
find something that you want to do that you know brings joy to
00:24:50
you and make enough money to survive.
00:24:54
And, you know, live a good life Like not just survive, not just
00:24:58
get by, but you can live a good life.
00:25:00
So you know, that was my whole rationality behind it.
00:25:07
Right is, how do I take my career to the next level?
00:25:10
How do I prepare for that next five to 10 year trend of areas
00:25:16
of cybersecurity?
00:25:16
How do I research something that will make sense, that will
00:25:22
add value to the space?
00:25:23
And, you know, of course, setting the standards for my
00:25:29
kids.
00:25:29
So you know, that's all that I have, guys, you know, going
00:25:33
forward.
00:25:34
I'm not sure how frequent I'll post these sorts of videos.
00:25:37
If you know, if there's a certain topic that you want me
00:25:42
to cover, that you want me to touch on, that you want my
00:25:44
opinion on, please hit me up on Twitter, hit me up on LinkedIn
00:25:50
and comment on a post, send me a message, whatever it might be,
00:25:55
and let me know that you want to hear about it, because you know
00:25:58
, for me it's really easy for me to guess.
00:26:01
You know, put a bunch of things on a board.
00:26:04
Put a bunch of things on a board, you know, throw a dart at
00:26:09
it, and that's what I'm talking about today.
00:26:11
But if it provides no value to you, I don't want to do it,
00:26:14
right?
00:26:14
So if you find value in a certain topic that you want my
00:26:17
opinion on, please send it my way and I will absolutely, you
00:26:23
know, address it in a podcast.
00:26:25
So with that, guys, thank you, hopefully the audio in this one
00:26:31
recorded.
00:26:31
I hope you guys have a great weekend.
00:26:35
I think we have a long weekend this week, so that's always
00:26:38
fantastic.
00:26:39
All right, bye everyone.
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