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An interview with Valeria Scribanti, a Technical Solutions Specialist with give attention to cybersecurity.
Welcome to the Cisco Women in Cybersecurity’s weblog sequence, the place we spotlight the tales of the mentors who’ve impressed and advocated for the careers of these in our group. This sequence seeks to point out the significance of allyship, connection, and the way totally different the journeys will be right into a profession in cybersecurity.
Interviewer Intro:
Valeria and I met quickly after I joined Cisco in 2021. We are each a part of the “Swiss Cybersecurity Women” group, which is an inside on-line group for ladies in cybersecurity primarily based in Switzerland. Over the years, Valeria and I stayed in contact, scheduling a digital espresso or sending one another attention-grabbing articles. Last yr we even bought an opportunity to satisfy in particular person at Cisco Live in Amsterdam. The factor that strikes me about Valeria is her upbeat perspective, vitality and tenacity. This interview is an opportunity for me to search out out extra about Valeria’s path into cybersecurity and her secret to staying constructive in an business with an inclination to give attention to the darkish aspect of affairs.
Questions:
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What impressed you to pursue a profession in cybersecurity?
I’ve all the time been very involved in expertise from a curiosity perspective, regardless that rising up I didn’t see myself as a really nerdy particular person. I’m a millennial, so I grew up in an atmosphere the place expertise was not all that current. I nonetheless keep in mind the primary time I noticed an iPod; it actually fascinated me as a tool, and I instantaneously needed to search out out all about its workings. Later, when my father purchased his first laptop computer and he was programming in Visual Studio at residence sooner or later, I caught my first glimpse of code and that bought me hooked. From there I understood that expertise is what I needed to do, and I made a decision to enroll first in a bachelors engineering program at Politecnico di Torino after which proceed with the double diploma grasp’s program between the Politecnico di Torino and the Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH).
So, it was actually about instinct and curiosity which led me to decide on expertise as a occupation. Well, that and the truth that I used to be enjoying a whole lot of Nintendo with my brother.
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What was your first foot within the door – the place did you begin?
My research in Italy laid the muse for my later work in cybersecurity. As a scholar within the Computers and Communication Network Engineering program, I bought to play with a whole lot of Cisco expertise, studying switching and routing. Yet, as an entire, the college program was fairly theoretical and analysis oriented. It was not till I went to Germany for the alternate program that I took an incredible course on cybersecurity with a professor from the business. I used to be fascinated with the subjects he lined on this class – buffer overflow, SQL injections, cross-site scripting. Times have modified these days, however again then one of these course was not an ordinary a part of the college curriculum. The matter felt so new and tremendous thrilling to me that I made a decision to contemplate cybersecurity as a doable route after commencement.
I landed my first job quickly after ending my grasp’s diploma. The college helped us discover a place so for me it was a extremely clean transition. The job market again then provided loopy variety of alternatives, in contrast to the present state of affairs.
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How do you know what function precisely you need to go for?
By doing the interviews I really bought to know extra in regards to the totally different roles, what day-to-day actions they contain and what trajectory I may comply with if I have been to affix.
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How has your profession developed since your preliminary begin?
My first function was a Network and Security Engineer at a system integrator firm in Italy. I nonetheless keep in mind the interview with them. We began off with some simple to reply questions, akin to “what is a firewall?”. The subsequent questions, nonetheless, have been subjects which have been completely new to me again then, akin to what an IPS (intrusion prevention system) and defense-in-depth and so on. Looking again, I believe that the interviewers posed these inquiries to hone my urge for food for the subject and reveal that they have been coping with cutting-edge expertise. During the interview they defined the rules of these safety merchandise and confirmed me what the function would entail.
As a customer-facing engineer there, I set to work with a whole lot of Cisco expertise, in addition to different distributors. The finest a part of this function was the chance to do hands-on work with actual initiatives and actual duty. As a junior engineer, I felt each scared and motivated to be on website with clients and do issues reside, however that is how I realized tons about safety structure design, implementation and configuration of various safety merchandise akin to firewalls, IPS, WAF, anti-virus, and so on.
At some level I set to work with the Cisco Secure Network Analytics (previously Stealthwatch) staff on a mission. By speaking with them I found different varieties of roles inside cybersecurity. The work of a safety gross sales engineer, who’s liable for creating and designing proof of worth (POV) for safety merchandise, actually clicked with me and I joined Cisco in 2018. That is how I moved from the extra technically oriented operations into a job with a mixture of onerous and smooth abilities.
One of the issues that I actually love in regards to the TSS function is that I get to work with world clients and as a part of a world staff, work together with totally different cultures and put into observe the a number of languages that I communicate. I noticed the truth that I additionally take pleasure in working intently with clients, listening to their wants and being a trusted advisor, somebody that clients can depend on all through the entire course of.
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What is the one factor you would like you had recognized firstly of your cybersecurity profession?
I made a whole lot of selections for my profession primarily based on a intestine feeling. My instinct served me properly however wanting again, I may have used some extra steerage and information to resolve which route I ought to take. There are so many alternative paths that exist on the market and it’s value exploring them earlier than deciding on a selected profession.
How to try this? One manner is to affix cybersecurity communities which can be close to you and discover out extra about these totally different roles. Talk to professionals who’re already within the discipline and hearken to their perspective.
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What’s your single most essential piece of recommendation to folks contemplating a profession in cybersecurity?
Hang out with individuals who like cybersecurity – you’ll be taught rather a lot!
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