Cyber Security Role Models: Who Inspires You?

Robert T. Morris singlehandedly created the cybersecurity field on November 2, 1988 when he accidentally released a self-replicating computer worm on ARPANET (the internet’s grandfather). He miscalculated, says Forbes; instead of simply tallying connections, his worm repeatedly attacked networks. His innocent error was a wake-up call to computer enthusiasts, say experts at Cybersecurity Ventures. Who are the role models for a cybersecurity-minded individual to emulate in this burgeoning field?

Kymberlee Price

Price has more than a dozen years of experience in the information security industry specializing in application security incident response and investigations. She has worked at Microsoft, BlackBerry, and Bugcrowd. Price pioneered the first security researcher outreach program within the software industry, beginning her journey at Microsoft and quickly attracting attention.

Notably, Price was the principal investigator in the Zotob criminal investigation, which included working with the FBI and other international crime-fighting agencies. She spent four years on the Security Response Team for Blackberry, probing product vulnerabilities. Though she spent time at Bugcrowd, she has returned to Microsoft to continue working on securing applications that use open source and third-party libraries.

Beist

Beist (SeungJin Lee) has been in the IT security field since 2000. Beist's first company was Cyber Research, based in Seoul, South Korea. He then got a Computer Engineering B.A. degree from Sejong University. He has won many CTF hacking contests in Korea and passed DefConquals five times. He is one of the company founders of GrayHash.

GrayHash, a research-oriented corporation based on the notion that offensive IT skills are essential for defense tactics, is trying to make the Internet a safer place. GrayHash is a fast-growing enterprise with major clients from the IT, electronics, games, messenger services, mobile fields and we are also working with government agencies on various research projects. In addition to fulfilling his role as GrayHash CEO, Beist is also a graduate student at SANE LAB, Korea University.

Juan Zarate

As wild and wooly as Beist may be, Juan Zarate is his polar opposite. Zarate is a leader in cyber and national security. He works as a Senior Advisor to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and as Senior National Security Consultant and Analyst for CBS News.

Under the George W. Bush administration, Zarate was Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Combating Terrorism. Zarate is a leading security expert, speaking frequently to businesses around the world to assist with infrastructure security.

Zarate is a role model because he combines expertise in cybersecurity with a passion for human rights. He is the Senior non-resident Adviser for the Transnational Threats Project and Human Rights Initiative. Zarate explores the interplay between "terror, insurgent, and criminal networks and the impact of government responses through targeted field work and an extensive network of specialists."

Ping Look

Ping Look is currently at Optiv Security where she oversees building and implementing Security Awareness programs. She has over a decade of experience building, promoting and managing IT events focusing on cybersecurity. Her work includes two of the most influential IT security events, The Black Hat Briefings + Trainings, and DEF CON.

At Black Hat she developed the brand from relative obscurity to highly prominent profitability, mainly by expanding offerings and the length of Black Hat Briefings from two to six days. Ping demonstrates to other female IT specialists that women can be just as forceful as their male counterparts can: her sobriquet at Black Hat was the Ping of Death.

Yuji Ukai

Yuji Ukai completed his Ph.D. in computer science at the National University of Tokushima, worked at Kodak’s R&D center in Japan, and then moved to the United States in 2003. He took a position with eEye Digital Security as a Senior Software Engineer. Eventually he returned to Japan, where he is now the chief executive officer of FFRI (Fourteenforty Research Institute), Inc., a technical opinion leader in the Japanese security industry.

Over the years, Ukai has discovered many critical security vulnerabilities in software products across the merchandising spectrum. He has also pioneered, as FFRI puts it, "vulnerability analysis and exploitation of embedded system based on real time operating systems."

Not one of the leading experts in cyber security started out at the top. Their combination of talent and hard work paid off, as did their courage to take risks. To begin your climb up the cyber ladder, enroll in ECPI University’s accelerated program to earn a Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer and Information Science with a Cyber and Network Security major in as little as 2.5 years. Contact ECPI today to learn more about your place in the cyber security world of the future.

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