Information Security - Not Just a Job it's an Adventure!

posted by Brian Willis on June 08, 2007

Hello! As this is my first blog (ever), I would like to take the opportunity to introduce myself and give you an idea of the topics I hope to cover in coming entries.

So, without futher ado — My name is Brian Willis and I have spent the last 15 or so years in the Information Security (IS) field. I am a career IS guy - a ‘lifer’. I chose this field as my career (no, I was not dropped on my head as a child) As a flegling Systems Analyst with a Fortune 500 company, I realized that I enjoyed the challenges of breaking into and then subsequently patching systems and networks.

I had always been the kind of person that found the security systems at museums more interesting that the displays (where are the cameras? motions detectors?). This curiosity extended into the virtual world - copy protection, passwords, logging, transaction security — these were puzzles to figure out and bypass. Fortunately, I had managers gave my natural curiosity into a positive avenue of escape by assigning me ‘ethical hacking’-type projects. I was hooked.

The road hasn’t been smooth though. I was told by more than one well meaning manager and peer that security was a ‘dead end’ field. In the early days, there was very little in the way of books, classes, certifications, etc. Most security-related organizations and training material focused on its bricks and mortar aspects. Although I found this frustrating, I reasoned that if I was going to spend 50+ hours a week doing something it should be something I found interesting and challenging — something I could be passionate about. For me, Security wasn’t just a job, it was a hobby — with pay. I have not regretted making security my career and feel fortunate (to borrow from Robert Frost) to have made my vocation and avocation the same.

Over the years I have seen the field evolve from a ‘hobby’ of a relative few to a full-fledged disclipline. I have seen the world change from one where one never heard of computer security issues to one where one hears about computer security-related incidents daily on the radio, in the newspaper and on television. As for my career,as the songs goes - it has been a long and winding road. Along the way, I have been privileged to work in a variety of roles in IS — pen tester,technical investigator, risk analyst, programmer, and manager. I have also been fortunate to have worked on security issues at the state and local, national and international level. In my current role at Intel, I work on strategic and tactical cyber threat analysis as well working with external organizations and host goverments on security-related legislation, regulation and standards.

I hope to use this blog to have a dialogue (not a monologue, I really want your feedback!) on a broad range IT-related security issues and opportunities. I plan on sharing how Intel is addressing some of the current security hot issues and touch on what the future may hold from a security standpoint.

Feel free to drop me a note if there are specific areas of interest you would like discussed.

• brian

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tagged: computer security, information security, network security, risk, security, threat