How to be successful in cyber security | Interview with Otha Mabry
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Bio:
Otha Mabry is a Technical Security Architect for Cisco Systems, specializing in network security architectures to defend against emerging attack trends. In addition, he provides threat research to organizations to help drive their strategic security initiatives. With over 20 years’ experience in network implementations inclusive of routing, switching, and firewalls with an emphasis in security and threat discovery. Prior to joining Cisco, Otha Mabry has worked with multiple industries ranging from education, healthcare, manufacturing, and telecommunication.
Furthermore, Otha has served as an adjunct professor for graduate and undergraduate courses and continues to teach Linux, Ethical Hacking, Forensic, Routing and Switching classes for under representative communities. In addition, he holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Tennessee at Martin, attended the Cecil Humphreys’ School of Law at the University of Memphis, and received a MS in Information Systems from DePaul University. Otha lectures nationally and internationally and is a frequent speaker and panelist.
——— Contents of this interview ——–
00:00 – Intro
05:02 – Interview starts
05:12 – Du’An introduces Otha
06:32 – Raising awareness around your user group is something I wanted to help you as much as I can
09:58 – In one of my previous roles, Palo Alto was our vender. Now I can use Palo Alto’s Panorama because we didn’t have that but I was able to get up to speed
12:40 – Companies do offer trainings but a lot of times they don’t offer training that we desire. You need to start setting $X per paycheck for your education. Am I correct Otha?
15:16 – It’s good to see that companies are looking at situations with an open mind to see if people who made one-time mistakes can bring value. You know what i mean?
17:20 – How bad do you want it? How dedicated are you?
18:10 – As people in general, we like to give ourselves excuses of why we can’t do something or reasons to put something off or start something that we wanna learn
21:04 – There’s no excuse for why you can’t be successful in this industry
23:29 – Do you learn best when you learn a technology for work or for a certification? How do you learn best?
27:33 – Once I reached a certain level certifications weren’t as important. Projects and the things that I’ve done in my environment and the relationships that I’ve established directly or indirectly.
33:53 – In cybersecurity what is that rare skill that would set you apart from everyone else or does it not really matter?
39:05 – You mentioned in one of your videos that there’s a traditional route and a non-traditional route, can you kind of break those down?
44:52 – I think it’s cool that we can walk into an interview and not be able to answer any questions and then recover and still get a job from that
46:40 – Is cybersecurity the same as looking at vulnerabilities and staying on a server?
48:08 – What is your role at your current job and where did you start on your cybersecurity path?
52:47 – How should you develop your skills for cybersecurity?
56:02 – Is there any any skillset in cybersecurity that would set your apart?
57:57 – Two things I’ve found to gain exponential growth
01:00:13 – The second thing that I’ve found to help me grow exponentially is surrounding myself with people that are smarter than me and would challenge me
01:02:50 – You made a video about how to make a 100K With GED in cybersecurity is 100K the floor for cyber security? A lot of people make it seem like it is
01:06:10 – Another thing that you mentioned was the BlackHat conference, do you recommend cybersecurity professionals go to that?
01:09:48 – For those of the audience that may not know who you are, can you talk about your user groups and Youtube platform?
01:14:59 – What platform would be good for this when it comes to putting out your personal brand, is it Youtube or LinkedIn?
01:16:38 – What’s an ideal entry level cybersecurity role with no little to no experience but one or two certs?
01:19:47 – What is your opinion of the CISSP?
01:20:46 – By chance, are there any user groups in South Florida?
01:22:02 – Basically how can you get started with the higher level architectural security?
01:22:29 – Is there any platforms that you recommend for training for higher level knowledge?
01:22:46 – Otha you wanna take us out today?
01:22:59 – How can people contact you?
01:23:17 – Outro
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Thank you for the support!
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