Matt Ireland_Thumbnail
Quote I Live By
“Give back to the community where you live, work, and play.”

I got cyber…as a high school student, I was eager to learn (hack) the typing classroom’s Novell Network. Starting with a printout of commands, I just worked through them one at a time – self learning what each command did. Building the foundational blocks to figure out how things worked. As I learned how the Novell Network worked, I was able to assist my “Uncle Dan” to support and expand his small business network – built on Novell. These very early opportunities got me interested to go to a community college to get an AAS in computer systems/networks.

Being hired as a computer administrator, at a regional bank, while still finishing college, helped me become even more familiar with Novell and Microsoft. Moving into a systems administrator role at a global organization enabled more formal training in Microsoft, Cisco, and Checkpoint. A few years later – and thanks to a significant nation state intrusion to a service provider infrastructure, a new cybersecurity position was created at a banking managed services provider. I was able to walk into that position to help pick up where an outside consulting team did the initial cleanup and remediation. With my experiences in systems and networking, I was able to continue cleanup and build a program of prevention and detection. Thanks to that one incident, my career turned a sharp right and I was launched into the cybersecurity industry.

For me, a positive cyber mindset is…NOT be the department of NO. Be the department of KNOW! We have to understand the business and be able to articulate the needs of legal and security compliance. It is all too common for CISOs and cybersecurity professionals to say NO. Either because we don’t understand the business need, the security threats, or just because we do not want the attack surface to continue to grow. We must change this mindset and be a more positive and collaborative business partner.

Shadow IT exists because the business must move forward. We must be the department of KNOW and learn what the business needs – but also teach what the business risks are. The train of knowledge must go both ways. Keeping this “department of know” mindset will pay advanced dividends in favorable IT/Security/business partnership mindsets.

The life experience that helped me transition to a career in cyber…coming from a family of people helping people. My Dad was in Law Enforcement for over 30 years, my brother in law enforcement for almost 25 years, and my Mom worked for the post office as a clerk and letter carrier for 26 years. My dad, brother, and I are Eagle Scouts, my oldest son is an Eagle Scout, and my youngest son is within a few months of completing his Eagle Scout. I have been a volunteer firefighter for over 30 years with experiences as Fire Captain, EMT, and Fire Chief. Also work with a county ambulance service as an

EMT, a county Sheriff’s office as a Reserve Deputy, and a county medical examiner’s office as a death investigator. All of these things set me up for my lifelong motto/mission.

Giving back to the communities are very helpful to those various communities, be it religious communities, civil communities, work communities, professional communities, etc. But also, these volunteer experiences shape you as a professional.

In my cybersecurity responsibilities, I use experiences of de-escalation tactics, evidence handling, chaos management, fire codes or suppression techniques, civil/criminal law experience, and so much more. All of these things, uniquely, transition fluidly in and out of my career in cyber.

The quote I live by…is also something that I encourage on everyone I interact with – “Give back to the community where you live, work, and play.” I push myself to always find ways to give back…but also push my teams and colleagues to do the same. This might be to take your kids on a bike ride on a trail – and pick up trash. Maybe serve at a soup kitchen helping those less fortunate. Maybe this is speaking at a high school or college on cyber/IT topics or mentoring an IT Olympics team. There are so many ways to give back and so many ways to define a “community”. What will you do to give back to the community where YOU live, work, or play?

My top tip to those interested in transitioning to a career in cybersecurity is…do a gap assessment. My mentor asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up. I had absolutely NO IDEA. So, I decided to think on my feet and tell him I wanted his job. Having no idea that he would take me seriously (and that I would have his title several times over the next two decades), he invited me over to his home and we did a gap assessment…but not by name.

He showed me a current job description for a CISO title that was open. He asked me to look at my resume and highlight things on the job description that I was not qualified for. Next, he asked that I draft a FAKE resume that would show that I was ready to apply to that job. Basically, lies. Things like years of experience in various areas needed by the job posting, a bachelor’s degree and/or master’s degree, experiences that I had never done before, etc. He then asked me which one I was going to work on first.

Through the next several years I transformed each and every one of those “lies” into “reality”. Little did I realize, until later, that he walked me through a gap assessment and a to-do list, and I accomplished what I made up that day….I wanted his job someday. 15+ years later, he is no longer my manager, but still a friend and colleague. And a small secret – I still want his job…we have gone different ways and came back to the same companies (a few times). Validation of another phrase I use a lot…”Once on the team – ALWAYS on the team.”