Kate Johnson's Winding Path to a Director Role in Cybersecurity

August 18

56 mins

Episode Description

Summary:

Timothy De Block interviews Kate Johnson about her cybersecurity career. Kate shares insights from her journey, emphasizing the importance of foundational knowledge and effective leadership in a constantly evolving technical field.

Key Takeaways:

From Guides to Director: Kate's career began with writing guides for technology users, teaching her empathy and a people-focused approach crucial for her later management roles. She progressed from an analyst to a director, leveraging early management experience at Central Michigan University.
Evolving Director Role: At Draos (founded in 2017), Kate's director role has expanded significantly as the company grew from 100 to over 500 employees. She now manages intelligence reverse engineers and oversees operations for the entire intelligence services department.
Leadership in Cybersecurity: Kate's management style is advisory, focusing on guiding her team and connecting their efforts. She maintains an analytical mindset, making data-driven decisions and supporting her highly technical team. A key challenge is letting people fail to learn, even if it's difficult to watch.
Cybersecurity Fundamentals: Kate stresses the need for a fundamental understanding of how systems work to effectively secure them. She recommends resources like Network+ and specific SANS courses for building this base.
The "Auditor" Aspect of Security: Kate views pen testing and security work as similar to auditing, emphasizing the need for evidence, identifying flaws, and providing actionable recommendations to add value.
Advice: Kate encourages aspiring cybersecurity professionals to "don't give up" as there are numerous opportunities and roles available for all types of people.
Resource Plug: Kate recommends OT-CERT (Secure OT CERT), a free, community-driven resource for sharing information and discussing threats in the Industrial Control Systems (ICS) field.

Resources Mentioned:

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