How I Got Started Attempting Cyber Challenges

I went to college.  I majored in Computer Information System and earned a Bachelor of Science degree.  Little did I know, that my college experience would not prepare me for the type of job that I had wanted.  I knew, getting into the information systems field, that I would need to study, but I thought that I would still get hired, and that an employer would help me with the training. 

Life happened.  While I was in school, I had children, and married.  My spouse already had a decent job, so we wanted to stay in my area because he had a secure job, and there weren't really very many places in my area looking for a programmer.  I'm familiar with Visual Basic 6, Visual Basic.NET, C, and Java.  I stayed home to raise the children.

I started playing Farmville quite a bit for a little while.  It was the only game that I could play without worrying about dying in the middle of a level because I had to change a diaper.  I discovered that some people were using Charles Web Debugging Proxy as a way to get free digital animals from Farmville.  I was tinkering with the idea of developing my own game, which I never got around to.  I didn't want to start a game and then lose money to people who didn't think that they were harming anyone by taking digital goods without paying for them.  That is when I became interested in cyber security. 

My spouse encouraged me to do SANS Cyber Aces Online last fall.  I didn't think that I would do so well.  It had been a while since I'd studied Networking, and I did not know anything about Linux.  I ended up being in the top 13% in my state, and the nation.  I was invited to participate in Net Wars.

I didn't attend because of financial reasons.  I'm trying again this year.  There shouldn't be travel involved because The SANS Cyber Aces Foundation has changed the format of the course so that the competition is online.

If anyone doesn't know about SANS Cyber Aces Online, and is interested, you can see it at http://www.cyberaces.org.  It's free, and a good opportunity to learn about cyber security and to see if you have an aptitude for it.