What inspires you in your current role? I am inspired by the increasing connectivity of our world and the essential role cybersecurity plays in our evolving landscape. At Viasat, we serve a diverse customer base that ranges from residential users, airlines, and government entities, each with varying degrees of security knowledge and requirements. Despite these differences, they all want to connect to the internet and the necessity of cybersecurity remains constant. It is fulfilling to know that our work is important in protecting our infrastructure and customers to have a safe digital experience. 

What do you enjoy most about your company or role? My team fosters a highly supportive work environment that makes it a great place to work. We collaborate effectively by developing a safe space for sharing ideas and asking questions, and viewing failures as a learning opportunity. We help each other grow not only in our role but our careers as a whole. I am fortunate to be part of such an amazing team, which has helped me grow both in my current role and across different areas.

I enjoy leveraging automation to enhance our threat intelligence processes and opportunities to threat hunt with our large dataset. I am constantly looking for ways to reduce manual tasks and improve our intelligence capabilities. I have worked on processes such as implementing feedback loops that integrate contextual information from alerts and streamlining the ingestion of intelligence data into ThreatQ, so that we have a centralized platform for our analysts to gain context and share intel with each other. With the intel we have gathered I find threat hunting and searching for potential threats an engaging challenge that provides valuable insights into our network’s behavior and fosters an increase of knowledge.

How did your journey into cybersecurity begin—was it a twist, a calling, or a leap of faith? My journey into cybersecurity was a combination of chance and taking leaps of faith. During college, I was uncertain which area of computer science to pursue. While I had identified some areas I was not interested in, I lacked clarity on my specific career path. In my third year, I was accepted for a summer internship at Viasat and was paired with two mentors in the Security Operations Center (SOC), one of whom I still work with today. This experience provided me with valuable insights into cybersecurity and computer networking and sparked a curiosity within me.

In my final year, I enrolled in courses aligned with these interests, and upon graduation, I accepted a full-time position at Viasat. Although there were no immediate openings in the SOC, I seized the opportunity when a position became available a year later. Initially, I worked on the development team, focusing on creating automations and maintaining infrastructure for our security tools, such as ThreatQ and our Splunk SIEMs. This role allowed me to gain a solid understanding of the infrastructure aspect of cybersecurity operations.

However, my interest in cyber threat intelligence grew as I sought to understand how threat actors can compromise networks and how we can adopt a more proactive approach. I expressed my desire to switch teams within the SOC, and fortunately, my team supported this transition. I have now been a member of the Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) team for about three years and continue to utilize the skills I gained from my time on the development team, such as creating automations around ThreatQ to enhance the efficiency of our intelligence processes.

What do you like most about cybersecurity? What I like most about cybersecurity is the collaborative nature of the field. There are many different facets within cybersecurity, and each team must work with other areas to achieve common goals. I find it exciting to engage in collaborative opportunities such as threat hunts with our analysts or purple team exercises with our red team. These experiences allow us to combine our unique strengths, understand potential threats, and work together to enhance the security of our environments.

Collaboration in cybersecurity is not limited to a single organization; it extends across the entire industry. Information Sharing and Analysis Centers (ISACs) and partnerships are built on the foundation of collaboration, enabling organizations to share information and best practices. These collaborative efforts not only enhance our ability to defend against emerging threats but also foster a culture of continuous learning and mutual growth.

This year’s International Women’s Day theme is #AccelerateAction. What does that mean to you? #AccelerateAction to me is a call to action to act rather than be a bystander. We can’t wait for it to just happen as the gender gap is still wide and prevalent.  It is a call to take any action whether it be big or small to help empower and support women to be their best selves and have equal opportunities. Our actions don’t need to perfect, nor do they have to be extravagant, but doing something is better than nothing. Those small actions, whether be asking for someone’s opinion in a meeting, encouraging someone to go for it, or having empathy, can create cascading effects. 

If you could give your younger self a piece of career advice, what would it be? “You’ve got nothing to lose by just asking.”

I know it is a common piece of advice and sounds easier said than done, but this piece of advice has really stuck with me. There have been multiple times where I was afraid to ask the question or speak up. I spent more time banging my head against the wall trying to figure it out on my own and probably missed out on growing opportunities. However, I’ve learned I don’t have anything to lose by just asking. The worst that could happen is that they say no or won’t reply, but more often than not, people are willing to help.

It has not only helped me grow my skills but has opened up more opportunities to network with others who I would have never otherwise crossed paths with and has helped me bounce ideas that I would not have otherwise considered. Even though, I still sometimes get nervous or will rewrite my message 10 times before sending it, I am more confident in reaching out and make it a point to take the chance.

LinkedIn: Taylor Pyle