CEO Encourages Information Security Students To Pursue An Internship In The Field
According to a Frost and Sullivan research report on the global information security workforce, 35 percent of companies surveyed plan to increase spending to hire security personnel and 64 percent of companies have faced challenges for current employees to address all of their security needs. With such acute demand, information security students in San Francisco are well positioned for brilliant career opportunities. One highly respected leader in the information security industry, Rehan Jalil of Elastica, graciously accepted to offer insightful career advice to tech students and talk briefly about the company he leads, which features many of the industry's top experts.
What is your background and education?
"I completed the Advanced Management Program (AMP) from Harvard Business School and possess an M.S.E.E. from Purdue University and B.E.E.E. from NED University. I am currently the president and CEO of Elastica."
What type of services does Elastica provide?
"At Elastica, we ensure companies can embrace cloud technologies with confidence by providing data science powered cloud application security to enterprise companies. Our CloudSOC platform empowers companies to confidently leverage cloud and SaaS applications, like Box or Google Drive, while staying safe, secure and compliant. The platform enables the full life cycle of visibility and security for cloud and SaaS applications being used by modern businesses."
What career advice can you share to information security students?
"To prepare for success, it's important that security students understand how cyber hackers operate technically, as well as what might motivate them politically or economically. Since information security requires a multidisciplinary approach, as security affects all aspects of technology, students will find it beneficial to gain a holistic understanding of technology trends and how security must change to address them. For example, as many enterprise services move to the cloud, it is critical to understand how the cloud affects security and the new security challenges that arise in our highly mobile society. To get started, I would encourage students to pursue an internship with a security company to better understand the challenges these companies are solving. During the internship, students should get hands on experience on how the full lifecycle of an attack occurs and what vendors can do to help their customers to detect, defend, or investigate them. Innovation will continue to be the pillar that helps drive world economies. New information security professionals have to be the guardian of that innovation."
Randy Yagi is a freelance writer covering all things San Francisco. In 2012, he was awarded a Media Fellowship from Stanford University. His work can be found on Examiner.com Examiner.com.