Information Security Industry Sees Positive Growth In San Francisco
San Francisco businesses have looked back to 2014 as the year of the worst cyber attacks in history. As cyber criminals become more sophisticated, businesses and government agencies are increasing their budgets for information security and relying more on security analytics companies, like RedSeal more than ever. The CTO of Red Seal, Mike Lloyd, Ph.D., says there is a critical shortage of staffing in the information security industry.
What is your background and education?
"I've spent nearly 30 years getting computers to solve problems, but which humans find hard. This started out in the 1980s as epidemiology (the study of the spread of diseases); but in the 1990s, I moved to the Bay Area to pursue the great commercial opportunities and applied the same academic tools to network management. Then in the 2000s I shifted to network optimization, and in the 2010s, I'm now applying the same mix of computer science and mathematics to security."
"Technically, my qualifications are in the mathematical modeling of disease spread from universities in Ireland and Scotland (Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland and Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland). However, I've found that in the Bay Area, drive counts for more than the school you attended, and adaptability is key!"
Can you briefly explain what type of services RedSeal offers?
"RedSeal makes software that can predict where attackers will most easily be able to break in through your defenses. This allows defenders to get a step ahead of cyber criminals, evaluating every possible internal and external attack path to the most valuable digital assets of organizations and sealing defensive gaps before attackers find them. It provides organizations with a prioritized list of the most vulnerable paths to their most valuable digital assets."
What advice can you share with people interested in a career in information security?
"The good news for job seekers is that the security field faces negative unemployment – companies can't find enough people with the critical skills; and this shortage is not going away any time soon. Another great aspect of the security field is it has always accepted people with drive, ambition, and creative thinking, even if their qualifications are from another field."
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.
