InfosecSherpa – From Travel Agent to Law Librarian to Security Analyst!

Last updated on May 19, 2019

Tracy Maleeff (@InfosecSherpa) was a professional law Librarian and at the top of her game. Looking for change and meaning, she searched until she found the field of Information Security. This is her journey.

BIO:

Tracy Z. Maleeff (/may-leaf/), @InfoSecSherpa, is an independent information professional providing research and social media consulting, with a focus on information security. She is a frequent presenter about best practices of data mining from social media, professional networking, and introduction to information security topics. Tracy has 15 years of experience as a librarian in academia, corporate, and law firm industries and earned a Master of Library and Information Science from the University of Pittsburgh. She is the Principal of Sherpa Intelligence LLC – your guide up a mountain of information.

Notes:

• There is a condition called “Librarian Face”

• Librarians, who Master’s Degree in Library Science, are taught to be approachable

• Was never a public librarian, worked in “special” libraries. This made her really good at finding and accessing data.

• Tracy shares some social engineering tricks she did earlier in her life.

• Didn’t grow up with computers around her.

• Advice: “Know yourself”

Quotes:

• “If you are out in public… people are likely to come ask you questions because you look like you know things.”

• “I did fail, but I did not fail as badly as I thought I would!”

• “I don’t regret the path that I took.”

• “For someone like me who does come from a technical background… having the certifications is what people want to see.”

• “They need to see some receipt!”

• “Even if it turned out to be nothing, don’t be afraid to speak up.”

• “I don’t think I realized it was social engineering, I just knew it was something that I wanted.”

• “Managed to talk my way not only on the plane, but also into business first.”

• “They had me at port scanning.”

Links:

• Infosecsherpa: https://twitter.com/infosecsherpa

• Women’s Society of Cyberjutsu (WSC): https://womenscyberjutsu.org/

• Intro Music: Cascadia by Trash80 – https://trash80.com/#/content/133/weeklybeats-2012-week5

• Outro Music: JR Tundra – Natty Roadster

Resources:

• Art of Improvement: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtYzVCmNxrshH4_bPO_-Y-A

Getting Into Infosec:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/coffeewithayman

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCg6gV_gdfc188HZdN8LUx4A

Book: https://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Step-Step-Starting-Information-ebook/dp/B07N15GTPC/