Marcus Carey - Childhood Builder/Breaker to Navy Cryptologist to Founder and Mentor

Marcus Carey has been hacking since he was five. A true MacGuyver, he had to make do with the little resources available to him. He later enrolled in the Navy, worked for 3- letter agencies including the NSA, and now has his own security startup. Marcus shares a TON with us in this episode.

BIO

Marcus is renowned in the cybersecurity industry and has spent his more than 20-year career working in penetration testing, incident response, and digital forensics with federal agencies such as NSA, DC3, DIA, and DARPA. He started his career in cryptography in the U.S. Navy, and holds a Master’s degree in Network Security from Capitol College. Marcus regularly speaks at security conferences across the country. He is passionate about giving back to the community through mentorship, hackathons, and speaking engagements, and is a voracious reader in his spare time.

Notes:

Marcus had an opportunity to play college basketball, but couldn't since it was only a partial scholarship
After taking the ASVAB test, he had the choice of nuclear engineering or cryptography. He chose cryptography
Marcus made an Olympic-sized track pit up to spec as a child.
Marcus, like many other security professionals, had a strong artistic side. He achieved first chair in just a few weeks in Jr. High.
Marcus teaches us "How to Learn"
Marcus achieved over 115 college credits on his own, without attending college!
Open source tools Marcus created ended up being used be used to save people's lives in other parts of the world

Quotes:

"[I] told them all I wanted to do was work with computers."
"I've always been a tinkerer. I built stuff, I was a science fair geek... the whole nine."
"I was the poorest person growing up... so anything I did was a hack. I made my own hacky sack. I used to make my own toys."
"You can't learn how Marcus learns because everyone is different.... Nobody can tell you how to learn as good as yourself."
"So now, I'm like a finely tuned weapon when it comes to learning... cause I know exactly how to learn."
"Never be surprised how your work turns out to be used for good... it actually blew my mind that my stuff was being used to do that [saving people's lives]. "
"Show externally that you've mastered those concepts in some way."
"Sometimes your employees are going to go rogue, and hopefully, you can detect when they do."
"If you're focusing on a specific set of skills that are evergreen, and if you work that long enough, it doesn't matter your aptitude: you can become an expert at that."
"There are people out here that are celebrities, and they act like they know everything. Don't be one of those people."
"Aptitude allows people to learn stuff faster. I think the military requires you to learn stuff fast."