Robin Stuart - From Paralegal to Malware Researcher (and Cyber Crime Author!)

Robin Stuart started off as a paralegal until she was challenged one day to get her boss's password (hint: do not challenge Robin). Fast forward, she switched careers to technology but kept a lookout for a career in security.

Bio

Veteran cybercrime investigator and contributing author to the Handbook for Information Security by Wiley, Robin is a debut author in cybercrime fiction with a short story in the Sisters in Crime NorCal anthology Fault Lines, which is due out in early 2019.

She consults on all things cybersecurity for Fortune 100 companies, television shows, and media outlets, including BBC and NowThis News.

She was a significant contributor to the Tech Museum of Innovation's acclaimed Cyber Detectives interactive installation, one of the museum's most popular permanent exhibits, which earned praise from the Obama Administration.

Notes

Combination of Enthusiasm and Perseverance
Creativity matters a lot!
Setting up a home lab to train
Robin's First "Hack"! EPIC!
There isn't a linear path into information security, no need for a degree necessarily

Quotes

"[After] years of being a paralegal, I think like a lawyer and that's helped me very well"
"My Google works a little better than other people's Google."
Someone once asked Robin, "I've got an hour... can you teach me everything you know?"
"Taught myself Assembly by writing a program all in assembly, just to prove to myself that I understood it."

Links