Why Resilience Matters for a Career in Cybersecurity

Yahoo’s Siddhant Goswami talks about his work on Yahoo’s cyber defense team and shares his tips for minimizing workplace stress.

Siddhant Goswami is a data engineer working on Yahoo’s cyber defense team, also known as “the paranoid ones”, where his duties involve protecting Yahoo’s consumer, customer, and enterprise data.

Goswami arrived in Ireland four years ago to pursue a master’s degree in data analytics at the National College of Ireland. Before joining Yahoo, he worked as a data analyst at the Bank of Ireland for two years, as well as a brief stint as a data engineer at the Dublin Airport Authority.

He says that although he has worked as a data engineer for over two years, he finds using his data skills in the cybersecurity field to have been the most “exciting and rewarding.” Here he talks about his experience working with paranoid people.

“Technology is above all a question of innovation”

If such a thing exists, can you describe a typical work day?

My day starts by checking the Data Pipeline Error Report, which collects logs used by detection engineers to ensure our users and infrastructure are safe from any cyberattacks. I like to spend time every day reading reports about recent cyberattacks or new ideas and techniques being introduced in data engineering and analysis.

I prioritize my daily tasks using Jira, which usually involves writing Python code or finding solutions to existing problems in the data pipeline or improving efficiency. Throughout the day, I meet with my colleagues to brainstorm our ideas and action plans, or with our stakeholders to discuss their data pipeline needs and requests. I like to end my day on a light note, so I usually spend the last half hour of my day doing documentation work.

What types of cybersecurity projects do you work on?

In recent years, we have seen a phenomenal rise in machine learning (ML) and data analytics across all fields, and cybersecurity is no exception. I was hired to work on a very specific project to create a data pipeline that collects, transforms and cleans logs used for threat detection and response.

The data pipeline was developed in three phases. The first phase consisted of creating an automated periodic process for collecting raw data (logs) in real time from sources listed by our stakeholders in the AWS S3 bucket. The second phase involved cleaning and transforming various raw data into a common schema and normalizing it, making it easier for detection engineers to understand the data and identify objects and threat actors. The third phase allows programmatic access to data so that detection engineers can apply ML techniques to find anomalies and patterns in existing data.

What skills do you use every day that are particularly useful in cybersecurity?

Technology is all about innovation. You must be creative and able to think outside the box to find solutions to daily challenges. Every day brings a new challenge and every problem requires a new approach. So you have to constantly learn and apply your new knowledge to get results.

You need to be good at coming up with the most optimal approach, prioritizing and meeting the needs of your stakeholders and also making your solution profitable – this is where you need to be creative with your ideas. One of the skills I have honed the most while working in this role is resilience, and I’ll quote one of my colleagues here: “Try and fail fast.” There’s no way you’ll solve a problem the first time, so you try and try again and learn from your mistakes as quickly as possible.

What are the biggest challenges when working in cybersecurity?

I have been working in the cybersecurity field for over a year now and have realized the importance of securing your digital landscape. This could be as simple as setting a strong password for your mobile device or constantly changing your passwords on social media using password managers. As a cybersecurity professional, you or the people you care about are targeted by bad actors, so you need to be very careful and vigilant to avoid pitfalls.

Do you have any productivity tips that help you throughout the day?

I like to make the most of my time and aim to minimize stress. I generally follow the 50-10 rule where I divide my work into 50 minute sessions and then take a 10 minute break. I avoid interacting with any screen (mobile or TV) during this break and I read a book, make myself a snack or just go to my garden to stretch my legs. While working, I like to listen to jazz or listen to the sounds of nature to help me focus.

What skills and tools do you use to communicate with your colleagues on a daily basis?

We use Slack for instant messaging, facilitating quick and efficient communication within our team, while Google Meets serves as the go-to platform for video conferencing, enabling face-to-face interactions.

How has this role changed as the cybersecurity industry has grown and evolved?

The need to harness data cannot be underestimated as technologies like generative AI take the world by storm. Similarly, leveraging data for threat hunting or anomaly detection using machine learning is the next big thing. This gives a lot of possibilities and opportunities to data engineers who can build the data infrastructure and create ML models or dashboards, which will be in high demand in the cybersecurity domain.

What do you like most about working in cybersecurity?

Our team’s mission is to protect Yahoo’s consumers, employees, infrastructure and data through threat detection and response. I’m extremely proud of our motto and how my work directly impacts stopping the bad guys who harm the millions of people who use Yahoo every day. This provides great motivation to continue working hard and makes me realize the opportunity I have been given to make a difference.

What advice would you give to someone wanting to work in cybersecurity?

If you are someone who loves technology, open to learning new things every day with the intention of making this world a better place, then cybersecurity would be a great career choice.

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