We here on the student scholarship committee are so excited to welcome 5 students this year thanks to *your* donations!
We would like to introduce you to some of the students.
Welcome Natasha Serrano
Q: Is this your first time going to a hacking or Information Security event?
This is not my first InfoSec event. My first event was the Women in Cybersecurity (WiCyS) conference.
However, this will be my first hacking event.
Q: If people want to find you online, where should they look?
Linkedin: @serranonatasha
Q: What are you most looking forward to at Diana Initiative? What about in Las Vegas?
I am extremely excited to meet other women in my field. I lookforward to making new friends. I am also looking forward to the different villages and the capture the flag competition. As for Vegas, it will be my first time in Vegas so I am just hoping for an overall good time.
Q: What is the thing you are most hoping to go home with, a memory, an experience, a new skill, knowledge around a specific topic?
I am hoping to become more knowledgeable in network security. So far, I signed up for a hands-on network security workshop. I am also hoping to visit as many villages as I can.
Q: What are you studying in school? How do you like it?
I am majoring in Information Technology. I enjoy my classes as they are a mixture of computer science, IT, and cyber security. I love that I get to specialize in several areas in tech.
Q: What is your biggest topic of interests in infosec?
My favorite topic in infosec is network security. But I also enjoy malware analysis and ethical hacking.
Q: Have you ever worked at a security company, full time or intern? Where and how was that experience?
I have interned at a security company twice. Both of my internships were with the Department of Defense. My first internship was cyber operations and I enjoyed doing training on a wide variety of topics in cyber security. My second internship was ethical hacking. I really liked that I was a part of a red team apprenticeship course and learned how to be an ethical hacker.
Q: What is your dream job?
Working for the Department of Defense.
Q: What sparked your interest in infosec?
I was a computer science major and was required to take an elective on network security. I loved every single homework, project, and exam that was given to me. Every assignment was solving a puzzle and required a lot of hands-on work. I realized I was in the wrong major if this is considered an elective, so I switched to IT, where I discovered my favorite class: cryptography. I loveeee puzzles! It was no surprise that my two favorite classes are now Discrete and Cryptography. After this, I realized that cybersecurity was right for me.
Best of luck in the CTF, if you know you want to participate and haven’t finished off your team perhaps now is the time to buddy up!