An Inspirational Mentor Story of Mari Galloway — Las Vegas
Mari is the CEO and a founding board member for the Women’s Society of Cyberjutsu (WSC), one of the fastest growing non-profit cybersecurity communities dedicated to bringing more women and girls to cyber. WSC provides its members with the resources and support required to enter and advance as a cybersecurity professional.
Mari began her cyber career with Accenture where she excelled as a Network Engineer. Mari is also the inaugural ISC2 Diversity Award winner for 2019. With over 12 years of Information Technology, 10 of which are in cybersecurity, her experience spans network design and security architecture, risk assessments, vulnerability management, incident response and policy development across government and commercial industries.
She holds a variety of technical and management certifications (CISSP, GIAC, CCNA, etc) as well as a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Information Systems from Columbus State University and a Master of Science in Information Systems from Strayer University.
Mari is currently a resident of Las Vegas working as a Customer Success Architect for Palo Alto Networks. She regularly contributes content to security blogs and training companies across the country as well as an Adjunct Professor for UMGC. She also lends her time to various organizations as an award judge, mentor, and advisor. Outside of being a geek, Mari enjoys arts, puzzles, and legos! @marigalloway mostlymimi.com
How did you get into Cybersecurity and what do you enjoy most as a mentor in Cybersecurity?
I got in cyber through networking. I was a network engineer for a government agency and fell in love with security and penetration testing from seeing an instructor show router configurations in plain text on the internet and at that point I knew I wanted to do cyber.
How you gained the trust and confidence of your mentees so they felt comfortable coming to you with problems, questions, and concerns?
I am honest with Mentees. This helps with trust. I also share the challenges I have faced and continue to face so that they know they can be vulnerable as well.
How you will describe an ideal mentee in Cybersecurity field?
Someone interested. Has done some research. Has a few goals in mind or are at least open to setting them before formally meeting with the mentor. They have passion and genuinely what to succeed.
What’s the minimum time frame (# days, Months, frequency) a mentee required to achieve the goals?
The minimum time frame is what the mentee sets up. I can’t force anything on them. But depending on what it is, I do encourage them to make realistic goals and have realistic time expectations.
If they want to take the Security+ exam in 90 days but barely have enough to complete the studying due to work and school and family, I may recommend pushing it out 30 days or so to give more time.
Do you have any suggestions for mentees from non-technical backgrounds?
Figure out what areas of cyber interest you. There are a number of Breaking into Cyber webinars, books, articles that give a lot of advice. Inventory your current skill sets. What are you good at? What are you doing in your current job? What skills would you like to obtain. And then start looking at roles that match that. You also need to network with people via events, Linkedin, or through referrals. This is a great way to figure where to navigate in cyber.
If you were to choose other profession, what would it be and why?
I have always wanted to be a Sommelier. I think it’s fascinating the skill they have for understanding wine. Netflix even made a movie called Corked about a young man on his journey to becoming a Sommelier. Probably won’t happen in this lifetime, but I still get to enjoy wine.
