One of the ways I try to give back to the community is by using my writing to be the resource I wish I had earlier in my journey. I have constraints on what I can publish due to the nature of my work, but I’m passionate about sharing career advice that can positively impact the industry.

I’ve made my desire to be a public resource, so people ping me for guidance all the time. Most of the responses stay in my inbox because they are links to questions that have already been answered. However, I occasionally receive an inquiry that compels me to publish an article that I hope inspires creative new solutions to move the discipline forward.

I get really excited when students reach out with thought-provoking questions like the one below. I wanted to share it to help others who are also contemplating security testing tools or looking for general direction on where to focus research for the best post-graduation outcomes.

I also hope this sparks important dialogue between academia and the public/private sector.

Question:  “I am a third year IT Security student thinking of a security test tool. On what aspect of security should I think about in order to avoid recreating the wheel?”
My Response:

When I was in graduate school (2015-2017), I always pursued research opportunities that would increase my knowledge about the sector that I’m most passionate about: critical infrastructure. To prepare for future projects, I was trying to educate myself on secure architecture and engineering strategies for advanced metering infrastructure (AMI). To my surprise, available research on securing AMI was very limited. At the time of this writing, this is still an emerging challenge that could benefit from new creative solutions.

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