You've been Promoted to Security Engineer

I really do have a wonderful reader base of the World's Largest SOC Analyst Knowledge Base. There are a couple of hundred people who frequent the blog. It doesn't make me any money, I wish it did, but being an author is a calling.

I've decided that I've covered about everything there is to cover about being a SOC analyst. That job position has a limited lifespan these days and what you might not know about me is that as great of an SOC analyst as I might be, I am an even better Security Engineer. I have spent eight years of my career at large companies in engineering and I am going to teach you what I know about it.

First, the normal career progression of a cybersecurity analyst is:

1. 0-3 years experience in the SOC

2. 3-8 years experience in Engineering

3. 9+ years experience in Architecture

I did make it to Architect. I was the Principal Cybersecurity Architect at MetLife which is a Fortune 20 company. I was responsible for automating their cybersecurity departments. It was a short lived job for me because I was going through some really tough times personally and it was a high stress job and I had high stress in my personal life and it was a complete disaster. I was a meanie head and extremely unhappy. I am sure I owe MetLife an apology. But I did make it to the tippity top of technical positions.

The first thing we are going to cover about Security Engineering is:

What is Security Engineering?

Think of it this way, if I wanted to put a hot tub in my bedroom then the Architect would draw it's position in the house in something like AutoCad or on blue grid paper. He would describe it's measurements and the way it looks, and where it gets plugged in at, and all the little details about the design of it. The architect would describe what the finished product should look and contain as if I were walking around it in person admiring it from the outside. He also describes the purpose of this thing.

Now the Engineer would be responsible for acquiring the parts, figuring out how it should be assembled, and essentially making it work in a manner that it is as resilient as possible. They're job is to make sure it functions as the architect intended it to and is resilient.

Now, the hot tub Analyst drags the hoses and fills up the hot tub. The analyst uses the hot tub and helps other people use it too. The analyst is responsible for using it the way it is intended to carry out the purpose of the hot tub.How this equates in cybersecurity is that the Architect draws the designs of cybersecurity programs, and draws architecture diagrams at a high level of how tools should work together and how this configuration will serve our purposes the very best. These are all conceptual things.

The Engineer is then responsible for installing and maintaining the tools to the architect's design and keeping them working for the entire time the analyst uses them. The engineer is the magician responsible for materializing concepts into physical real life things. In my opinion, this is the most gratifying position there is if you are both technical and creative. As you grow in age in your position, many people tend to lean toward more creative pursuits and then pursue architecture.

The Analyst uses all of the tools that the Security Engineers install and maintain to carry out that tasks keeping folks secure.

ALL of these jobs are EQUALLY important and while some smaller companies combine job duties into one role, ALL of these functions exist as some capacity at all companies.

So put on your iron or stainless steel pinky ring and join me for this thrilling adventure into Security Engineering. The Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer is not unlike other rituals, masonic or other fraternity & otherwise equivalent. It's to help those understand the mind of the Architect and to help uphold professional standards while maintaining the interesting and creative equitable pursuits.

The Iron Ring is a ring worn by many Canadian engineers on their pinky finger as a symbol and reminder of the obligations and ethics associated with their profession. Iron rings make marks on paper as your hand drags across the paper. It is a reminder of caution to not make those marks. The ring is presented in a private ceremony known as the Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer. In the United States it is a stainless steel pinky ring which creates no such marks or reminders of caution. While wearing a pinky ring, the measurements of the ring have to be very accurate to your true size else your ring will slip away.