From climate change to cyber security to employee diversity, corporate responsibility (CR) and sustainability touches every aspect of Symantec’s business. We’ve defined our strategy and are continually working towards our goals to operate as a responsible global citizen. In addition to our dedicated global corporate responsibility team, every day Symantec employees across the world are helping us deliver on this, creating value for both our business and our stakeholders.
We are happy to introduce an ongoing feature of the CR in Action blog – the Sustainability Spotlight - that will profile employees and their contribution to Symantec’s CR and sustainability efforts. Some are members of our CR team, others contribute through our Green Teams or volunteering, some have seen an opportunity and developed programs in their function or region -- all are making a difference.
Today we hear from Brian Varner, Senior Manager, Product Management at Symantec about his experience as a cybersecurity mentor.
Two years ago I was approached by the parents of two twin girls and asked if I would mentor them on computer science and cybersecurity. As a Senior Manager of Product Management at Symantec, I develop products that train our employees and customers on cybersecurity using tools – like Symantec’s internal CyberWar Games and the Security Simulation Platform – which challenge our employees and customers to think like a hacker. The girls were interested in exploring cybersecurity, and so I started working with them once a week, teaching them exploitation and defensive tradecraft which include Backtrack (Kali) Linux and programming languages. They were very strategic and able to identify exploitation and defensive counter measures early on, so we signed up for CyberPatriot, a nationwide high school competition where teams are tasked to uncover cybersecurity vulnerabilities and to take steps to mitigate the vulnerabilities.
After just three months of mentoring, they made it all the way to the second round of CyberPatriot. This was impressive considering 1,200 total teams registered. They were hooked on computer exploration. After that they spent their summer breaks in college programs at Duke and other universities. They also enrolled in Japanese class and became fluent in both reading and writing the language and took advantage of night classes at community colleges, learning more about topics like cybersecurity, networking and programming. This year was their senior year, and they toured many college campuses, with MIT as their ‘reach’ school. Just a few weeks ago, they both received acceptance letters from MIT! They will begin their studies in Computer Science this fall and I couldn't be happier for them.
Hard science is a dying skill. We need more evangelists in the hard sciences, especially since there is dire need not only for more cybersecurity professionals, but also for more diversity in STEM professions in general. There is this image of a ‘hacker’ being the young boy in a hoodie; you don't think of a young woman who is going to MIT. Unfortunately there’s a reason for that image, since women only make up less than 11 percent of the cybersecurity workforce.
You hear people say, “Well if I had started at a younger age, I would have gone into computer science.” People are looking for that opportunity and we need more professionals out there endorsing the hard sciences. If someone shows me the dedication, I will give them 200% of my time to help them succeed. It’s hugely inspiring to know that as these girls grow into their respective careers, I had a small part in shaping the rest of their lives.
Although Margret and Joanna are leaving the public school system for one of the most prestigious schools in the world, our work as a community is not complete. I have received buy in from community leaders, Computer Science and Cybersecurity Professionals to develop an afterhours club to attract talent within the school. The club will be a pilot to gauge interest in Cyber Security. If there is enough interest then a high school Cybersecurity track can be established whereby teachers will ask professionals to come in and augment the classroom education with hands on demonstrations and labs. Regardless of one’s career, there are opportunities to help steer our young people along the way, and the reward is exponentially returned.
Me and the girls at their graduation party.
Brian Varner is Symantec's Senior Manager, Product Management