On the Importance of Giving Back in the Infosec Community

Full disclosure, Chris Sanders is my boss at the time of this posting. He did not ask me to opine on the RTF or to write this at all. These are solely my opinions formed from my experiences. - Patrick

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Pittsburg, New Hampshire is the northernmost town in the state and in terms of geographic area is the largest town in the country. It is about a 32 mile drive to traverse the town starting at the Canadian border and heading south until you reach the point where the Connecticut River begins becoming the natural state line separating New Hampshire from Vermont. You would think for a town of this size there might be a considerable number of residents. There are not. In fact it is not unreasonable to assume that the moose population outnumbered the people there by a factor of two or three to one when I was growing up. For the record, there were about 800 residents of the town when I lived there and attended the local K-12 public school which consisted of approximately 200 total students. I was one of 16 in my graduating class. Like everything, there are goods and bads of growing up in such a small town.

Many of the good points I was reminded of recently while attending the Security Onion Conference in Augusta, Georgia. First and foremost was the incredible sense of community. I can not think of another industry where people are so willing to contribute to something larger than themselves. While it was officially billed as a conference it felt more like a get together of friends. In fact the format and important discussions that happened reminded me very much of a town meeting in New Hampshire. For those unfamiliar, town meetings in NH generally occur on the second Tuesday of March. This is a day when residents of the town would come together, discuss issues surrounding the town and vote on lots of things ranging from school budgets to what kind of new plow truck should be purchased for the next winter. It was this same sort of spirit that was apparent in Augusta. People all heavily invested in Security Onion and our infosec community that had their own unique stories to share and thoughts for the future. This day of idea exchange closed when the mayor of the town, Doug Burks, gave his views on where he sees things headed and what to be looking out for. To have this sort of grass roots level activism so available to the people in our industry is something that sets it apart and makes it great.

Sometimes good and bad are intrinsically tied to one another. When I was a senior in my high school I had already decided that I wanted to go to college and major in biochemistry. I always loved science. Living in a very rural place unfortunately meant I did not have access to equipment and instruction more easily found at bigger schools. Because of this and its remote location, Pittsburg had a way of attracting teachers right out of college who were trying to get their first job even though the pay was terrible. It was thanks to this situation that we had a math teacher during my senior year who also knew how to write code. I happened to take a class he offered in Pascal programming and immediately enjoyed it. Being there were only two of us in the class I got a lot of great instruction. I never would have guessed that after two years of studying biochemistry I would decide that I really missed the logic and problem solving inherent in programming and elect to change direction and pursue computer science instead. Had I not been fortunate enough to have an opening in my schedule senior year of high school with a young math teacher who enjoyed programming I would likely have never gotten into infosec. This is kind of troubling to me because I wonder how many kids out there living in rural communities never even have a chance to get interested in this great field because the resources just are not there. They are lacking computers, equipment or simply people with the proper training to teach technical curriculum and inspire. This is where I think we need to leverage the same passion and ingenuity found at the Security Onion Conference. Perhaps we need to spend more time not just thinking about our community as those actively participating in it but also as a way to reach out to those students of today that we will need in our community tomorrow. 

Maybe adding insult to injury is the fact that today many jobs are increasingly concentrated in more urban centers. As high-speed Internet expands, decent paying security jobs which can be done remotely should be viewed as something of a way to let folks like myself stay in rural communities and earn a decent living. Unfortunately, the communities that stand to benefit the most from this rarely have the resources to reach the kids who could benefit. This can be overwhelming to think about at first but there are people and groups doing amazing things in this area that need and deserve our support. For instance, the work the OpenNSM group has done is truly exceptional in making infosec accessible to anyone with a desire to learn about it. Because of my personal story I wanted to focus a bit more on the work of another group, the Rural Technology Fund. The RTF was created and is led by Chris Sanders (yup, that guy). I won't go into great detail about the group as you can read about it yourself at http://ruraltechfund.org but it is certainly worth reciting their mission statement here:

The mission of the RTF is to help rural students recognize opportunities in technology careers and gain the education necessary to work in the computer industry.

This is a noble goal and helps address many of the concerns I have about kids in rural communities and lack of access to technology resources which they need now more than ever. I was really struck by the pervasiveness of this group just this week when I learned that a small town located not far from where I live currently in Vermont, is receiving a 3D printer courtesy of the RTF. Further reading at their website shows donations of robotics kits, Arduino kits, and raspberry pis to rural schools all over the country. Out of curiosity I asked Chris how the foundation was able to do all of this great work. Chris is a very humble man. He is not one to be in your face about the fact that the sales of AppliedNSM go in part to fund this endeavor. In fact, the Rural Technology Fund did all of their great work this last year with less than a $1,000 in donations. I want that to change. In speaking with Chris I know he has big plans for what the RTF can do with more money. If you are still reading please consider donating to the RTF this year. Their work is important and helps a lot of kids.

Not everyone has the resources to be able to donate and that is certainly understandable as well. If not, maybe consider talking to your employer about having a philanthropy day where you can give back to your community. I work at FireEye and am very grateful they adopted the Mandiant policy of having such a day where employees can donate their talents or time to help others. Last year I worked with my wife on creating curriculum for teaching programming to kids. This year we hope to go further with that goal and speak with kids here in the local high school about the infosec field. I personally consider myself fortunate to be in this field at this point in time. As others have said before me, to whom much is given much is expected.