Week 1: Introduction

Hello! My name is Kyle Flaherty and I am a rising Sophomore at Wake Forest. I have always had a deep rooted passion for technology and therefore will be majoring in computer science. I grew up in a military family and thus have always had an urge to protect those around me. Due to that urge I want to use my Computer Science degree to land a job doing cyber security. In the meantime at Wake I do research with Dr. Fulp where we work alongside Cisco to create a more secure network. This is a great opportunity to learn more about cyber security, but it is more of an outside looking in kind of approach to learning. I want to get my hands dirty to see if I really want to do this, and starting tomorrow I will have the chance.

Starting tomorrow I will be an intern at Vigilant Cyber Systems where I will be working closely with the DoD. I was very interested in this particular internship because there are very few internships that actually pertain to cyber security. Moreover, the few that do exist are in government agencies where exclusively juniors are hired. At this internship I will be able to learn if I even want to do cyber security, as well as make invaluable connections to the DoD for future years. Beyond making connections I hope to develop into a professional. This will be my first ‘real’ job where the effect of my mistakes extends much farther than an angry customer. I have to bring my ‘A’ game to the job every day just like I will have to upon graduation. Lastly, I hope I learn from not only my boss, but my peers. There are certain things you can’t be taught about computer science in the classroom. Whether I find out I like cyber security or not, this is a incredible opportunity for me to learn about computer science in a broad sense.