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Infosec Careers: Find Your Passion

Akamai's CSO Details His Hiring Requirements
Infosec Careers: Find Your Passion

If there's a single quality that distinguishes one information security practitioner from another, it's passion - not just for the discipline itself, but for learning itself.

See Also: The Operationalization of Threat Intelligence Programs

So says Andy Ellis, chief security officer of Akamai Technologies, speaking both as someone with extensive experience in the field, as well as someone who regularly screens, interviews and hires personnel for his own security team.

In an interview recorded at RSA Conference 2015, Ellis also details:

  • The importance of service in his own work history;
  • Advice for people who want to get a start in the information security sector;
  • What job-candidate skills and approaches he most prizes, as a security manager tasked with hiring his own team.

Ellis has been with Akamai since 2000, and worked in a number of roles, including chief security architect and director of information security, and is also the designer and patent holder of Akamai's SSL acceleration network, as well as several of its other key technologies. As Akamai's CSO, he manages the company's information security team, and also oversees security risk governance for the company. He's also an advisory board member for the HacKid Conference. His previous jobs include serving as an information warfare engineer for the U.S. Air Force, as well as a foreman at Disneyland.

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About the Author

Mathew J. Schwartz

Mathew J. Schwartz

Executive Editor, DataBreachToday & Europe, ISMG

Schwartz is an award-winning journalist with two decades of experience in magazines, newspapers and electronic media. He has covered the information security and privacy sector throughout his career. Before joining Information Security Media Group in 2014, where he now serves as the executive editor, DataBreachToday and for European news coverage, Schwartz was the information security beat reporter for InformationWeek and a frequent contributor to DarkReading, among other publications. He lives in Scotland.




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