Video: Davin Jackson: The Cheat Code To A Career In Cybersecurity

I got into cyber security and it might sound cliche but uh to to help people hey Channel insiders I'm your host Katie boso and welcome to channel Insider partner POV today I get to introduce you to my colleague Davin Jackson cyber security media personality for ecurity Planet at technology advice Davin is an expert in his field with Decades of experience behind him but he didn't always feel like he belonged you'll get to know davin's journey to where he is now and how he's inspiring the next generation of cyber Security Experts through education support and Esports welcome Davin great to see you nice to see you too thanks for having me so David I've been wanting to get you on for a while you've been with the company with technology advice for a few months now but you've been working in the cyber security space even on camera for quite a while so I wanted have the opportunity to bring you over to the channel Insider audience and introduce you for the expert and the the personality that you are in this space I'd love to start off by just kind of getting to know you and getting to know your role first of all at e security Planet so talk to me about what you do right now for our audience that may want to go find you out there on the interwebs it's funny every time I hear the word expert X my name like that impostor syndrome just like starts kicking in I know the feeling I am the cyber security media a personality for E security Planet so I am the new host of the E security planet YouTube channel I also do some written content so I do write some articles for the website as well like I said this has been something that you've been doing for a while and I I want to get to know your background because you and I have talked off camera I love that you mentioned the impostor syndrome but you were no stranger to this space so let's talk a little bit about first of all why cyber security for you just as an industry what attracts you to this very wide umbrella of cyber security it's two reasons one the the ever evolving landscape that is cyber security um the challenges that come along with it not that you can get bored with technology but I just love the challenges that uh cyber security bring from um whether you're red team blue team purple team for applications and and and then which leads to the next one is I got into cyber security and it might sound cliche but uh to to help people right I want to be able to help people learn how to protect themselves online protect their digital footprint help kids navigate this they're given technology at a way faster rate than we were given I think I'm older than Google at this point so um you know they also need you know guidance and mentorship and and um help navigating the space so that's why I got into it for you in your background talk to me about your first kind of entry in into cyber security what was your first job that you would consider like this was a real cyber security job oh wow so my first real cyber security job I would probably say um where I was introduced to cyber security was I was working at a school system for a few years and we kept getting hit with ransomware attacks uh fishing emails you know just there was just a lot of security issues I proposed to the director of Technology at the time to let me figure out what's going on how we can fix these issues I was also uh running the technology I was supporting the technology for the special education department um and they were having issues where their tablets and laptops were being stolen or or being lost these things are crucial to these kids uh with special needs who her their IEP plans or what have you um need these things to not only learn but to go on with some of everyday life to communicate in some cases um so that really struck a nerve with me so started looking at ways to you know secure them and then from there it was like okay how do we secure our own infrastructure how do we secure our teachers and just kept going down down the rabbit hole um until I came across um an article about penetration testing and ethical hacking and that brought me back to even before cyber security when I was like a 5-year-old kid in my grandmother's uh living room just trying to figure out how to make things work and what happens if I run this wire to this wire and I was hooked um I started you know doing deep Dives I went on Amazon that day and bought a bunch of books uh built my first lab um shortly after that it was like okay I want to get certified took a class I actually drove down to Virginia and took a took a a five-day boot camp came back and I stayed at the I stayed at the school district for about about another six months or so um but that dreaded B work budget uh started um getting in the way of certain things that I wanted to do to secure it and then I was offered a role for I guess my first real cyber security job which was a pentester for a cyber security company there was several things that you said there that I want to dig into but the first one where you talked about budget that is something that I know from speaking with you outside of this recording that frustrates you to no end because it does impact directly a company's security posture can you kind of just talk to me a little bit about where you struggle with the budget versus what companies actually need to be safe and just where that kind of flows into you trying to educate and edutain to a certain extent other people and businesses well I think budget or just Financial um issues are a big problem for businesses big and small and even for um your everyday user at home right um like I said my idea of cyber security is no different than um any other service based industry is that's to you know help people but it's become a situation now where if you don't have the budget or you can't afford it you can't get the help right and which then also leads you know mom and pop businesses small businesses homeowner homebased businesses to say well I don't make a lot of money so why do I shouldn't have I don't think I need to worry about you know these these things like these major corporations do and the fact of the matter is cyber security is something that everybody should worry about from not just from a personal standpoint but from a business standpoint and I don't feel like there should be a massive expense you know for to be able to help protect one's um self online the average person watching this should they think of oh I need a lot of money to protect myself or my business online is it that there's practices that you see are often being overlooked because people don't know that you can take deps without having to put a huge investment in there absolutely I think that's not talked about enough you know the open source open source tools that you can use um or just basic things like having antivirus software you know I know it sounds crazy these days where people like ah it's not a thing anymore but those little things can all help we talk about defense in depth where it's the POS the the the concept of layered security um is no different than having you know if you have a fence and then you also have an alarm you have a lock and then you have an alarm on your house I think you know everyday user should also do that as well as practice um you know safety when being online you know not oversharing any information uh avoid clicking any links um you know checking fishing emails you know never trust always verify that zero trust concept you can apply that at home as well so these are things that you can do every day that are cost effective or even cheap or even free um in some cases where um you can immediately improve your security posture I'd love to dive a bit more into your background uh because I I feel you're being very modest when it comes to several aspects of your background because I know that this has been such a journey for you um and I'd like to kind of Express that not only have you been a pentester but you've also been an educator with other social media sites you have had your own Platforms in which that you've used those to be able to educate the public and to be able to tell them various cyber security stories you've started a center in which kids can come and they can learn Esports like I I don't know how to Hype you up anymore because I'm so excited about it right now just talking to you uh but you also still go and do education uh presentations at different events um so why don't I take a a beat and backtrack to something I said talking about the education center can you tell me uh a bit about your involvement with that so the idea of the Esports Center which is Alpha Esports and technology and my the cyber security content is Alpha cyber security the idea of it all comes under the concept of um being the change that I wanted to see so um when I got into cyber security the first thing they tell you is to find a mentor and help and have them help you navigate through this massive world um and the person who I deemed to be my mentor was actually my instructor from the uh from the penetration testing and ethical hacking boot camp so um if you're watching this shout out to KRON Evans um he he knows I I hold him in such high regard um but he he was the first person who made me feel like I I belonged in this space and that I could do it but even before that like I was talking about being you know that kid in my grandmother's basement putting things together um I grew up on video games right I grew up on video games and Anime like I am a huge nerd so my earliest memory or my first quote unquote hack would be um getting a video game system console system to run G uh Japanese games on American systems uh all because there was a there was a Dragon Ball Z game that was in Japan that we wanted to play and I always think back to what if I had someone in my corner when I was 15 16 17 years years old to say hey here's this path you can take that you know you may not have known uh was actually there for you um because when I got to about 16 17 um I was somewhat lost I knew I wanted to do something in Tech or something in media which is funny now that we're here full circle but um I wanted to do stuff like that and I actually got accepted to a few colleges but I went up going to the military and was an aircraft mechanic thank you for your service thank you so I was a aircraft mechanic on the F-16 and then later on the stealth F-117 awesome jets but there's no fighter jets in the civilian world so when I got out I was lost again um and I credit my wife who was my biggest supporter as well as uh the foot in my behind that I needed uh when we were um pregnant with our first child I just left another company and she was like if there was something you wanted to do what would it be and it'd be Tech halfway through my career in cyber security um I started getting a lot of questions about how do I get started um how do you build a lab uh what is Cali Linux and things like that and um I wanted to be able to answer all of those questions but you know I'm only one person so that's where Alpha cyber security started it started off as a blog site to answer all the questions that I wish I knew or also the questions that I was getting online on LinkedIn and Twitter or X now or whatever and then from there it turned turned into video content which was the birth of my podcast infosec unplugged but the idea with infosec unplugged was going back to that word about impostor syndrome the idea of infos SEC unplugged was now that I've built up this audience and this reputation in my own career how can I use that to also help these people who are just getting started and don't know where to go so the concept of Ino infos unplugged was to interview people that I've met and that I've become friends and family even family with um in the cyber security community that are also known as you know the quote unquote rock stars um in in our field but how do I get them to come on let their hair down and just you know shoot the breeze and just talk just talk have a real conversation um but also make it impactful so instead of doing a recorded podcast I made it a live stream podcast so this way our viewers could actually interact with our guests so I've I've been blessed to have um you know Dave Kennedy from trusted SEC um I've had Rachel Tobak who is just awesome and I'm not trying to plug my own stuff uh but she she has been amazing uh Tyrone Wilson who runs the biggest cyber security Meetup Group in the country Mary Galloway who's the CEO of the women's Society of cyberjutsu uh Jessica Gulick who runs the Cyber Esports Foundation where they're actually making cyber security uh stuff into a sport and the one thing that they all have in common is that they all had to start somewhere and now that they've gotten to a point they want to help the Next Generation and bring more people in so that's where that P the podcast uh took off and then um I'll probably say like late 2019 I would say um we had just moved to Georgia and my son had joined an orts group and during one of the practices they were talking about um fortnite strategies and something about it I don't remember the exact line but something about it clicked with me that I was able to explain the five phases of a penetration test using this fortnite analogies and I remember immediately like I was still at the practice and I wrote the I wrote the concept of the presentation and I gave the presentation at a conference that winter and my my thought was if I can get the cyber security crowd to buy it then I know I've I got something and they they loved it so it's was like okay um how do we bring the Two Worlds together because this is exactly what I wanted to do how do we bring in the Next Generation but bring it in in a way that they can relate to it because when you talk about cyber security a lot of people think it's Advanced rocket science and it's like okay how do we make it uh more digestible and for for them to better understand and it was used using the gaming um element using things that they already know and and highlighting those transferable skills and the parallels that they may not even know they have that can lead them down um that path to to careers in Tech did that covid happened that stopped and then like late 2022 I said uh you know what I really wanted to jump into 2023 and and and give this a shot so we went uh head first again my wife being my biggest supporter uh we found a space and we opened up the alpha Esports and Technology Center uh here in Georgia where again I I call it using gaming as the cheat code to engage in other conversations and to teach them things that they may not know um you know and their studies behind it the NIH did studies that show gaming when done in the right and healthy manner can actually improve your cognitive functions uh improve your collaborative skills problem solving critical thinking leadership communication and these these are all things that are desperately needed not just in Tech but just in the world um in general so so it's like okay how do I now teach these skills in something that they know and love so for example I do something like where it's like hey we're going to work on your communication skills so you're going to do a presentation on how you navigate your map during a fortnite match hey uh you want you you want to be better you want to be a better leader or you want to be able to take accountability or whatever cool I'm going to make make you the igl the endgame leader and now your job is to basically be the point guard or the coach um you know in the game and and you have to navigate not only the game but navigate your other your your teammates Tendencies uh we create we created a a system called race uh that stands for respect accountability communication and and execution and the concept behind that is you can't do one well without doing the other's well so if you don't have respect you can't hold each other accountable if you don't do that you have good communication if you don't have good communication you'll have poor execution so these are all things that we just do but we're using gaming so it it's it's it's an easier pill to swallow I do want to kind of dig into that a little bit more because I hear uh more and more about Esports the the longer I'm in Tech obviously the more popular it becomes just as some subject matter but for you what have you noticed when it comes to those kids who are participating in Esports is this prob I I don't want to put words in your mouth but for some of them is this kind of the first time that they felt seen or that they felt the ability to be able to connect it to other aspects of their life to help with their struggles or to help be able to kind of move forward in a way they understand absolutely um you know and I'm not taking away because I think that's the that's the one argument that you get a lot oh it's not a real sport even though you know just because you're not exerting physical energy or risking you know head injuries or blowing out your knee or ankle doesn't mean it's not a sport right if we can consider bowling and and and darts a sport then we should also do the same for for for gaming for the kids you know you have you have several people who want to express themselves or be able to compete and represent their Community represent their schools or whatever organizations they're a part of but they're not physically gifted you have some who can't get out the house you know you have people who you know who want to do these things but they are restricted for one reason or the other and now you're giving them a platform to be the best version of themselves unapologetically right um obviously you still do everything with respect and integrity and sportsmanship and all of that but you have these kids who who are looking for that outlet to express themselves we had an event one day and um this young man came in and he has Ambitions of of being a professional gamer but um while he was playing in the match he signal over to his dad and his dad like immediately starts like rummaging through his bag and pulls out like a bottle a water bottle and the kid like boxes up in fortnite so that's you know you build a box to protect yourself and he kind of just like tips his head back and his dad starts like pouring the drink for him and I and I remember pulling him to the side going I own this place and I don't think I'm that dedicated right but he said I wanted him to play baseball and he came to me one day and was like I love watching baseball I'll do it recreationally but I'll never be that good this is what I'm good at and if you're willing to invest the money and me spending three four hours couple days a week doing that why wouldn't you let me do this and then he did his research and saw all the things that he figured he could get from baseball so the leadership the teamwork the College opportunities you can also get that so he's like so if I were if I were willing to do that for him for this then why not and he's happy I think it's super beneficial for the children when they see that not only do they have this outlet but they have someone especially in underserved communities who came up very similar to them telling them no this is possible and not only is this possible you can take this and turn it into something else whether you want to go professional or want to try to be a professional um Esports player or you want to get into the gaming industry as a developer or a tester or what have you or you w to be you you want to work in the tech and cyber security side because all of these things need that support right you talk about um v-bucks or robu on Roblox whatever these are all Financial transactions there's there's a cyber security element to that okay how do you secure these transactions how do you secure their Online safety how do you make sure that you know that that people aren't trying to take down your server or mess with your internet while you're online if your internet does go down how do you troubleshoot that these are all things that are transferable skills that can lead to to other careers so when you're able to do that and get them to see it for themselves um you know it it it it's life-changing for some kids I have friends that are Gamers that know how to build computers now because they wanted to build computers that could handle their their PC games faster than what they had and I don't know if that ever would have been something that they could consider a skill set or a talent if they hadn't fallen in love with gaming first because like you said it doesn't always mean you know to be a professional gamer or even to be a professional baseball player yes these things might look a little far off and perhaps they are but the inspiration that this sport just like any other sport or any other passion can lead you down and what it turn you towards is just as legitimate as a career path in something like being a doctor or being a lawyer I could easily study law and medicine and be inspired to do something that has nothing to do with being a doctor or being a lawyer but it could set me on a path otherwise um not now because I'm old but I think just kidding I think something else that you you hinted at Davin and you talked about impostor syndrome in the beginning uh and you also have talked to me off off camera about this in which you you discussed not having seen a lot of people that looked like you when you first got into the business and first got into the cyber security industry and finding your Mentor I'd love for you to talk a bit more about that of why it's important for you to carry that torch now and to continue showing up and saying this is what a cyber security expert looks like and just continuing to inspire and to hopefully stomp out that impostor syndrome um I do it because uh KRON did it for me I do it because um when I was going through a difficult part in my career um another another brilliant man who by the name of Marcus J Carrey reached out to me now this is someone that I've always admired from afar he popped up on a stream a couple times here and there but um I was just having difficulties and I just I put it out on Twitter and he sends me a message with his phone number and says call me and I don't this is the first time I've talked to this man that I admired like I was like he is you know someone who I aspired to be like and um I called him and he let me rant for like 45 minutes and again I don't know this man um he let me rant and then he goes okay you done I said yeah he goes Let It Go and then he bought me a book that I still I have my kids read read um called The Four Agreements again Ty Tyrone Wilson John breath these are guys that I've met online who we developed this relationship and now there's a Brotherhood there that I can call them and has nothing to do with um ethical hacking or cyber security or whatever I do it for them I do it because they saw something in me to say let me pull this brother to the side and say hey slow down pump your brakes breathe and and get through it um but I also do it because like I said before I want to be the change that I want to see the one wh if that I always ask myself is what if I did have someone there sooner to say hey let's take those talents of yours and show you how to do something with it what if I had a mentor when I was going into the military and I didn't know anything about tech or something like that to say did you see your ASVAB scores let let's look at these options over here um where would I be in my career um I don't question it too much because I feel like it put me where I need to be now to be the person that I am today but I but this is what I this is why I do it um because there are a lot of people who look like me and feel like that they don't belong with all the things that I've done from video game systems to the military to whatever um I still didn't feel like I belonged I didn't feel like I was smart enough I didn't feel like I had the the education going back to that story when I said I went down to Virginia to do the um the ethical hacking boot camp I remember sitting there and there were people there from the Pentagon and you know all these government agencies and stuff like that and I was probably like one of two people who looked like me in the room and I remember going what the what am I thinking I just spent all this money I don't belong here and I remember literally going I maybe I should maybe I can get my money back you know maybe I can get some of it something like that right um and in comes KRON walking in with his Swagger that he has and he's just like he comes in he's like hey guys all right settle down we're gonna get class started and immediately I felt at EAS right because this is someone who walk like me walk like me talk like me had that Swagger that bravado about him didn't have to position himself to be anything else other than himself but then not only that he sat with he sat with everybody right so we would go through our boot camps eight nine hour classes eat dinner and then we would do lab stuff but there were nights where he sat up with us till 1 in the morning two in the morning to make sure we understood it and were able to apply what you know what what we just understood and he really took um an investment even after we were done you know some teachers you have they're like all right thanks for taking my class or thanks for watching my TED Talk Deuces but he would check in you know months later years later he would check in he still remembered my name like I remember uh years ago someone said they were taught by him but they were taught by him because they saw my podcast where I said I was taught by him and and I was like man I hope he remembers me and they were like does he I actually mention you and he's like oh yeah he's like one of my students if I didn't have that moment where he walked in and was his Unapologetic self would I be here today so my so now my goal is to do the same exact thing because that can be lifechanging I'm so pumped up right now I feel like I could honestly do anything and that's cuz of you I thank you for sharing that with me and being being so honest and vulnerable about it because I think it is so important to continue to talk to the people out there that are you or a different or younger or or less less mature version of you um and I think that's so important to inspire the next person in line and give them what you needed to hear and potentially didn't have when you were that age or in that position I want to to kind of move forward thinking about you know that next Generation a little bit more And discussing where uh cyber security is right now in this day and age um you know for those who are our International listeners and viewers were based in the US talking about this with a lot of that viewpoint but it is an international issue and an international industry for you we talked about budget but what do you think right now is in impacting Society the most when they're thinking about cyber security and and I'm not talking about a good thing like what do you think is holding us back from really uh being able to protect ourselves right now I think we're getting in our own way and by by us I mean just the business of cyber security I love being a hacker I don't necessarily enjoy the business of infosec and it goes back to what we talked about as far as I thought we were here to help people and that's that twofold so that's not just from people who can afford it or just the business side of it but the people who are who want to get into it they're making it harder but at while at the same time complaining that there are there's this Talent Gap there's this Talent shortage there's x amount of hundreds of thousands or millions of jobs that are that are un that are available and we don't have enough qualified people and while some of it is true that you know some jobs do require you know extensive amount of experience or education um and and I should go off and also say that cyber security isn't quite like an entry level role like I always feel like you should probably start off doing some type of help desk or sock or something and get that experience before you transition because if not it's like you know drinking through a fire hose you know with a straw I think we get in our own way with you know the barrier of Entry uh you know making some of these things so expensive the training the certifications you know and I get it you have some really good quality trainings and stuff out there but you know you you shouldn't have to finance a cert certificate training right um and I and that just goes honestly I can go on a whole soapbox about education in general because the cost of college like I have I have I have a child getting ready to go to college and I'm seeing some of these tuitions and it's just like yeah okay but moving the goalpost and and and and making the barrier of Entry just that much more difficult it's just going to cause people to get discouraged easier um especially in this economy right now where people are getting laid off at a massive clip and you know people aren't getting paid the same salaries they were five five six 10 years ago having to take pay cuts but the cost of everything else is going up and the education is no different how do you expect people to be able to make that transition and make that investment if you know your certification training that's going to help get them get them you know that first entry level job or that first job in cyber security that's going to pay them you know pay them a decent salary but they're coming from wherever they're coming from and now you want them to invest 10 $20,000 you know 15 you know for for for for a class um that's going to make things harder one of the things that I also work on with my platforms is making it entertaining or making it in a way that's easily understandable right we you go on you go on and you hear you know about cryptography or cryptocurrency or artificial intelligence all these other things and and it's like they sometimes I feel like they go out of their way to make it sound a lot more complicated or scarier than it is I remember when there was a Cyber attack I'm not going to say or I'm not going to say what it was or ransomware attack I should say like my barber called me was like are we being attacked what's happening but and I'm like dude calm down someone clicked a link right and it's like well on the news they said and I'm like yes yes it's it's a little bit more complicated than that the link it had something embedded that was malicious but it wasn't this big sophisticated aliens are coming from the sky with their Quantum Technologies and all of that and when you talk to The Everyday People they're like oh okay well why didn't they just say that you know and it's no different in the educational space right you have you you you have some of these Concepts and it's like okay how can we explain it this is another reason why I try to use certain things that are relatable to get them to better understand it because that's what you want them to do you don't want them to be like oh okay what what what the heck is he talking about right you don't want that you want them to go I got it you know and I learned that from my own kids so yeah we need to do better with making the barrier of Entry uh easier for people who want to do it uh we need to do a better job of explaining these Concepts we need to be do a better job of recruiting people who are really passionate about doing it and being that source of knowledge for them um where we're again educating not intimidating well Davin if we want to learn more about you if we want to check out your content where can we go well first and foremost you can find us here at ecurity Planet ecurity planet.com but the YouTube channel is also ecurity Planet you'll catch my videos over there uh you can also find me at um on Twitter and Instagram djore Alpa um and then my Esports and Technology Center is Alpha Esports tech.com so you can find me there at fil free to ask any questions let me know uh that you saw you saw me here with Katie and I'll be happy to help Davin thank you so much it's been so exciting to get to talk to you and thank you for letting me introduce you to our audience here at Channel Insider thanks so much to Davin for joining me today and thank you for watching or listening you can check out all episodes of Channel Insider partner POV on Channel insider.com or at youtube.com/ Channel inssider newws and Trends you can also listen to us as a podcast wherever you listen to podcasts don't forget to like subscribe and follow wherever possible so you never miss an episode once again I'm Katie boso and I'll see you next time

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