The Gate 15 Interview EP 25. Amanda Berlin and Megan Roddie talk cybersecurity, mental health hackers, DEFCON, musicals, fruits, and more!

In this episode of The Gate 15 Interview, Andy Jabbour speaks with Amanda Berlin and Megan Roddie, cybersecurity leaders & mental health hackers, and they’ve got their hands in a lot more too!  Amanda is the Lead Incident Detection Engineer at Blumira and has worked in I.T. for almost her entire adult life. Before working at Blumira, Amanda’s responsibilities have included infrastructure security, network hardware and software repair, email management, network/server troubleshooting and installation, purple teaming with a focus on phishing employees and organizational infrastructure as well as teaching employees about security and preventing exploits. She currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer for Mental Health Hackers and is the co-host of the Brakeing Down Security Podcast (BrakeSec Podcast, @brakesec)!  Megan is a Senior Security Engineer at IBM, Co-Author of SANS FOR509 and has worked in cybersecurity since graduating from Sam Houston State University (and while she was still a student!). Previous roles have been with the Texas Department of Public Safety, Recon InfoSec, and with IBM’s X-Force. She currently serves as the Chief Financial Officer for Mental Health Hackers. Megan is also a Muay Thai fighter and coach.  Follow Mental Health Hackers on Twitter! @HackersHealth Follow Amanda on Twitter at @InfoSystir and on LinkedIn and follow Blumira on Twitter! Follow Megan on Twitter at @megan_roddie and on LinkedIn.  In the discussion we address:  Amanda & Megan’s backgrounds and origin stories  Awesome tips for breaking into security!  DEFCON and how to score a free breakfast at DEFCON!!  Mental Health Hackers  The Brakeing Down Security podcast  Muay Thai, Musicals, Apples & Bannanas!  Fruits, music and so much more!  A few references mentioned in or relevant to our discussion include:  Mental Health Hackers website  Mental Health Hackers on Twitter! @HackersHealth  Amanda on Twitter at @InfoSystir and on LinkedIn.  Megan on Twitter at @megan_roddie and on LinkedIn.  Tom Williams on Twitter: @ginger_hax  Amanda’s InfoSec Staples tweet - https://twitter.com/infosystir/status/972906318875983873?s=21&t=CCp0CmDgDcZXQVWtnpEXEA Blackhat USA 2022 - https://www.blackhat.com/us-22/defcon.html?_mc=sem_bhus_sem_bhus_x_tspr_Google_defcon30_bhusagcompetitvedefcon30_2022&gclid=Cj0KCQjwn4qWBhCvARIsAFNAMihsrClH8Aygi2UnTsbSus3teDdktlK2NiamBzyAORwM5nHcaE4pynwaArHkEALw_wcB  DEFCON 30 - https://defcon.org 10th Annual Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Smackdown. A Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu event for information security professionals hosted by Jeremiah Grossman during Black Hat and Defcon - https://www.eventbrite.com/e/10th-annual-brazilian-jiu-jitsu-smackdown-tickets-348058561527 Amanda’s Book! Defensive Security Handbook: Best Practices for Securing Infrastructure (1st Edition) - https://www.amazon.com/Defensive-Security-Handbook-Practices-Infrastructure/dp/1491960388 Megan’s SANS Course! FOR509 Course Update - Introducing Google Workspace, the Multi-Cloud Intrusion Challenge - https://www.sans.org/blog/for509-course-update---introducing-google-workspace-the-multi-cloud-intrusion-challenge-and-more/