1. During my role as a Detection Engineering Cybersecurity Intern at GE Aerospace, I had 4 main priorities. These included leading and conducting a threat hunt targeting a major ransomware group, researching and understanding the Detection Engineering Pipeline, gaining general cybersecurity knowledge and receiving certification in Microsoft Azure tools, and participating in an intern-led technology committee to plan several Lunch-n-Learn and Hackathon events.
2. Likely the biggest transformation I went through while working at GE Aerospace was my understanding of the world of cybersecurity. Previously, I thought cybersecurity was only composed of basic firewall defenses, as well as measures of defense in case a cyber threat managed to get through said firewall. I did not know how much went into the field, through both active and passive defense.
Cybersecurity was something that had previously gained my interest, but only to a slight degree. However, after working in the field and gaining an understanding of it, it is something I am far more interested in. There seems to be an unlimited amount of knowledge to be acquired, and I have a strong desire to pursue it. Before the internship, I only had an interest in cybersecurity, but now I believe it to be the field I would like to work in upon graduating.
3. The biggest thing that contributed to this transformation was the major project I worked on during my time at GE Aerospace, leading a threat hunt. This consisted of extensive research on a ransomware group, studying their previous behavior to understand how they act when conducting cyber attacks, and determining methods that could be used to determine if the group was present in our environment. We then carried out these methods through a tool called Splunk, in which we ran queries searching for the indicators we decided to target.
Initially, running the threat hunt was an overwhelming task. I had never even previously heard of a threat hunt and had no knowledge of what went into the process, nor had I used the tool Splunk, so the idea of participating in one seemed daunting, let alone leading one. However, it proved to be an excellent learning experience. Being thrown directly into a leadership position of such a major project forced me to gain a deep understanding of how the threat hunting process worked, as well as helping me improve my leadership skills as I divided tasks among group members as well as making sure all were contributing at the necessary pace.
Another large contribution in this transformation was my assignment leader, Aluor. Aluor was assigned to me by the company to meet with me at least once a week to give me and monitor my projects, help me fit in with the company, and assist me in any way I felt was needed. He was extremely knowledgeable of cybersecurity and made the learning process digestible, smooth, and engaging. He found the perfect balance between challenging me enough to make sure I was learning at an efficient pace, but not doing so to a point of overwhelming me. He had faith in me to lead the threat hunt, and was very patient with me in terms of any questions on struggles I had. Aluor truly made the internship what it was, and awakened an interest in cybersecurity for me.
4. This transformation has been extremely valuable for my future. The experience allowed me to gain a wealth of knowledge regarding working in technology and has acted as important preparation for my future career. Without this internship, I would not have gained an interest in cybersecurity, and it may not have been a field that I pursued a career in. Now that I have some experience, though, it is something I plan to actively pursue and learn about. A better idea of what I may want to do in the future is the most valuable thing I could possibly think of to gain from an internship.