Hard work and perseverance have brought Mike Silverman (B.A., Studio Art, ’10, M.S., Information Technology, ’15) to a highly coveted position with Lockheed Martin. As a Senior Cyber Intel Analyst, will be putting his education, experience and certifications to great use.

In fact, Silverman says that education, experience and certifications are the three things that hiring managers look for most in an Analyst.

He advises, “An Analyst is only as good as his or her tools, so do yourself a favor and arm yourself with as many tools as possible in order to help get you your next security position.”

Silverman is no stranger to certifications – he has earned the CompTIA Security+ and GIAC GCIH certifications and is an Associate of ISC2.

In addition to his extensive education at FSU and his extensive certifications, Silverman has also gained tons of experience. Most significantly, his time spent working in state government allowed him to learn about several different fields, such as risk management, forensics and management.

Silverman will face new responsibilities in his upcoming position with Lockheed Martin. Some of the things he will be in charge of include conducting investigations to understand the root cause of incidents and recommending appropriate remediation plans, identifying patterns in reported compromises as well as identifying additional compromises as part of the same incident and recognizing the common surveillance, exploit and techniques used in incidents.

Although Silverman wasn’t certain about what he wanted to do with his life when he was fresh out of college but he has always been a diligent worker.

Mike’s academic advisor and international leader in cybersecurity Dr. Shuyuan Mary Ho says of Silverman, “Mike always showed great passion for classes in information systems management, and information security while he was in the MSIT program.”

It was after accepting a job doing desktop support with the state that he realized his passion for security. When a security administration position opened up six months later, he applied and got the job.

When he’s not working with security and analytics, Silverman enjoys kayaking, riding the trails of Tallahassee and playing with new technology. Five years from now, he sees himself in a position that allows him to continue expanding his security knowledge.

The MSIT program at FSU’s iSchool offers many great courses that help students build a career in information security, such as as a data analyst, systems analyst, security officer or intelligence analyst. The program provides many great courses regarding the static fundamental concepts in a field where the technology is always changing. To learn more about the MSIT program, click here.