72: Learning w/ Cybersecurity Girl

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Learn more@WhatsApp.com this episode is sponsored by National Technology Management. Visit trustntm.com for more information. I'm Kelly Siegel and this is Harder than Life, a podcast about self love, self awareness, business and health. We tell outrageous stories and boil everything down to simple, practical advice you can start using today. Let's get living. Today's guest is relatively unknown, name wise, but for the time being. But she has 366,000 thousand Instagram followers and goes by the handle of Cyber Security Girl. Go follow her for practical tips on how to move and about the Internet safely. Since I own an IT company that's made cyber security simple, I want to bring on the brilliant and beautiful Caitlyn Sarian, whom I met in a Miami Mastermind meeting meeting. And while staying in touch, she is going to debunk common myths and provide easily digestible and understandable methods for protecting, protecting your identity, your business, and specifically your money. Welcome to the Heart of Life podcast, Caitlin.

Thank you, Kelly. Excited to be here.

Yeah, it's been a long time coming. I'm very sorry for the move. I appreciate it. My schedule is absolutely insane, but I have been wanting to get you on since the first day I met you. I, I, I, I come across a lot of people in this business and your brilliance shines through and I hope to share it with all of our listeners today.

Oh, thanks, Kelly. That means a lot. Yeah, I've been wanting to do this for a while and actually your, your schedule change was perfect for my schedule because I was actually supposed to fly to New York Thursday and I was supposed to do Fashion Week all Friday. So I was like, oh, it's perfect timing.

Well, enjoy. Got Cyber City girl on the red carpet. Hey. Hey.

Yeah, look at us. Look at us. Tech nerds having a life outside of.

Work, all that stuff. First things first. Debunk for the listeners the definition of the word hacked and how having your weak password guest or being sold as a part of a breach is not being hacked. What can people, people do to protect themselves against these weak passwords?

Yes. Okay, so. Well, I mean, hacked is literally just like anyone, like breaking in to an account or anything that they don't, they shouldn't have access to. And there's. There's hackers, but hackers is a very general term. So there's like, ethical hackers, which are actually, actually the good guys. And I've actually had many people tell me online, like, I shouldn't just blanket statement hackers are going to get you. Because there's ethical hackers out there that are actually the good guys that are trying to protect. Help protect companies and people. And they're actually hired to break in legally to see where the flaws are. And then there's, you know, the unethical hackers, which are, like, the ones that we all think about, where they're, like, breaking into things that they shouldn't be breaking into. So in terms of password, though, I mean, this just. It's the story that never ends. Passwords are so important. And I honestly want to bang my head against the wall every time I say that because it sounds so lame and dumb, but it's so true. I mean, and I actually had someone. I went to a conference, and someone described passwords perfectly. They had us close our eyes, and they said, okay, imagine that you are holding the key to your house. And then she said, okay, and then start sharing that key with, you know, your friends, your family, you know, a few other people. Like, how safe do you feel now that everyone has a key? Oh, and what happens actually if your best friend loses the key? Or what happens if your mom accidentally loses the key and she's like, your. Your key is actually your password. So when you reuse passwords, you're just giving the key to other people. And then if they get into a breach or they have, they have, they've been breached, then your key is now into anyone's hand, and they have access to your house. So it's like the best way to describe passwords. I absolutely loved hearing that. And it's so important to have separate passwords for every single account, which sounds crazy because we have a bajillion accounts, but that's why you should get a password manager and create unique, strong passwords. So hackers also have the ability to run algorithms and use previous passwords and run algorithms to add, you know, 1, 2, 3, or an exclamation point. Like, basically 10,000 variations of an old password within, like, minutes. And people don't realize that. So if any of your old accounts have been, like, on the black web or on the dark web, and they start wanting to get into any of your other accounts, they can just Run this algorithm takes a few minutes on every single account. There's also ways to look at all the accounts associated with your email. So I don't think people realize how easy it is. If a hacker wants to get in to any of your accounts, they can. If you have easy guessable passwords. It's a long, long intro, but you.

Went way down the path that I love and it showed your brilliance. But I was literally just making fun of people that when you see them on Facebook, they go, I've been hacked. Don't accept, like, you haven't been hacked. They guessed your password because it was password. So I just like to tease people. No, Einstein. Yeah, like that.

So what, it's not active hacking. Yeah.

What password manager do you recommend?

There's. I mean, there's so many good ones. I personally use one password. There's another one that has won a lot of awards is Keep Keeper Pass or Keep Pass. Yeah, they. They have like a new way of encrypting and saving the password. So it's not like local or it's like only local and not on other devices. I would actually warn everyone, the one that you should not do is LastPass, because they've had so many. Ironically, they've had so many breaches. I think they've had three. I know they've had two. It might be three. So if you use LastPass, I would strongly suggest you get another password manager. But I use one password. And there's a lot of new password managers coming up that are pretty great.

So understand what that means is so if you use one password for all of your sites and one of those sites becomes compromised, that password now is out on the dark web and people can have access to that. And then they sell that to people. So then the hackers will take that password. Try it on your bank accounts, try it on your. On your Facebook and your Instagram and all of your. Your stuff. But mostly they don't give a crap about that they want to get your money. So. Or the, the double ransomware that we see in. In business is when they try to get you in a compromising situation where if you have a significant. Where you're married and you have a side piece or something, those. Those are double ransomware things. So that's fun.

Is not fun.

When they call me, they're like, it's. First thing I ask, is there anything that you don't want out there? Because it's coming out. And they're like, are you serious? Yes, it is. So having said that, how did you get started? Beautiful, young, brilliant mind. Get started in a cybersecurity space. Because you don't look like a typical propeller head. Yes, I get that all the time and had to phrase it that way.

I wish I looked like a propeller head. That sounds like fun. No, I would love to work at Google. They're all geniuses. I did actually aerospace engineering, so I don't think I looked like anything that I've done in the past. I did aerospace, mechanical, and I was, I was looking for, like my forever job. Like, that's how I was raised. Like, my dad was in, like, the same job. My grandpa's done the same thing. Like, I was really passionate about, like, finding a company that I could, like, work for the rest of my life for and, like, stick with it. When I was getting out of my master's and I couldn't, I did amazing internships. I worked at GE and I worked in alternative energy. I worked at Chevron and I worked in oil and gas. And then I worked at Abbott and did support supply chain and pharmaceuticals, which is all amazing. But I was like, can I see myself at this company forever? And I, at that point, I couldn't. So I was like, I'm going to go into tech consulting, and that way I can kind of try all these different things and really figure out what I was most passionate about. I did aerospace, mechanical, because I was like, that's kind of mechanical, specifically is like the foundation of all engineering. I just like to say it's like a degree in problem solving. So I didn't know which path I really wanted to take. And I. When I was applying to do tech consulting, someone was like, hey, we're starting a cybersecurity. Like, no staff team. Like, would you be interested at all? And I, in my head, thought, I don't know what cybersecurity is. I think it's hacking. I think it's like coding. And I was, I specifically remember being like, I shouldn't tell her that. Coding was like my least favorite and hardest class that I ever took in college because I had to take this class called matlab, which is like a type of code. It's really. It's not even that hard. And I was terrible. And I had to take two semesters. But I was like, you know what? I'm a yes girl. I'm going to learn. Let's, let's, let's see what happens. I'll figure it out. And so I said I'd be interested. And then I was really intrigued. And I went that route. Like I got in like, you know, jobs at Northrop Grumman and Boeing and like all these crazy jobs and space. I think I even got a job at SpaceX if I remember correctly, which now everyone's like, why would you turn that down? But I was really intrigued by cyber and then I just learned everything on the job. It's crazy.

And if you guys don't follow her, she goes by cyber security girl on Instagram and then cyber security girl at TikTok. She's brilliant. Easily simple updates and, and digestible, simple follower. She's brilliant every I, I like enjoy watching them come across my feed every single day. So give her a follow.

Thank you.

Let her, let her brilliant shine through. And we talked a little bit about, you know, having a, getting a strong password manager and, or having different passwords for everything. But what are the most common threats to everyday people? Not businesses, everyday people. What do they call them? What are the best practices to avoid them?

Yeah, so I think the biggest things I've seen on like common everyday threats is like the rent, like a lot of social media, like hacks, which aren't really, like we said, hacks. They're like people that use your old passwords that are, they're found on the dark web that they've bought to like get in and then they hold it for ransom and they say, I'm not going to give you your account back until you pay me a certain amount. And or what I've seen a lot is women are really good at finding information about people that they're interested in. I would like to say stalking, but you know, we're not going to say stalking, but there's a lot of personal information about every single individual on, on like, on Google. Like you could literally Google someone's first and last name and find a whole slew of stuff. And that's mostly because in the US we have this thing called data brokers and the US has really allowed companies to monetize people's data. And because of that we have these like massive data banks of, of personal information on everyone. And that's used honestly for marketing purposes, but people use them for other reasons too. So you can find, like if you Google first and last names, you can find parents names and siblings names and any previously linked addresses and you can go down a whole rabbit hole of like their addresses, where they've lived or even their IP address. So like, for me personally, I get really freaked out by that. And when I started my social media journey, I was Like, I need to delete this. And I used to do it individually. There's. But there's thousands of data brokers and you have to do it every couple months because I'm sure you know the digital footprint that you create anytime you log in, go on online, create an account, purchase anything. Like literally everything you do online is creating a bigger and bigger digital footprint. And anytime you create an account, that information gets sent to the data broker. So your, your personal information is always coming back up. So I actually partnered with a, a company called Delete Me and they help, help me delete my data. So they, every two months they do a massive scan of all these data brokers and they help delete all of my personal information off the Internet. Sometimes there's stuff that still lingers. But that's the other big issue that I've seen is a lot of people don't realize how much personal data they have. And almost every single one of my viral videos is like, how you can start taking back your personal data and like taking ownership of like, okay, how can I delete this? Have you, have you googled yourself, like, seeing all the information that you've. That's online?

It's been a minute. I used to. Because, you know, I've been in jail, I've been many felonies, so it's been a minute. It used to come. Nothing about being. What is it? What did I say? I used to be a dope dealer, now I'm a hope dealer. It used to be all about felonies at college, but I have not in a while, as funny as it sounds. And it, it'd be all podcast stuff and speaking engagements and, you know, since I've seen you, we've. The brand has blown up and it's probably more. It used to be all about it and now it's all about personal development. So I haven't. I will in a little bit now when I get off here.

Yeah.

So you recommend people. What does it cost to, to, to engage with this Delete Me company?

Yeah, I think it's only like a. I have. I mean, I con. Like, I, I bought mine like a while ago, so I think it was like 120 or something for the whole year. And they'd like scan it and then every two months they send you another report of all the new scans and what they've been deleting. It's totally worth it for me. Like, I like the amount of time that I was taking, like individually going to data brokers and then they had like data brokers that I've never even seen before. So because I'm not like actively spending my time on the dark web, obviously it's, it's a lot easier for me to outsource that and less of a hassle. So, yeah, it's not that expensive. I mean, to me, I know that money is different for everyone, so I'm going to speak for, for myself. It's, it's worth it for me.

What? So this is a question I get all the time. And I. So when I wrote this down, I was so excited to find what you. So we get all the time in the business space where people say, okay, I. All of our business is in the cloud, so we're protected. There's no, there's no ransomware threats, there's no cyber threats. What does your brilliant say to that?

Oh no, that's what it says. It says, oh no.

I just shake my head.

Oh my God.

I'm not sure who told you that, but shoot them. What? So if I have a business, it is a small business or a medium sized business. And, and all of our information is in the cloud. What, what, what are some of my exposures? Let's make it that easy then. So what should I be concerned about? And I walk into, I've seen it all. I walk in, they don't have a firewall, they don't have anything protected, their, their emails wide open. So what could some of the things be?

Okay, well let's first just go through because I think for a lot of people that are probably watching this, they don't actually understand how the cloud works. Okay, so the cloud is not a cloud. Like, it's not somewhere like miss, like magical up in the air, like when you call and you don't know next to the other line. Like, it's not like that. It's like there's a data center, there's literally a hardware where everything's plugged in and it's like going through that. So there's not like a magical thing. Like there's still easy ways to get in. It's just, I feel like I need to explain that because I think a lot of people don't understand.

The cloud is not magical.

It's not a cloud. It's. It's actually a stack of servers somewhere in a room. Okay, so that's the first thing. The second thing is I hear what you're saying and everyone's very confused at like how it can be, you know, exploited or hacked. And like you said, like, if there's no firewalls. If there's a lot of like actual infrastructure that you need to have. There's also like the general physical security, like if they're hosting their own cloud and like it's not in like a locked place and like someone can get in and like tamper with it. That's like an issue. I mean there's literally it's like it's the same thing as having a regular like non cloud environment.

I say it's like keeping your, use the house analogy. I feel like it's like leaving your doors wide open all day every single day. You know, hey, maybe someone won't come in, but you're assuring the heck inviting them in.

But, and to be, to be completely honest, the two things that I hear and see all the time, and it's mostly because people are using cloud services like AWS or whatever and the those issues or even if they're your own, I see an issue with access management. They aren't giving the appropriate people access or, and, or the opposite. They too many people have access to like admin access and can tamper with and change things. And then the other thing is like the password thing again. Like I swear the amount of times I used to audit companies and their admin like account was literally password was admin like or 1, 2, 3, 4 and it was shared across the company. So everyone actually knew what it was. Like that stuff it. I honestly. Well, and I'm going to just toot my own horn. I think people are like the biggest risk. Biggest risk. So it's, I don't even look at the technology first. I look at, well, I mean unless it's like outdated and you clearly haven't patched vulnerabilities or you know, zero, especially zero day vulnerabilities. A lot of softwares get those all the time and you're not like look or you're like scanning the environment and you're not looking at what's coming up. Like a lot of that also happens where they're like, oh, we have all these tools and stuff. And then I'm like, oh well you have you looked at like this alert that says that this is a huge issue. Like and you haven't fixed it, maybe you should fix it. But like the other thing is like people, people are like the biggest, our biggest weakness. So it's like, okay, if you have this software, are you actually monitoring it? Right? Well, if you have the software, is it secure? Are you monitoring it correctly? And then, and then what are Your people doing. I think those are the biggest issues. And then a lot of times when what are your people doing? It's access management and passwords. Those are the biggest ones I've seen. I don't know what about you?

People are not their number one issue by far. They really involved in anything. I mean look at the MGM breach. The they just Google or. I'm sorry, they went into LinkedIn, found the admin.

Yeah.

Called the admin by name, had an hour long conversation with him, got to know him, asked him for the password, they gave it to him.

Yeah. So that's so the amount of stories I hear. Yeah, yeah. The amount of stories I hear from like X, CIA and FBI that are all like oh yeah, we just got in because we like Google them. We went on LinkedIn and we, we got to know them and then they trusted us and they gave us like one time they even said like their awareness person, like the cybersecurity awareness person, gave them the credentials. Like they called this person and like pretended to be someone else. And so I just think, yeah, the software technology is super, super important. But I really think more money needs to be spent on educating employees like in a good way, not like a check the box way.

Yeah. Do you have any recommendations? We use, I think we use a company called Know Before. Do you guys have any, Anybody that you've seen that people that, that does a good job of educating people with solid videos and tutorials.

I mean there's a lot. Know before is a very, very large company. There's a lot of other ones. There's like, you know, I'm actually trying to start my own to be honest because I think a lot of it's outdated. Yeah, I'm trying to go like the B2B route because what I'm, what I see is obviously I love to train like customers and like, and like I, I say I'm B to C but I'm literally training like your mom and pop everyday average human being. Which is actually better for companies because if they're being trained outside of work then it's better that like they're starting to realize, you know, how important it is outside of work, not just within work. But yeah, I mean there's a lot of really, really great companies that, that offer training that aren't just like the standard check the Box. But Know before is a very popular one. There's also cybeready. I think it's C, Y, B, E, R, E, A, D, Y and they're like starting to get into More of, you know, the short. The short form videos. I might be working with them to, like, really make it more relatable and digestible so people don't feel like they have to. I'm actually speaking at a conference about cybersecurity awareness and training around. I. I think it's funny they call it that they're human risk people. They're, like, managing human risk. And I'm like, so you're hr. And when hr, what HR does is you're managing the risk for the company, which means that you're creating content from a place of how do I protect the company versus how do I protect the people? And that's why no one wants to watch these training videos, because they don't care. Why? Why should they care about protecting the company? Like, what is it for them? Unless there's, like, some dire consequence, which at this point, no company can say, like, oh, you're immediately gonna get fired if xyz. Like, you can't say that, like, legally most of the time. So how do we shift training from. Okay, this is not just to protect our company. This is to protect you. Like, how can we shift that training environment? And I hate saying trainings. Cause, let's say awareness to making people more aware of, like, the stuff that they do in their daily life and how that impacts their job and how that could impact the company, what that looks like.

So I can guarantee that MGM employee that gave that password away got fired.

Well, yeah, but, like, so, yes, but like, when you're initially getting people to, like, want to go into training or, like, take the training, you can't threaten them and say you're gonna get fired if it's probably a given. But, like, I. I've worked at a few companies, and I'm like, can we say. And they're like, legally, I don't think we're allowed to say that. I'm like, okay. But I've also worked at really large companies, so maybe it's different.

If you're serious about that, I'll help you. I just literally had Bradley on from Lightspeed vt, which does virtual trainings. We could get you recording real courses, because I've seen all of them, and they're not people friendly. You would record people friendly ones. Make it personable about that person, and people would actually buy it. And we package it in our. Our software. So what we did is we made cyber security easy. We give three options essentials. Cyber security and cyber Security Plus. That's it. Right now, if you wanted advanced, we're not your people. We are, we are for the, the small to medium sized businesses. The really actually we have been getting a lot of larger companies reaching out to us because you just plug in and it's done. It's simple, it's easy. We pass any audit and all of the affiliations that have audited us said, wow, how did you guys pass it? And we're just a bunch of propeller heads that figured out how to make it easy really. And it's, it's very simple. We just, we went out, picked the best of the best, put them all together and our people don't we. We have to this day 26 years in business have not had a breach. None of our people have accomplished. Now we get one off year in it, right? We get one off here. Yes. And, but nothing where they're completely having to pay a ransomware. So we, but we're a little tough to work with in that we're like, hey man, this is the way you have to do it or else you're gonna be, you're gonna get, you're gonna get popped. So how do people work with you specifically?

What do you mean by that? Like just like how, how do I start like pairing up with people?

Yeah. Like if I'm a, I am an. I own an IT company. I've been reaching out to you, sending emails. I, I want to, I want to partner more with the cyber security girl name and use you as my thought leader. How do I do that?

Usually just reach out to me. I. There's. So the reason why I've been kind of MIA with a lot of things is there's a lot of goals and projects that I have like coming up. Like I'm, I'm launching a phone application at the end of March. I'm trying to launch a cybersecurity course which is like how people can actually get in a career in cyber. And there's like 16 different domains that's supposed to launch by May. So there's like a lot of like kind of, I'm, I'm tunnel vision on those and then I'm also like as, as those start completing and I have more time to expand. Like I, and you know, I'm also trying to do a kids television show to like get more, you know, K through third grade maybe interested in like cybersecurity and like more just tech and like how, how it works. Kind of like Schoolhouse Rock but for tech. So like there's like little things that like they're all on my mind. They're all on my radar. But there's certain things that need to be completed before others start. I just don't have the time. But yeah, the, the B2B training is a pretty recent like I just started saying, okay, now I have the time to start figuring out like am I partnering with certain companies? Cause I, I get companies asking me all the time like, oh, we can try to do a trial run or something like that. But I'm like I, I'm looking for like forever companies where I'm like I'm, I want part ownership. I want to be part of this. Cause I, I, there's I, I get asked literally thousands of times or not thousands, at least, you know, a couple times a day, at least a hundred times a month on like working with a specific company for like one off projects. And I'm like I, for my followers and for myself. Like I'm very dedicated into one thing. Like I want to promote the same thing. I want to be really proud of what I promote. I want to be using when I promote like all that stuff. I'm not just gonna like promote a product willy nilly. And so that's why I've been very mindful of like where I'm putting my energy and who I'm partnering with. But yeah, I know we talked Kelly about potentially like working together and we're just, I'm just trying to figure out.

Like let's, let's take a conversation offline and, and talk about Brad let Bradley's light speed, I think because we'll, we'll take you, we'll be your first customer. Absolutely. If you record a how to I, I'm confident that yours will be more interesting than even our partners at the great Noble four. It's, it's our adaption with Noble four is so hard. I look at the reports and people just, they won't click on it and then if they get to see your smiley face it goes. I know you don't want to do this, but please, this is one of the things I need you to do and this is why and what it means to you and means of the company. Everybody would do it, wouldn't they?

Yeah. I mean I love, I love novafor and like Perry Carpenter who is like one of the face. He's a brilliant man, like amazing. And I just think there's a lot and it's not just know before it's like all cybersecurity awareness companies at this point, they're very old school with the way they do things and it Makes them clunky. And right now we live in a world where it's like fast paced, fast moving. They want to feel appreciated, they want to feel heard, they want to feel seen. And like it's not just check the boxes anymore. Like let's send. Have a funny video that they can send through Slack. Like let's have something that they. You know what I mean? It's. I totally get that there's like training pieces that are compliance, check the box. And that's needed. I get that. But that's not. There is, there is like compliance. I mean obviously this is what everyone says and I, I beg to differ. Right now I'm, I'm more focused on the awareness piece. Just like getting people like excited, involved. They want to laugh, they want to cry, whatever bringing it to them. And like again, something that's relatable and funny that they actually want to partake in. Um, and like again, short form videos are so easy. I mean that's what they're consuming outside of work. So obviously if they're, if your company's sending them short form videos then of course they're going to want to watch. Especially if it's like related to like, if it's like a spin off of something that the office did or whatever. Parks and Rec, those are my favorite obviously. But you know, just like fun things that are relatable.

You just gave away some of your, your, your magic. That's where you get all your brilliance from. I'm going to make an introduction to Bradley for you. Just have a conversation with him. I think that, that he can help you create this course and make it sellable across everywhere. And even if it's nothing else, it just a one, just an addition to know before. That's a great idea. This is just to get awareness or maybe say this is why you need to take the training so you know, you've come a long way since I saw you. Jesus. A little over a year and a year and a half now since I met you. Yeah, it was May. Wait, was it May of this year or May of the. Time flies when you're having fun.

Seven months. I don't know. Okay, well, it wasn't, it's not of this year. It was of 2023. We're only in Feb now, so we can't be. I was like, wait, this year, time traveling.

I. I've been going really, really busy. Like I was so busy. I was in seven states, seven cities in five days.

And wow.

I finally. I don't envy you it was not fun. It's. It's exhausting. And I doubled back twice. Like, I went from Atlanta to Michigan, Michigan to Florida. It's like, why? And it wasn't. These aren't connections. These are meetings I had to be at. So in that time, that since I've met you, you've grown a lot. What do you want your ultimate legacy to be?

Ooh, that's a good question. I say this all the time, and it's very broad, but I'm going to say it again. I just want to help as many people as possible, whether that's getting into cyber, protecting themselves. I. I don't. I. I feel like I was put on. Like, God put me on this earth to help as many people as possible, and I say that all the time. And when I was younger, I didn't know how that was going to, like, turn out. I honestly, like, I just kind of threw spaghetti at the wall and just kept going and, like, trying to find my passion. And I quit corporate, like, six or seven months ago now, like, probably right when I met you around or maybe a couple months after. And I've been trying to, like, you know, get out of the corporate grind, stop traveling and, like, really listen to my heart and see how. And listen to. Try to listen to God and see where he takes me. Um, because I. I truly believe that I'm supposed to impact, like, hundreds of thousands of people. Um, like, I want to start a fund, so I. I want to be remembered just to, like, yeah, like, probably at this point, it's looking like helping people get into a career in cybersecurity and. Or stay safe online. Um, like, I want to start a nonprofit that gets. Cause I'm Armenian, so I really want to start a nonprofit that allows Armenian woman to get into a cybersecurity career. But, like, there's just a lot that I want to do, and I think I'm, like, really excited for how I'm going to get there, what that looks like. But, yeah, that's kind of what I want to leave.

I got to tell you, I said this in the very beginning. I've always been impressed by you, your breadth of knowledge, the way you leave a conversation. I always feel good when I leave the conversation. And you never make anybody feel less than. So keep doing that. Keep growing, keep learning. And I love women in tech. I just, you know, they're not as. It just. It's just I want more and more. So anything I can ever do to boost you, you have my full support as you know, and the person that runs my company, I now have appointed her to CEO. So I. I am just the visionary. She is the CEO. She. We have a woman that runs Nash Technology Management, and she is a. A badass. Talk to you. What are some of your hobbies and interests outside of cyber security?

That's a great question. No, I've been. Obviously, like, my faith is really important to me, so I've been spending a lot of time, you know, doing girls a. Girls. Girls Bible studies. I'm actually really tempted to start my own, like, girls Bible study podcast, maybe with, like, daily devotionals. So that's what I do. I love cybersecurity and I love helping people, so it doesn't actually feel like work. So a lot of my time is spent on all the things that I want to accomplish in life because I'm so excited about doing all that because I just feel like it's going to help as many people and it, like, goes back to my mission and my purpose. But I also just, like, love, like, the beach. I love, like, relaxing, walking around, steam room. I just, like, had my little relaxing day today. I, like, had steam room. I worked out. It was great. I mean, I don't have much of a life. I just tried to outside of, like, cyber security, which sounds really bad, but I really enjoy what I do. I mean, if you asked me that, like, when I was still working corporate, I would have been like, oh, this is. This is miserable. But yeah, I'm really, like, excited about where my faith is taking me in that podcast. And there's a new startup called Faith Based. I don't know why I should talk to you about this after, but it's amazing. And I really am, like, excited to partner with them and do some stuff with them. But, yeah, I want to see how I can get. That's another way I want to help people is, like, maybe bringing them back to their faith. Because I've had a pretty tumultuous journey, which a lot of people don't realize. Like, there's a lot that has happened in my past that has led me to here. A lot of failures. And yeah, I just, like, I just don't want. I want people to see that they have. They can own their life and then they can, like, you know, be something, be whoever that they want to be, like, and not be discouraged and not be stressed out and to, like, you know, reach their dreams and, like, dream bigger. So I think there's a lot. I just love. I love people.

So, yeah, you can't have a conversation with you without bringing up your heritage and your family? So can you. Do you have any interesting family traditions or stories that you'd like to share, especially since you've said about your heritage, about being Armenian several times now?

Yeah, well, I used to not be very proud of VR media. Like, I was kind of embarrassed, and I also don't speak. Yeah, it was weird. I was like, I'm white. Like, I'm normal. Like, this is. I'm an average. Like, the average white woman. Like, this is. This is what I want to.

Average. You are brilliant. You light up a room. You. Very, very intelligent and kind, and. And it just shows.

Oh, thank you. Well, yeah, I was not. I was. I was pretty embarrassed, honestly. And I don't even speak Armenian, so I feel like I wasn't. Like, I didn't fit in with the white people because I was clearly not white, even though I was trying to be. And I didn't fit in with the Armenians because I was like, I never spoke it. My parents don't even speak Armenian, so. But, like, there's, you know, my. My heritage and my family. There's been a lot of hardships. Obviously. There was the Armenian genocide, which still hasn't been recognized as, like, a genocide, which is insane to me. And, like, my great great grandparents, like, escaped that genocide, and I feel like there's just, like, burning fire within me to be, like, they work so hard to, like, get here and, like, make a name for themselves and build themselves. And, like, who am I to not work as hard to help as many people? Like, I feel like there was, like, a purpose and a reason for why I'm here, and that's why my heritage is so important to me. I mean, I go on mission trips all the time in Armenia. Not all the time time. Once a year I try, but it's like, I want to help my. Yeah, I just. I. I feel very, very connected to. To those. To my people. Like, it's the weirdest, I think. And it might be just because, you know, we've been the underdog for so long, like, oppressed for so long, that it's like. I feel like I'm, like. One of my things is bringing awareness to our culture and our people. And Armenians were the first to ever adopt Christianity as a. As a country. I don't think a lot of people realize that either. It's crazy, but, yeah, it's. It's a weird. Not a weird desire. It makes sense. But, like, I have. My. My great grandpa wrote a book about. Called I Shall Not Die. And it was every single blessing that he had that allowed him to escape the Armenian genocide. And it was like how he saw God work in the craziest ways to get him to the US and have him. Yeah. Like, raise his kids in the US and it was. It was insane. It's insane. I read it all the time. It's like the most inspirational book. So that's why I feel very tied to them.

Did you say the name of the book was I Shall Not Die?

Yeah. Yeah.

Wow. So I was just going to ask you because you kind of dogged around the question, dodged the question until right then and there because I wanted to hear an interesting family tradition or story, and that was I Shall Not Die. What is the. The Long Walk Home is. Is. Is a book that sounds like that, where people were trying to escape Holocaust. So very, very similar. You're. No. Correct me if I'm wrong. Your parents are in California.

Yes, they're in California. Yeah.

And they're still together. Married, and all the good stuff. So tell me something. Tell me an interesting. So how'd they meet?

They met a church. Shocking. At our Armenian church. And I was. I grew up with, too. And like, like all of my extended family, like my aunts and uncles are all still married. They all pretty much met at church, too, or in college. Most of them went to USC or ucla. They're all, you know, from the Los Angeles area. But it just, I. I see the most beautiful relationships and the, like, the relationships that are, like, walking with God, too. So, I mean, there's just. It's just so inspiring to just see, you know, my parents still in love. No matter the. All the ups and downs. It's a very hard thing to be. I don't know how long they've been married, honestly. Probably 37 years. Wow.

Congratulations.

Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, I, I, Yeah, they met at church, and it's beautiful and adorable.

What reaction do people have when you walk into a room? I don't know.

I have no idea. I'm just excited to be in the room and, like, meet people and, like. Yeah, it just. Hopefully. Good reactions, I think. Good.

Did you. I just wanted to see if you're paying attention. Yes. Good. Did you connect with anybody after that mastermind that I met you at in Miami?

Yeah, I connected with a few. Yeah. Do you want me to name the names or I just.

Yeah, you can. I just. Because I interviewed. I've had every single speaker on. From that. On this podcast. From that one. So I met everybody Even Tim Story, who was. I don't think. Were you there when Tim spoke?

Yeah. He's incredible. I met him too. I need to, like, reach out to him. I just feel like I need to have a better reason to reach out to him, but maybe.

No, you don't. He's so personable. I have a cell phone over here. Yeah, he's a great dude. That was so impactful. And I still touch and stuff. In touch with Adam Javelin all the time. So anytime I'm on that side, I'm always. I pop over there. So I have a funny.

Yeah, I did the program with him too. Go for you. Yeah.

Do you think a cyber war is inevitable?

It's already happening. Oh, I think we're in, like, a cold cyber. I think we're in, like, a cold cyber war. I think there's a lot of stuff going on that. Yeah. People don't realize. I actually just did a self tape. They're like, they're. Yeah, I did a self tape for something about cyber warfare. I don't know if I'm gonna get picked to be on that, but it was interesting. And I was talking all about how, like. Yeah, my. My opinion of it, which it's hap. I mean, it's already happening. You can. So. So cyber warfare to me is like. Most people think it's like nation versus nation. To me, cyber warfare is anything that involves, like, a cybercrime, which is like hacking, ransomware, all of the types, all the threat types, but warfare specifically. Like, I mean, if you think about it, back in the 1930s, there was the Enigma machine that was created by the Nazis to send encrypted messages, so, you know, their opponents can't understand what's going on. And then obviously, as the tech advanced, like, it gets crazier and crazier. And I mean, every single. You have. First of all, you have to understand who your opponents are, which, like, what. What are the. What are the countries that we're most afraid of and what do they want? And then from there, like, what abilities do they have? The US Is also very aware because I volunteer. Ish. At this point. I'm on, like, a committee to get more. More people into cybersecurity, like, because they've realized it's a problem that we need, like, every type of person, which is why I'm so passionate about it. And like, how are we training these individuals and how are we starting them younger? And, you know, what. What's. Who's required to train them on the job versus what universities are required to train them. But the US has actually realized that we are very behind when it comes to training individuals to get into cybersecurity and cybersecurity practices as a whole compared to our counterparts like Russia and China. And I mean, Russia and China have been at it for ages. And Russia specifically is like very, very skilled hackers and they, they hack for a certain reason. And China is kind of more. They have hundreds and thousands of them and it's just like they're all in this. Basically what I envision, they're all underground, just like trying to hack whatever they can get into and then lateral move wherever they can. So I mean, it's already happening. I think most people's next question is, is Tick Tock gonna, you know, is this, is this part of it? I don't think so. I personally don't think so. But yeah, I think there's already a cyber war that's been happening for ages. All of our, also all of our texts from China, like most of our technology is from China. Like, I don't see how there's a difference between a TikTok app that's potentially Chinese based versus all of the stuff that we get from China, which is a majority of our stuff.

Very astute observation, my dear. You're absolutely right. I, I believe that. I wasn't gonna call Tick Tock out, but since you did, I will. I believe that they're just gathering intelligence with that. I mean, but. Or lack of intelligence because some of those reels that we make, those videos we make, it shows that we're not very intelligent. But boy, is it.

Yeah. Don't you think they're just looking and being like, what are these people doing? Like, we, we should not be concerned about this, the U.S. like, I don't know.

I do. What they're really doing is they're, they're gathering our digital footprint and that's probably why you're going through and deleting everything. Because they, they can go through and once that's on your phone, they can kind of see what other things that you're doing, what searches you're doing. You know, for me, I don't really care. You can build a footprint. You're going to see a boring, positive, perverted old man say, well, I don't.

Think, I don't think boring is the right one. But.

Anyways, yeah, I, so where I was getting at with that is I don't believe there's going to be a world war again. I think there's going to be A cyber war. I think that they're going to attack infrastructure that shuts down. And you're not. Yeah, you're not old enough to remember this, but they had, there was a blackout in the Midwest and they shut down the power grid and they said, oh, it was a mishap. No, no, this was a cyber attack. And it was so weird. Like ever since that day, it happened 20 some years ago, ever since that day, I make sure I carry a pocket full of money because I had no money on me and I could. That you could not get. You couldn't go to the atm, you couldn't do anything. So that was crazy. I'm thinking now everything's Internet based, so what do we carry now? We carry our cell phone and this is how we get around. And, and you know, you don't have money and you don't have to forget that. So I believe that if you want to cripple us, shut down the Internet. And how would you survive? You can't get money, get access to money. You can't turn on things, you can't drive your car. I mean there's just so many things that are, that are connected to the Internet. And I think I told you this little known fact. I'm sold in this business. I sold companies their first ever Internet connection. Yeah, I've been doing this a long time.

I mean, that's not that old. Internet's not that long.

26 years. 26 years. So I remember walking around in 1999 selling people T1s for $2,000. $2,000. Now it's what, 20 bucks gets you a gig. Connection to your house.

Yeah.

Unbelievable. Tell us something you believe in that almost nobody agrees with you on.

Oh, this is a good question. I don't know, I've never thought about it. But the, the first thing that comes to mind, it's just an easy thing, is like, you don't need to know how to. You don't need to be smart smart or like science and tech e to be in cyber security and, or code, which I always say. But this is. And I, A lot of like the old timers are like, no, like you need to know how to code in order to get everything. I'm like, no, I've never, I've not used any of it. And I, I do think now people are starting to agree with me. But that was like one of the big things when I first started my channel that people were like very angry that I said. But I was just like, look, as long as you have A passion to like, problem solve and understand things and like you have a love of learning, then you're fine. And, and that's like with any, any job. Honestly.

I was just gonna say, Taylor, you showed your youth because that's literally with anything. And the truth is just having an open mind and, and, and a desire to serve. So, and most people, you know, it's, it's, it's the end all thing. Nlp, it's, oh, I'm not, I'm not technical. I can't do that. Okay, okay, well, you think you can. You think you can't. You're right. So.

Right.

I happen to agree with you. I believe that people like you are going to come in and change and revolutionize tech because we need new, young blood, intelligent people to come in and say, hey you propeller heads, I got it all wrong. It's not, you know, X or ones and zeros. It's, it's, it's, it's humans that are putting in ones and zeros. You know, I can't believe we made it all this time. We have not talked about any AI. What does AI mean in your world? And what, and should we fear it? And, and what's. I'm sure you got some sort of great analogy, like you had the house key. What, what, what can you equate AI in so we can debunk that a little bit for the neophytes listening.

Yeah, I mean, I, I, AI can be scary if you look at all the things that it can do, but it also can be your biggest strength. And I personally believe that the people that are going to be the most successful in the future are the ones that are going to be able to harness AI. Now that could be for good or for bad. There's hackers right now, bad hackers, not ethical hackers, unethical hackers right now that are using AI to assess and come up with new ways of getting into things. But that just means that we, as ethical hackers and as cybersecurity experts need to also use AI to come up with ways to protect ourselves. So just like I think back when the Internet was first a thing, everyone was freaking out. They were saying we're going to all lose jobs and, you know, all of that. But the Internet is such an amazing thing, so you just have to figure out how to use it. Because the Internet advanced so many things and like started this technology boom and all of that stuff. I mean, it was part of the technology boom. But you have to look at AI as it's Going to continue to advance every science, technology, everything. And you have to use it to your advantage. Now I also think that people are arguing that it's making us dumber because we're relying on AI so much, which I can see that argument. But I also think that we're able to use AI to solve more complex problems, which still uses our brain. And AI doesn't just like magically work. Like you have to know how to use it correctly in order for you to get the right answers. So I absolutely love AI. I think there are parts that are scary and there's definitely things that we should probably prohibit AI from doing. I'm sure, like if you watch anything from Elon Musk, he's like terrified of AI. But I think AI can be used especially in like, I'm excited for AI to be used with cybersecurity and also with like health and like doctors and like, I think there's a lot of new technologies now that like are analyzing X rays and stuff that are like way better than like a human eye and they're able to start analyzing patterns and seeing different things that we as humans can't see. So I think there's a lot of positives. We just have to learn how to harness it and use it for good.

So I'm going to age myself. About 20 years ago, we, we actually implemented a lot of these automated parking structure booths where, you know, you had a parking attendant and now, I mean it's any place you go now. There's no parking attendance and it's simple. But I did this 20 years ago. But so you're like, oh my God, parking attendants don't have jobs now. Well, there's search engine optimization people, there's web developers, there's social media marketers, there's so there's always new jobs. It's, it's displacement but replacement and that. I tell you, I went to New York and had an AI based MRI done and the results were back immediately because of AI immediately. So they're like, you're clear, you're good. It already ran through the radiologist. They were just looking for the exceptions, dude, done where that would have taken weeks in the past. So I read something where they said that when AI gets rolling within 10 to 12 years that every year you live, AI is going to make you live another year. So you are, my dear, if you take care of yourself and you live right, right. Should live well into your hundreds. So blood going, yes you do. And you're such a wonderful person. You have to so if you had all the money you needed in the world but had to work, what would you be doing?

This.

This, but with a God twist.

This, but with a God twist. I. What I would be doing was, like, being, like, building and establishing a family, like a godly family, and, like, establishing, like, obviously bringing more people into cybersecurity, but bringing more people to God. I think that's, like, the best thing I could do.

Yeah. I said. I recently, in the last few months, accepted God. That was. I knew, always knew there was a higher power and always knew that something was working for me. But I really have started having conversations with God. If you haven't read the book, Conversations with God, read it, or Outwitting the Devil. So I, I, I listened to. I read Conversations with God, and then I listened to it because I. My mind was so blown. And this is after I read iwitting the Devil, and I'd already been having all these downloads. I mean, I don't know what's going on, but all of a sudden, the alignment and the clearing out of things that are going on in my life is unbelievable. So when you are down, what can you think of that makes you smile?

So this is weird. And I. This is something I'm working on, actually. I talked to Adam about this a while ago. Whenever I'm down, I. And I kind of disregard it because I'm like, there's no reason for. For me to be down. Like, I. I live a great life, and I. And if I didn't and if my life is in shambles, I have the opportunity to fix it. Um, but what makes me smile is just, like, knowing how far I've came come, and, like, knowing that I'm not gonna die. Like, we're gonna move on. Like, we're gonna be fine. There's an ultimate plan that I have no control over, but the only thing I do have control over is taking that next step, wherever direction that is, even if I don't know what direction it is. Just taking a step, getting 1% better every day. So, I mean, that's. Obviously, my family makes me smile. My friends make me smile. But, like, when I'm really in the thick of it, it's like, okay, I'm a. I'm a very much an ownership person, which is. I didn't realize that a lot of people aren't like that. Honestly. One of my Bible study, one of my best friends was like, Caitlin. One thing that you don't realize is, like, you think you don't have discipline, which is Fine. But you do have ownership, and I very much own every single aspect of my life because it's my responsibility to do whatever I need to do in this world, not anyone else's.

So I'm curious. What was Adam's response to that?

Well, this was a while ago. Now, the reason why he didn't like it is because, like, sometimes it's good to be, like, to sit in it. Like, you don't have to, like, completely disregard your feelings when you're feeling bad or, you know, like, a lot of times, I. I just push through and I disregard. And then sometimes that leads me, you know, to maybe blow up later on down the line or whatever that is. So I think his response is more along the lines of, like, you do have every right to be upset or angry, and just because you know your life is better than someone else's life doesn't mean that you should disregard the way you feel. Because I'm always like, well, everyone. There's a lot of other people that are struggling, like, way worse than me. Like, who am I to have the right to, like, be upset about this one situation? And so I have learned to, like, be okay with being sad or down in the dumps or whatever, but I've also learned to, like, give that a certain amount of time and move on, but only move on, not, like, forcibly. Like, if I want to stay in it for, like, a. Sometimes I'm like, let me stay there for a day. Let me be upset for, like, one day. It's fine.

Can you.

Can you name an emotion?

Any chance.

Name which one. Like, when I'm in the dust.

Whenever you're feeling down, can you name it? Do you. Can you put your finger on it? Because usually when people just repress it, they. It's because they. They don't know what it is.

A lot of times it's confusion, which usually is caused when my head and my heart aren't aligned.

Ooh.

Do you journal or anxiety? I've been. I've been working on journaling. I actually got this new. Have you heard of the remarkable? It's actually remarkable. It's incredible. It's like this. It's like a. I was gonna buy an iPad to, like, take notes and stuff, and I was at a conference, and this guy had this cool tablet, and it literally looked like he was writing on paper. And it can upload immediately to your. Your computer, but it feels like I, like, wrote on it, and it feels like you're writing on paper, and it's all virtual. It's amazing because I was so tired of taking all these notebooks. I feel like I. I have like 12 notebooks and then I'm like, I would leave one and I'm like, one is my business one. One's my personal one. One's this one. And now like the remarkable. You can have like, separate folders, you can have like several virtual notebooks, and then you can easily upload it to your computer. It's the craziest thing. You should buy it. But I have because I bought that. I've been journeying a lot more because I'm able to take that one, like, really thin tablet with me everywhere. And again, I've been very mindful in the mornings. I do my, like, daily devotional Bible study and I've been kind of like picking apart a verse and then I like, been writing my prayers out and like writing my gratitude out. So I've been doing a lot more of that in the last like, couple weeks. But it's, it's a new thing.

A practice that I've been working on is just star those, those last stand days. Just star them and then go back and look at them whenever and you'll see this is gonna, this ain't gonna sound weird to you, but this is God sending you something that you've got to process. And I ignored that, ignored that, ignored that for so many years until it all hit me. So go and look. You're gonna see a commonality. And I want, the next time I talk to you, you'll have it. You'll be like, you know, I figured it out. It was this. And yeah. And then it just. And then there'll be another with different levels become. There's different devils and there'll be another one and it never ends. But at least you'll slay that one and be able to move on to the next one. I'm telling you, it works. Give it a try. And then we're here on, on, on air. I'm going to introduce you to two people. I think they're going to help you. We'll send text messages after. But how else can not only National Technology Management, Kelly Siegel best support you?

Oh, no. You guys have been great. I mean, yeah, this has been awesome. I don't know yet. I will let you know when I think about it. But one thing I want to say just back to what you said, because that really brought up a point was a lot of times too, when I'm feeling the dumps, I'm like, God has a bigger plan. And Whatever this is, is preparing me for whatever I need to get to. And I always like to say God's strongest, He wants to create the strongest soldier. So they obviously have to go through the craziest things in order to be stronger. Um, and so sometimes I remind myself, like when I'm in the dumps that I like go, I mean, not sometimes, all the time. Like, God has a bigger parent. There has to be a reason why I'm going through this. And so, like, what can I learn from it and how do I move on? But anyways, what you guys can do, honestly, I'm not sure. But I'm like, how can I help you guys? Is what I was going to ask.

Well, we're very simple. I mean, right on our website, trustntm.com we have the three options and you go about it, go look at them, see if it's something that you think. And we have strong referral and, and actually we have an agent program that you should be taking advantage. You don't have to do anything, just make an introduction and we take care of the rest and we pay you a residual and it's. That's the best kind of thing to do. And people do not leave and they do not. The only way that people leave is if they get bought or go out of business. That is it. Nobody, nobody leaves us. So we are very, very good. Our service is second to none and the support is, is deep. So I would love your trust and I adore your friendship. You have my cell phone, you can call me anytime. I will be making a couple introductions. One is a faith based woman who I love out of New Jersey. I think the two of you just need to collab. And then of course the aforementioned Bradley, who I. It can help you with that training. And then I want to sell it. If you get something, even if it's just an introduction to cyber security, why not? And then you have a friend and me, if there's anything you need at all, you reach out. And whenever I'm in. I was just in Miami last weekend and I forgot to freaking give you a buzz. I was literally there for a day and I will make sure and reach out and I'm sending you all kinds of love and happiness and good health and. Yeah, it's good to see you. Thank you. I really, I really appreciate it. There's so much more to you that I didn't even know. So thanks for, for being vulnerable and, and honest and forthcoming to the, to listeners. Thanks for being on.

Yeah, of course. Thanks for having me and I appreciate it. And you've been incredible. And I can't wait to see, like, how we can work together in the future once, you know, everything kind of settles down and kind of figure out a game plan.

Please rate and share this podcast. I'm active on all social platforms and love to hear from my Siegel supporters. Each and every episode is sponsored by my company, National Technology Management, the easiest and best IT company to do business with. Delivering peace of mind with technology every day, even simplifying CyberSecurity. Visit trust ntm.com for more info. Until next week. Be Harder than Life.