The Two Sides of the Cybersecurity Coin

If you ask the average person what they think about cybersecurity, they'll probably imagine a hacker in a hoodie, scrolling walls of green text right out of The Matrix, or a news story about a data breach. While these things might be part of cybersecurity, they only focus on one side of the coin.

Over the past eight months, I had the opportunity to see the other side of cybersecurity. Through two very different internships, I experienced two distinct perspectives on security: first as an Internal ITGC Auditor for FJ Management, and then as a Cybersecurity Analyst for Big West Oil.

Over the next 10 weeks, I'm going to share experiences and lessons that I learned.

Side A: The Building Inspector (Governance, Risk, and Compliance)

My journey began in the world of Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC). A good way to think of this role is like being a building inspector for a bustling city. The buildings are already standing and operational, and my job was to come in and ensure everything was up to code.

I wasn't designing from scratch; I was examining ongoing business and technical processes—reviewing the 'structural integrity' of a firewall's rules, checking the 'fire exits' of a CI/CD pipeline, and ensuring the 'safety plans' (policies) were being followed in real-time. It's the critical work of finding hidden risks in active systems before they lead to a collapse.

This is the "why" behind the rules.

Side B: The Firefighter (Security Operations)

Then, I flipped the coin and moved to the front lines as a Cybersecurity Analyst. If GRC is the building inspector, then Security Operations (SecOps) is the city's firefighter. They are the ones watching for the first sign of smoke, responding to alarms in real-time, and rushing to the scene of a crisis.

This is the world of XDR platforms, threat monitoring, and incident response. It's about asking "Is there a fire right now?" and "How do we put it out?" This is the tactical, reactive work that contains damage.

This is the "how" of cybersecurity.

Why Seeing Both Sides Matters

So, why does seeing both matter? A building inspector who has never been to a fire doesn't fully grasp the real-world consequences of a failed inspection. A firefighter who doesn't understand the building's layout or its hidden safety flaws might struggle to respond effectively.

My time in auditing gave me a deep appreciation for why the rules existed for our ongoing processes, which made me far more effective when I was on the front lines, tasked with defending those same processes.

What's Coming Next

I hope you'll follow along as I share specific stories and insights from these roles.

Next week, I'll dive into my first major project: auditing the security integration of a corporate merger.

This is the first post in a series about my cybersecurity internship experiences. Stay tuned for more insights from both the GRC and Security Operations perspectives.