May was a whirlwind month for University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC) graduate Ehsan Mahmood.
On May 6, he departed for San Francisco to attend the 2024 RSA Conference, an annual IT security gathering, as UMGC’s RSA Scholar. After the event, he headed back to the East Coast for UMGC’s spring commencement, where he graduated with a Master of Science in Cyber Operations.
“When I was younger, I used to play a lot of video games and got curious about all of the modifications and hacks out there,” said Mahmood. “After reverse engineering some code in a college class, my professor thought I should look into cybersecurity.
“So that’s when it started, and I got a job doing cybersecurity in the Department of Defense space,” he added.
Mahmood has a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, but he enrolled at UMGC after he found he couldn’t shake his childhood fascination with cybersecurity. UMGC faculty selected him as an RSA Scholar based on the abilities he demonstrated in the graduate cybersecurity program.
UMGC has participated in the RSA Conference Security Scholar Program since its inception in 2016. Through carefully curated conference experiences, the program connects up-and-coming cybersecurity students with thought leaders, industry luminaries and peers. The goal of the program is to share knowledge, experience and connections to enrich the discourse on how to stay ahead of cyber threats.
A benefit of attending the conference as an RSA Scholar is access to people and discussions that are not open to other conference participants.
“Some of the events were customized toward people coming out of graduate school, which were particularly valuable,” said Mahmood. “These were for people looking to get into cybersecurity or move up in the field.”
RSA scholars networked with Whitfield Diffie, a pioneer of cryptography, as well as representatives from noted corporate brands, among them Walmart, Home Depot, Google and Microsoft. The RSA scholars also met with officials from the Department of Homeland Security and the Cybersecurity Infrastructure Agency, where the conversations focused on the rise of artificial intelligence.
“It was invaluable hearing about their life stories, how they moved up in their careers and their recommendations for us,” said Mahmood.
Mahmood currently works as a contractor with the Department of Defense, leading a small team of cybersecurity engineers implementing cyber requirements for aircraft communication systems. He hopes to use his new master’s degree to advance to an executive leadership role overseeing multiple product lines and innovations.
For others looking to embark on a career in cybersecurity, his advice is simple: Keep an open mind and never stop learning.
“In our field, we’re learning all the time,” said Mahmood. “When I wake up in the morning, whether it’s a weekend or a weekday, I’m checking to see what’s happening in cybersecurity.”
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