Overture: Humble Beginnings

Hello everyone, my name is Skye Wu. Welcome to my blog. 

This is the prequel to the real story I want to share.  Apparently, before I start blogging about what I do - which also happens to be my dream job - I should let you know who I am and why I decided to start this blog. Thank you in advance for indulging me. 

I am an only child of a Chinese family that is also a first generation migrant; so, obviously, I would play the piano, be academically inclined, be a mathlete, get scholarships to private schools and become a doctor or a lawyer and marry a nice Chinese boy. Unfortunately for my parents… I only accomplished one of those things… Can you guess which? 

As you can probably tell, I am a rebel. With that rebellious streak, I defied two career advisors and my parents’ wishes to study Information Systems then pursued a career in Digital Forensics with law enforcement. To this day, I still believe that starting as a Digital Forensics Analyst at the Computer Crime Squad (CCS) with the Victoria Police was the best thing to launch my career. I learnt so many valuable life and professional lessons from the detectives and police officers. 

My most valuable takeaway from the CCS: being a good digital forensic analyst isn’t just being able to find the evidence. I needed to:

• Prove my work was independent, unbiased and the evidence was admissible in court;

• Document the process I undertook, ensuring it was repeatable so that my evidence would stand under scrutiny during cross examination;

• Explain to a non-technical audience

I first wondered if being really good at understanding how something went wrong was the path for me when a close friend went missing. It was unexpected and shocking. To this day, I still wonder if there was anything I should or could have done to have foreseen it. The police did everything they could to help and investigate, they have a number of really great theories. But my friend has never been seen nor heard from again. 

The next was when a victim of a crime came up to me after I had given evidence in court and thanked me for my work. For the first time, I hated my job. So what if I can give evidence to help prove a criminal’s guilt? He/She had already committed the crime; the damage was done. The seed of preventing bad things from happening was sewn. 

Moving from a government role into professional services with a Big 4 consulting firm was a big challenge for me. Gone were the days of providing exactly what was being asked for; the focus was more on adding value, being agile and becoming a trusted advisor. 

I had to put myself in the shoes of my client. If you’re a big multinational company looking for a service provider. What factors would you consider? What is your core business function? What are your requirements? Are the regulators likely to be looking into your company due to the industry you are in? Do you require a 24/7 support model? So on and so forth. 

As the service provider, who were we and what did we offer? The people and technology resources available are largely the same. So what differentiates one provider from the other? Surprisingly it was the people; not for the so called “technical skills” but more for the core skills; value add, transparency, integrity and trustworthiness. 

My most valuable takeaway from consulting: every experience makes you grow, whether it is good or challenging. Always act with authenticity and integrity; trust is earned and people matter the most. 

Moving from a large consulting firm to a small business was a challenge. That said, if anyone ever has any doubts about working in a small business; I highly recommend you take that opportunity at some point. I really got to own client relationships and enjoyed it. I would be proud to say that I became one of the client’s team. If memory serves correct, there were more clients at my farewell than my own colleagues! We were quite a small company.

I’m not a religious person; though there are moments in life where I wonder if there is a higher force at play. When I had my phone interview with a Telstra recruiter he asked if I would be interested in a role with the “Discovery team”; he had seen that I have experience in eDiscovery. I said no; eDiscovery was about helping a client find, preserve, collect and process their data ready for lawyers review so that it can be used in court as a part of a litigation process. I wanted to take a stab at Open Source Intelligence at a telecommunications company instead. 

Getting into Open Source Intelligence started a chain reaction for me. I began my move towards the proactive spectrum of Cyber Security. 

Two years into my time at job; I was asked to help reinvigorate the Discovery team on a three months secondment. The first time I met Steve, my manager, my first words were “I’m happy to help with whatever you need; I don’t want to read lines of logs though. That would make me want to drive my head through a wall.” 

I’m about as subtle as a sledge hammer to the face; but from that first meeting a mutual respect was born. That is where the real fun began. I’d found my real dream job; the real drive behind this blog. 

Until next time… 

Xoxo Gossip G… Skye

Disclaimer: All statements and comments are my own. They do not reflect the views of any past or present employers.