For the past ten weeks, I have worked alongside industry professionals at InfusionPoints in a dynamic remote environment. This experience has allowed me to find my niche and pursue my AWS Solutions Architect: Associate certification (which I have recently gained). This innovative internship path has enabled me to rotate through different teams of the company -- advisory, cloud operations, security operations, and engineering. This innovative internship has bolstered my confidence in my abilities as a cybersecurity analyst and has provided me with a platform to showcase and refine my skills in an exciting field.

Initially, I was unsure of what to expect – especially since my last job involving IT was at a major university, and I was used to the structure and distribution of responsibilities there. From day one at InfusionPoints, I found that the work environment was remarkably hands-off – administration didn’t have to remind staff to accomplish tasks or to contact clients. It was incredible to see how welcoming and adept the InfusionPoints team was. Although divisions between teams exist, everyone is willing to extend a helping hand whenever possible.

My initial two-week rotation during the internship was with CloudOps, where I polished existing documentation and started to build connections internally. In this division, I learned about the internal structure of InfusionPoints and the finer details surrounding XBU40 and XccelerATOr. I also worked with another intern on obtaining screenshots and adding clarity to existing documentation. Throughout my rotation within CloudOps, I attended multiple meetings and gained useful feedback. Being able to learn through osmosis was a huge benefit from this rotation. I was able to shadow multiple informative meetings and working sessions during this time.

My second rotation during my internship period was with the Advisory team. At InfusionPoints, our Advisory team handles customer relationships and assists clients with requirements for FedRAMP compliance. During my time in this team, I worked on a gap assessment workbook for an international firm. During this process, I familiarized myself with the NIST 800-53 Rev. 5 control set the of FedRAMP and the respective FedRAMP modifications to these controls. By cross-referencing interviews (both written and recorded) with the control set, I could access improvements that could be made by the respective firm and identify compliance areas that already existed. During this time, I also began to conduct business development research for the company, which was an entirely new experience for me.

The third two-week rotation for me during the internship was my time with Engineering. During this period, I attended multiple meetings with associates and learned more about infrastructure as code (IaC), which enables us to provide incredible services to our customers. The beauty of IaC in a company like ours is that it enables processes that once took weeks now takes mere seconds to complete. It also helps to eliminate human error and standardize our processes for maximum efficiency. I was also able to realize the potential of serverless infrastructure and the use of AWS Lambda functions in many of our processes during this period. My time in Engineering was informative and captivating, as I was able to shadow industry professionals internally who are responsible for much of the backend infrastructure in our solutions.

The fourth and final two-week rotation during my internship period was SecOps. During this time, I consulted with analysts to gain more insight into routine security operations. During my time in SecOps, I was able to install an instance of Graylog on bare-metal locally and learn how to create inputs, streams, and alerts in a stress-free learning environment. By using this environment, I began cataloguing my findings regarding threat hunting. During this time, I also was given the opportunity to study the MITRE ATT&CK framework and to “lift the veil” of obscurity behind threat actor’s tactics, techniques, and procedures. The global CrowdStrike outage occurred during my rotation through SecOps, which offered me the ability to gain unique insight into response and recovery actions.

The most important lesson I’ve learned over the course of this internship is that everyone has their own strengths, and aligning your strengths with your passion in a particular sector of the IT industry is critical to success. Personally, I find that I lean towards CloudOps and Engineering the most, because I have always enjoyed learning how technology and software works on a granular level, and those divisions have enabled me to peel the curtain back and truly gain insight into the array of technologies that work seamlessly to bring XccelerATOr and XBU40 to life.

My time at InfusionPoints during my internship has been immensely rewarding and engaging. I have met so many wonderful, talented people here, and the dynamic within the company is truly special. Coming from a prior job where I was rarely allowed to navigate outside my area of expertise, InfusionPoints offers the ability for employees to step outside of their comfort zone and to develop their skills in whichever direction they are passionate about. I am continuously amazed at the level of quality we infuse into our solutions!