Search Results for: Cyber-security

Megan Hall (MS ‘21) had a lightbulb moment about five years ago when she was Director of Internal Audit at Simmons Bank in Arkansas. “I started to see how everything we do in banking is dependent on technology,” says Hall, who had also worked as a National Bank Examiner. “I was extremely familiar with banking, but I felt like I needed a better understanding of the technology and the risks around it.”

That’s when Hall received an email about the Temple master’s degree in information technology auditing and cyber security. “Immediately I was like, ‘this is exactly what I want to do,’” says Hall.

Hall was in excellent company at Temple as she completed her masters while working full-time. “Most of our professors were working day jobs, too,” she said. “It was a really good balance of textbook education and real-world experience. That was probably the most valuable thing—the breadth and depth of knowledge that different instructors had,” said Hall.

When she was about a year into the MS program, Hall’s decision paid off with a promising job offer from First National Bank of Paragould, overseeing cybersecurity, day-to-day tech support, and automation and innovation. “They saw that I was working on my degree, and they found that to be very valuable,” says Hall. “So I was able to go from the director level to CIO because of my degree.”

After Vanessa Marin (MS ‘21) earned her undergraduate degree in MIS at Temple, she searched for a program that would get her a management-level position. After speaking with several professors in the program, she opted for the full-time, 11-month master’s degree in information technology auditing and cyber security.

Marin’s instincts proved correct. “Before the end of my masters, I had already acquired a Cyber Assurance Advisor position with Comcast,” says Marin. There she conducts assessments of the company’s security landscape. “We essentially touch every single business unit at Comcast, so it’s wonderful exposure across the organization.”

Marin found both the coursework and the relationships at Temple to be extremely valuable. “The material is 100% relevant. It was all just very well laid out and organized,” says Marin. “And I was able to reach out to some of my professors when I was considering job offers to get advice on not just salary, but career development.”

When Ilya Rogov (MIS ’10) came to the Fox School as a freshman, he thought he’d work as a business analyst after graduation. “But my career evolved organically. Over time, I found myself writing more code and database queries, and now that’s what I do every day,” says Rogov. With nearly a decade of experience, he’s worked in several industries, including medical publishing, media distribution, and automotive distribution. His focus has been on the LAMP stack.

For the past five years, Rogov has been a web developer at Turn 14, a wholesale auto parts distributor in Horsham, Pennsylvania. “I work on a fairly small team, and we custom build most of the business’s software,” he says. Rogov helped create an app that allows warehouse workers to receive items from an automated conveyor system as well as Turn 14’s e-commerce website. “I write the code that determines the look and feel of that site, and I have a lot of freedom in what I do,” he says.

Rogov honed these skills while in the MIS program. “Our professors were great. For example, Mart Doyle always gave us real-world examples, many from his own experience, which is how I learn best,” says Rogov. He still appreciates the way Doyle and other professors put lessons in context, setting him up for success in his career.

When Urvi Patel (MIS ’06) came to Temple from her hometown of Nairobi, Kenya, in the early 2000s, she was interested in technology. With the ascent of the internet, she had a hunch that opportunities would be abundant for those with IT skills. “But I didn’t want to be a backroom program developer,” says Patel. The business world called to her. It was the blending of tech skills and industry know-how that drew her to MIS.

While still a student, she interned at Deloitte, the beginning of a long career with the firm. “Today, I’m a partner at Deloitte East Africa, in the risk advisory team where I look after our Data Analytics and Cyber, and Technology Risk (CTR) services,” she says. “Under analytics, our goal is to advise clients on how to leverage their data to harness insights, while under cyber-security, we advise clients on how to manage the various emerging cyber risks,” says Patel.

“I was recently selected to lead up our digital and innovation unit in East Africa, because of the multidisciplinary background I have. Thanks in part to the MIS curriculum, I have the right kind of well-rounded skill set to do the job,” she explains. Just as when she was a student, she benefits from a blend of core tech skills and a deep understanding of the larger business perspective.

Shahla Raei, MS ’17 IT Auditing and Cyber-Security, was back on Temple’s campus recently, screening internship candidates for Wells Fargo during the IT Career Fair. Raei, who’d joined the multinational financial services company as a Senior IT Auditor in June, had already impressed her bosses.  

“I was the first student from the program to join Wells Fargo and now senior management wants to hire more students with a (Management Information Systems) background,” Raei says. “They said it’s because they already have the background in auditing and the auditing process.”

A native of Iran, Raei earned her Bachelor of Software Engineering degree from South Tehran Branch University in 2011 and her Master’s in Science in IT Management from Payam Nour University in 2014. She moved to the U.S. in the Fall of 2014 to take a job at Philadelphia’s Fried Brothers Inc. as a Data Analyst helping optimize product sales and digital assets.

Looking to learn more about auditing, Raei decided to earn a second Master’s Degree at Fox School of Business. She quickly gained practical skills, like how to use Audit Command Language (ACL) and the specific steps of the audit process.

“Most of the professors work in the industry and having that experience is really helpful,” she said. “The teaching was practical.”

Raei also appreciated the opportunity to hone her people skills while at Fox. During her first year, she got a free membership to ISACA, the international professional association focused on IT governance.

“Coming from an engineering background, I was not as good at working with people I didn’t know,” Raei said. “English is my second language and was sometimes challenging. Temple provided the opportunities for me to practice my communication skills.”

After doing an IT Audit Internship with CHUBB, Raei met her current boss when he represented Wells Fargo at the IT Career Fair. He encouraged her to apply to the company.

“Getting that first job is really hard. Then you get into the industry and you can start building your network,” she said. “One of my professors, Thu Nguyen, works in the same department. It’s great because I already have a relationship with her.”

Wells Fargo has more than 1,000 auditors and Raei works with the Enterprise Technology Group. Her day to day work includes doing risk assessments and conducting audits from planning to field work to recording. Her background in Cyber-Security has been a huge benefit to her and her employer; she’s been able to do more security audits, which she finds more challenging.

“It’s really great because I’m working with people who have a lot of experience,” she said. “I’m still learning.”