As technology continues to evolve and become so engrained with society and our day-to-day lives, IT and Cybersecurity have emerged as prominent fields that cannot be overlooked. In this episode of Business Edge, special guest Besong Tambeagbor discusses the overlaps between business and tech, and explains what exactly can go wrong when people and organizations don’t follow the best practices online. If you’re someone who uses the same 2-3 passwords for all of your online accounts, then this is the episode for you!
Besong Tambeagbor [00:00:00] Definitely keep separate passwords for each of the platforms, whether it be social media, banking. Please don't have one password. Data right now is so important and hackers will take, for example, your Facebook, your LinkedIn. They will go on there and they can find certain information about you and they can use that against you.
Finn Lambouris [00:00:19] You're listening to Business Edge, the podcast for professionals looking to excel in the workforce. In each episode, our guests take a deep dive into their personal and professional experiences to give you an edge in the marketplace. This podcast is brought to you by the Commonwealth Leadership™ Alliance.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:00:33] Good morning. Welcome back to the Business Edge podcast. My name is Chrissy. We're here live in Miami for the 61st Alpha Kappa Psi Convention. With me is Nicole Klemp. How are you doing and how are you liking Convention, Nicole? It's your first time.
Nicole Klemp [00:00:46] Hi Chrissy. Yeah, I'm an O.G. Member but this is my first Convention and so yeah, I'm just having a great time. It's, you know, not just being away from my kids, which is always a little bit refreshing, but to be with all of my brothers and meeting so many new people has just been awesome.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:01:01] So you're a long time listener, first time caller.
Nicole Klemp [00:01:03] Yeah, long time listener of Convention, first time caller.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:01:06] Well, we're so excited this morning to have Besong Tambeagbor with us. And Nicole is going to give us a little bio and then we're going to jump right in.
Nicole Klemp [00:01:15] Yeah. So we're so excited to have Besong with us. She is an alumni of Georgia State University's Pi chapter of Alpha Kappa Psi and the Chapter Advisor for the Epsilon Sigma chapter. She has over 12 years of experience in the I.T. and security fields and is currently an Application Security Consultant in Threat and Vulnerability Management. Besong is also a Women in Technology Campus Team Member and a Teaching Assistant for Black Girls Code. She's passionate about furthering her career in cybersecurity and ethical hacking. Besong, thank you for joining us today.
Besong Tambeagbor [00:01:44] Thank you both for having me. Such an amazing opportunity. And that was a great intro, by the way, guys.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:01:51] Nicole is a great wordsmith. She's got a way with words.
Besong Tambeagbor [00:01:54] Absolutely. You make me sound so good! Thank you.
Nicole Klemp [00:01:56] Hey, you can use this on any of your social media platforms.
Besong Tambeagbor [00:02:00] Will do, will do.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:02:00] Free of charge! Our gift to you.
Besong Tambeagbor [00:02:02] Thank you.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:02:03] So tell us a little bit more. That's, you know, a lot to digest about your job. Tell us what your job is.
Besong Tambeagbor [00:02:09] Yes. So I've been in I.T., I will say, all my life, and that is actually what I went to school for at Georgia State University. My major was Computer Information systems. And being in I.T., I was able to dive into all different type of industry. So I work in the automotive industry, the banking industry, health care I.T., insurance agency, fintech. I've worked in all different industries doing I.T. work. I would say for the first half of my career, I was moreso on the software development side and QA. Moreso doing data transformation, working in that realm. And then in the last few years, I've gotten into the security field. I've always had a passion for cybersecurity. I took a forensic class when I was in college, and that's actually what sparked my interest. So about three or four years ago, I was like, You know what? Let me dive into that area. I got certified in one of our foundational security certifications, and then I've been in security ever since. Right now I'm in application security, so I primarily work with, you know, your web applications and APIs and things of that nature. So my job is to kind of draw out or discover vulnerabilities and flaws within web applications for particular companies. And I give that information to them and tell the developers, "Hey, guys, these are vulnerabilities, these are flaws. Go ahead and fix them."
Chrissy Vasquez [00:03:27] Wow.
Nicole Klemp [00:03:28] Yeah, that's interesting, too, because, you know, thinking of AKPsi as a as a Professional Business Fraternity, business leaders, you don't always think of the I.T. side of things, but it's so critical to businesses, you know. How do you feel like your field really impacts a business performance in its ability to grow and succeed?
Besong Tambeagbor [00:03:46] Oh, that's a great question. I.T. in 2022 is intertwined in business. I don't know any business that doesn't have some form of I.T., some form of cybersecurity related competencies with them. It's like, I don't think a business can function without I.T. in 2022, you know, we have our social media platforms. Again, you have your websites, e-commerce, you know, you want to be able to sell your products or be exposed to everyone. And you definitely need the Internet. You definitely need cybersecurity because you want to do it securely, right? So it's all intertwined. And like I said, I don't know any business that you can have and it doesn't have some sort of form of I.T. related.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:04:25] Do you know of any or have you seen the most common thing that businesses do incorrectly that put them at risk?
Besong Tambeagbor [00:04:31] Where do we start? Yeah, I mean, there are industry standards that companies should follow with, you know, websites that they aren't doing. And that's when you have... I don't want to say the B-word, breaches.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:04:46] Ah, that's the bad word.
Besong Tambeagbor [00:04:48] Yes, I call it the B-word. But that's when you have those sort of situations happening where because certain best practices weren't followed, that's the outcome. And to be honest. It's not just the technology, it's also the people. The people have to be able to follow the processes as well. There's the situation where, for example, I'm a security guard working at a company and I'm not following protocol and who I allow through. That could allow for a potential B-word, you know. So it's more than just the software and you configuring the software. It's also the people that must adhere to these processes. They're there for a reason.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:05:29] And I bet there's a lot of companies that actually don't have well-built processes to begin with for people to follow.
Besong Tambeagbor [00:05:34] That is also true. You know, startups, new companies, smaller companies, they aren't necessarily mature as are huge companies. So it may not be purposefully that they are not, you know, prepared or that they don't have those standards. But yeah, you do bring up a good point.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:05:49] I bet there's a lot of companies that are in that startup phase and they're like, Oh, we don't need that till later. And then when they do it, it's too late. Nicole, you have tons of experience with tech startups. Do you see that?
Nicole Klemp [00:05:58] Yeah, I've worked at several tech startups, and security was a big problem because, I mean, people are sharing files on all kinds of unsecured drives and things. And in tech especially, they grow so fast. But, you know, you go from a 5 person company to a 500 person company in two years and nobody has any idea how to manage security, and--
Besong Tambeagbor [00:06:16] It's gone so fast.
Nicole Klemp [00:06:17] Yeah, it's kind of a mess.
Besong Tambeagbor [00:06:20] And let's keep in mind, security is not cheap, guys.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:06:23] Oh, right!
Besong Tambeagbor [00:06:23] I.T. Is not cheap. I.T. Is not necessarily the revenue generating department.
Nicole Klemp [00:06:28] It's a cost.
Besong Tambeagbor [00:06:29] Exactly. It's a necessary evil. So, but it's very important. You know, the more money you put in your security, you drive down that risk of getting the B-word.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:06:37] Yup. And so speaking of the B-word, you read a lot in news about these ransoms, right?
Besong Tambeagbor [00:06:43] Yes.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:06:43] Where people come in and hack the system and now these companies have to pay these ransoms. Is that really how it works?
Besong Tambeagbor [00:06:48] It's different per each organization. You know, they have their own set of protocols. I can't say whether they may say they have paid the money and they really didn't or vice versa. You know, they want to kind of keep that stuff confidential because if a hacker knew, hey, Hacker A was able to hack this organization and they paid them, well, I want to try too, you know? So they do try to keep that confidential in how they handle it.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:07:09] But they do really have to sometimes pay to get--.
Besong Tambeagbor [00:07:11] Some people do, some people pay and still don't get their data. So it's just, it's different, you know, it depends on the hacker, the company. It's so many factors that are involved with that. But you don't ever want to be on that side of the fence, no.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:07:25] You know, speaking of breach, even personal, right? So like, I got an Apple card because I love the idea that it changes the number with transactions and there's no number on my card and things like that. Could be a false sense of security, but talk to us a little bit about, knowing what you know, how do you protect yourself and what are some tips that we can give our listeners of common things that I might have on my LinkedIn or social media that I think are totally harmless and can actually cause issues?
Besong Tambeagbor [00:07:51] Great question. So with your data and even with myself, I try to keep or limit the information in the data that I put out on social media accounts. Data right now is so important and hackers will take, for example, your Facebook, your LinkedIn, they will go on there and they could find certain information about you and they can use that against you if they wanted to. So I would say definitely keep separate passwords for each of the platforms, whether it be social media, banking. Please don't have one password. Because if I have that password, I can get into any of your accounts, you know?
Chrissy Vasquez [00:08:23] Yeah, I don't for different--but I didn't even think--well, I guess maybe over time my social media passwords, there's been breaches, the b-word. They've changed. But yeah, I probably need to start getting a little more diverse in my passwords.
Besong Tambeagbor [00:08:35] The amount of information you put out there, you know, just be selective on that. You know, I don't like to--especially on like, social media and I don't like to put my address, you know, for those other reasons. I don't even sometimes like to put my phone number. I will in certain areas, but I limit the amount of information. I don't even have my place of employment right now on my LinkedIn, you know.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:08:57] Yeah. Can you give us an example of having, for example, your place of employment, that seems pretty innocent and it's on plenty of people's LinkedIn's. How can that lead to someplace bad?
Besong Tambeagbor [00:09:07] As a hacker, you can take that. I can say, Oh well, Besong Tambeagbor works at Pepsi, right? So now I know where you work. So now I can go on to Pepsi, I can try and look you up, find your email, I can contact you saying, "Hey, oh, I'm also in security. Click on this link to, you know, there's a conference coming up." And you know, as a security professional or as just a business professional, it's like, "Oh, a conference. Okay, great way to network, you know. Learn more." And now I've clicked on this link and this link could be malicious, you know. And so that's a phishing attack. And so you unknowingly have just potentially compromised your machine, your laptop, whatever you're working on. So it's just as easy as that.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:09:51] No, that's a good point. I get text messages from AT&T, not real, and they'll be like, "You just paid your bill. Here's a reward." I'm like, "Okay, I did just pay my bill, but I know this is a fake account." So how is that even...
Besong Tambeagbor [00:10:04] And you have to be mindful of that because they might know that you're an AT&T customer, not knowing anything else about you, send you that text and it's like, "Oh yeah, I do have AT--"
Nicole Klemp [00:10:11] And you think that's legit, yeah.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:10:13] I had to text my mom. I was like, please do not text on anything. Do not click any links, please.
Besong Tambeagbor [00:10:18] Please! Because I will say, the younger generation and the older generation, they don't really know. And so they, you know, unknowingly will click on it thinking, "yeah, I'm a customer," and yeah, bad things start to happen from there.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:10:30] I was amazed there was that scam going on where they would get you to go buy target gift cards and send them the codes for like $2,000 with target gift cards. And I knew so many people whose parents had done this. And Target was great about giving people their money back, even though they weren't involved, because people were being told. But if somebody called me and said, "go buy $2,000 worth of gift cards," I would never do it.
Nicole Klemp [00:10:52] Like, red flags everywhere! Your spidey sense is tingling.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:10:56] No! It's the way they do it. It's like, they would contact you and be like, to my parents, "Chrissy can't get ahold of you. She needs this," you know, type of thing. So there's that moment of panic that I think people get clouded vision.
Besong Tambeagbor [00:11:08] Yeah, I haven't heard of that one, but I've heard of the one of, "hey, you have parking tickets or something and there's a warrant for your arrest and you need to pay now or you could go to jail." Yeah, scare tactics. But we just have to, you know, educate our youth and our, you know, elderly on that there are people out here looking to scam you and this is what they're doing.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:11:27] Yeah. And I always think of like, scamming and hacking as, like, a big scale, not just one person sitting at their computer somewhere doing these small little things.
Besong Tambeagbor [00:11:35] You'd be surprised. There's been kids, kids scamming and hacking. We call them script kiddies and they take software. They don't really know too much about the industry and they're just taking tools. There's so many tools out here that you could use to do this and not have any knowledge of it. And they're using this. And, you know, some people are falling for it, unfortunately.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:11:54] Wow. Nicole, I'm going to shut up so you can ask some questions. I'm sorry. Apparently I've got a lot of questions.
Nicole Klemp [00:11:58] Oh, no! It's fascinating!
Besong Tambeagbor [00:11:59] That's what caught my interest, so.
Nicole Klemp [00:12:01] Well, I'm going to switch gears so you have a lot of volunteer experience obviously with the fraternity and then with Women in Technology and Black Girls Code. So I'd love to hear a little bit more about those two organizations, what you do with them and then kind of what their missions are.
Besong Tambeagbor [00:12:13] So Black Girls Code, I actually was introduced to them through an organization that I worked through years ago. There was a volunteer opportunity that my company sent me an email and said, "Hey, do you want to, you know, here's an opportunity to work with this organization. They have this event going on," and I was like, "cool!" Because for me in the industry, you know, I.T. is still traditionally it was a white male dominated industry and it still is. So this organization exposes young girls. School age, I think about from age 8 to 18, it exposes into different areas of technology, including programing, artificial intelligence, like I said, coding. What else, different aspects. And so they have different sessions. They have summer programs for young girls to learn just to be exposed to this type of things, robotics. And so when I heard of that opportunity, it was like, "Yeah!" Because I wish somebody had kind of put me in this program when I was growing up. So it was a wonderful opportunity to work with them. I actually because of COVID, of course, you know, they kind of scaled down on the amount of interactions they had. But this year especially, they've started having more and more and more sessions and different events for young girls. I believe they're based out in California, but I'm in Atlanta. There is an Atlanta chapter. And so I worked with them, I think it was in correlation to Georgia Tech. They have a partnership with Georgia Tech. And so that was where I volunteered with them like a couple of times actually. But yeah, they are an amazing organization. I got to work with young girls--What did we do? The last interaction I had, I don't remember. It was again, pre-COVID, but I think the girls had some sort of programing and then they were able to show their program at the end of the event to the masses. It was an amazing opportunity.
Nicole Klemp [00:13:57] That's awesome, I love that.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:13:57] That's fantastic. I wish those type of opportunities existed--because I think we're about the same age and--
Besong Tambeagbor [00:14:04] I never had these opportunities,
Chrissy Vasquez [00:14:05] Yeah, we didn't either.
Besong Tambeagbor [00:14:06] And so now it's like, especially since I've been in the industry for awhile, for up and coming kids, even college students, you know, they'll ask me, "Well, how did you get into security and what do you need to do?" And I wish somebody would have told me, you know, when I was in college, because I think I would have been in security a lot sooner if I would have known, "hey, these are the steps that you need to go through." But, you know, whenever I meet someone that's looking to get into cybersecurity and interested, I definitely let them know, "Hey, take this, do this, do this. You know, here are the steps you need to take. Get a foundational level certification." Just little small things.
Nicole Klemp [00:14:40] That's great that you can be kind of that, you know, inspiration for them to say, "hey, look what you're doing, you'll get your fantastic career," and inspire some young girls to get into that field. So that's great.
Besong Tambeagbor [00:14:50] Absolutely, because it is a huge field and there's a lot of opportunity.
Nicole Klemp [00:14:54] And it will be for years to come.
Besong Tambeagbor [00:14:56] Right. You hear all the time about the B words and so there's a plethora of opportunities and employment.
Nicole Klemp [00:15:04] You've been listening to Business Edge, brought to you by Alpha Kappa Psi Professional Business Fraternity and sponsored by Synergos Association Management Company. Now let's get back to the conversation.
Nicole Klemp [00:15:17] Time has flown because this has been such a great conversation. But we're going to end on our signature question that we ask all of our Business Edge podcast guests. So Besong, tell us about a time when your personal values were challenged, what happened and how did you handle it?
Besong Tambeagbor [00:15:31] That is a great question. And I will start off with, you know, of course, like I mentioned earlier, I.T., Cybersecurity traditionally has been a white male dominated industry and it's more diverse in 2022, but it's still heavily white male dominated. And there was a situation... For me, my personal values are I include everyone. You know, if you're willing to learn, you don't have to be the best person. If you're willing to learn, you're dedicated and determined. We're all in there. And there was a time where I was passed on for a particular opportunity and my thought process was, I was driven and I was wanting to do this so bad because it was a new opportunity for me and I was passed over for that traditional white male dominated person. So for me, what did I do? What I ended up doing, it was a project that I was kind of passed over for. So I ended up going to the vendor that we worked with for this project, and I went and I got me and my team training. I used it as an opportunity to learn because I was new to this tool. So I took that opportunity to learn the tool. I got training for it. Like I said, not only myself but my team. We had a week training. They were able to give us training. I was able to learn the tool. I got into that project and that's actually how I got into ETL and data transformation. So I used that, you know, setback as an opportunity to learn. And years later I ended up becoming the lead for the data transformation team. But that is something that happened to me. So my thing is don't let that, you know, setback, stop you from doing what you want to do. You know, I still had my vision, tunnel vision.
Nicole Klemp [00:17:24] Just a little extra fire under there.
Besong Tambeagbor [00:17:26] Yeah, because that did add--it was like, "What? You told me no? Okay, I'm going to show you. I'm going to show you." And I used that and turned it around, and i actually ended up loving that area of I.T. You know, you're going to always have setbacks and challenges and don't let it stop you from achieving pretty much your end goal at the end of the day.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:17:44] Yeah, it sounds like... Disappointing at the time, but probably set you on an even bigger trajectory long term. So sometimes it's a short term change for a long term gain.
Besong Tambeagbor [00:17:56] I was very disappointed. I cried. I'm not going to lie. I cried. But it was like, "No. Did he tell me no?" And then to find out they gave it to someone else who had the same level of experience as me. It was like, "Wow." So that, yeah, it was the fire that I needed to push myself and keep going.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:18:10] And I think it's also a good reminder that things happen in the workplace that are not always based on merit, and there's a lot of politics and things like that in the workplace.
Besong Tambeagbor [00:18:18] That is so true.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:18:19] And that you just have to manage it, navigate it, and like Nicole said, use it as jet fuel to be, "watch me," and, you know, take your things forward. I think that's a great lesson that everything that happens, good and bad, we can take something from it, and really apply it to our life and make improvements. And that's how you're going to get further.
Besong Tambeagbor [00:18:35] Because I could have let it impact me negatively. I could have said, "you know what, I'm not going to do any of my other work. This is B.S."
Chrissy Vasquez [00:18:40] You could have left the industry altogether.
Besong Tambeagbor [00:18:41] Correct.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:18:42] Yeah. Like, "this is how it's going to be my whole career, you know, if this is the demographic that tends to run this career.".
Besong Tambeagbor [00:18:47] Correct.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:18:48] So, good for you.
Besong Tambeagbor [00:18:49] Thank you.
Nicole Klemp [00:18:50] Thank you so much for joining us. It's been a great conversation.
Besong Tambeagbor [00:18:55] Thank you! This was very enlightening.
Nicole Klemp [00:18:57] Well, Besong. Thank you so much for joining us today.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:18:58] Yes, thank you.
Besong Tambeagbor [00:18:59] Thank you both for having me.
Nicole Klemp [00:19:01] We really enjoyed having you. We hope you enjoy the rest of Convention!
Besong Tambeagbor [00:19:03] Thank you, ladies. You all as well. Take care.
Finn Lambouris [00:19:08] Thanks for listening to Business Edge. If you have questions, comments or topic suggestions for us, email businessedge@akpsi.org.