Chris Peterson was an intern in the TRC as a Junior during the 2017 fall semester. He now works as a Security Analyst in the private sector. We appreciate Chris taking the time to talk with us about his experience in the TRC! To learn more about our internships, click here.
What did you do after your internship and where are you now? What do you like most about your current job?
A few months after graduating in 2019, I joined a cyber security start up called Fishtech as a Security Analyst. Since graduating, I’ve mainly focused on completing specific certifications related to my job. In this position, I use the Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) gathering skills and the experience identifying Social Engineering I gained from the TRC to perform Incident Response and Insider Threat duties for Fortune 500 clients. The cyber defense landscape is a target rich environment and it makes for lots of opportunities to leverage the skills I developed during my internship at the TRC.
Did any internship/student research experiences shape your decisions about school or jobs after graduation?
Absolutely. When I came into college, I was wanting to explore a career in international security focused on counterterrorism. However, my internships with the TRC and US Marshals gave me the chance to see how many threats originate domestically. I was excited to start a career in cyber security because it gave me the chance to focus on domestic and international adversaries simultaneously. I am always considering the option of going back to the University of Arkansas to get my Master’s.
Do you have any advice for current interns regarding how to get the most out of their internship experiences?
My advice for current interns would be to really dive in to the work you’re doing for the TRC, and try to identify the parts of it you find most interesting. Are you most interested in the Social Engineering that led up to the event? Are you most interested in reading the authorities’ investigative process? Or do you enjoy pouring through OSINT to hunt down and find specific pieces of data? Once you’ve identified the portion of this process you find most interesting, I would encourage interns to try to find other internship or research opportunities focused on that aspect.
What do you miss most about U of A or Fayetteville?
The U of A has a welcoming atmosphere that I feel as soon as I step foot on campus. The Criminal Justice department specifically has many knowledgeable professors and researchers with a wide wealth of knowledge and experience that is hard to find elsewhere. I would encourage students, and especially interns, to leverage these resources while they have access.