Interview With A Penetration Tester/Ethical Hacker

Interview with a Penetration Tester/Ethical Hacker, Joseph Wang

By Szu-Hung Hsiao

Introduction

As a Mathematics major student at San Jose State University, understanding the connection between math and the field that I interested in is vital. It will not only help for my current understanding but also help for my future job. Since I am more interested in Ethical Hacking and Cyber Security, knowing what they will help me learn more. That is the reason why I interview with Joseph Wang, a Penetration Tester/ Ethical Hacker, and learn everything by himself without a related bachelor degree. He received his B.S. Applied Mathematics at University California of Davis. Since my major is similar to his major and we are both interested to the Ethical

From the research that my academic counselor told me, international students choose this major because they think this major is easy, and they will get their degree easily. Beside Accounting, majors that related to business are popular for those students. I decided to major in applied mathematic because I knew math is the basis for a lot of technical majors. I could think about what I want to do while I was studying in math. After I had finished my programming language courses which were required for graduation in last few quarters, I noticed that programming was fun and I had more willingness to learn it. However, it was too late for me to change my major to computer science. So I could only get my bachelor degree as B.S. Applied

Wang was very kind and patient to spend his time on this interview. The interview was long because I sometimes spend on notes taking. It was my first time that having an interview with professional people in the hacking field. After this meeting, I noticed that there is still a long way for me to get into this area. For people who study in computer science, they already have enough basic knowledge for being an Ethical Hacker. However, as a Mathematics major student, I have to learn that knowledge by myself in my free time. Which means I have to spend more time than others if I want to be an Ethical Hacker. I also learned that it is very important to build my network so I can have more sources and people that can help me to reach my goal. The last thing I learned from this interview is the importance of communicating skills. English is the most powerful language in the world. Since that, oral and written communication are the way to connect everything between different people. This interview is a highly rewarding experience. Without this interview, I would never know how important of an Ethical Hacker