Meet Retired Navy Chief Turned Security Operations Center Expert at DeepSeas, Tanya Bowling 

We had the pleasure of interviewing a Security Operations Center (SOC) expert at DeepSeas, Tanya Bowling. In the interview below, Tanya shares more about her background, expertise, and role at DeepSeas. 

Hi, Tanya. Can you share a bit about your role as a security operations center expert at DeepSeas and what drew to the cyber defense industry?

I’ve been interested in incident response and forensics for years. Before joining DeepSeas, I was working in digital forensics at Booz Allen Hamilton.  Now, as Global SOC MDR Team Leader at DeepSeas, I approve cases from our SOC analysts and serve as an escalation point for them. I also serve as a lead analyst on compromise assessments. 

How does your background and Security Operations Center expertise enhance the ability of DeepSeas to protect our clients?

I have a diverse background ranging from military intelligence to digital network analysis to incident response and digital forensics. Cybersecurity is another part of that same family. I have learned how to use several different EDRs and SIEMs for analysis and have been able to leverage my expertise from past experience, which has also allowed me a different point of view.  

DeepSeas Threat Hunters Find What EDR Misses 

At DeepSeas, we pride ourselves on being client obsessed, and we achieve that by working together as a cohesive crew. One example of this is when our threat hunt analysts were able to find some things of interest on their hunts that an EDR didn’t pick up for a client. Our analysts were able to put cases together and communicate with the client. We provided guidance and assistance to our analysts and clients, who discovered other infected machines and looked for additional processes, all from the information that was found by our DeepSeas threat hunt analysts. 

Putting Continuing Education & Training to Daily Use 

I also continue to enhance my expertise to best serve our clients through continuing education and certifications like GIAC GCIH Certification, GIAC GCFA Certification, GIAC GNFA Certification, GIAC GREM Certification, SANS Technology Institute Graduate Certificate in Incident Response and GIAC GDAT Certification. I’ve been able to gain a lot of hands-on experience by working through the exercises in these courses, and it’s fantastic to be able to reach out to experts in the field for assistance. They’ve helped me garner a great foundational knowledge in cybersecurity and digital forensics that I can apply on a daily basis.  

How has your military service impacted your career journey?

Military service helps you hone your leadership skills and realize that you can overcome any problem in your path. You learn to prioritize what is important, make a plan to get things done, and know that you have a team to work with and rely on. Being a veteran has made me realize that I can overcome a lot of adversities and continue to learn and lead in the civilian world as well. 

There are many veterans I get to work with every day at DeepSeas, and I really enjoy that. There is truly a special camaraderie among our veterans as we understand a lot of shared experiences. Of course, being a retired Navy Chief, I always love to banter with my brothers and sisters, and I believe we have great relationships among us. 

What advice do you have for women and veterans who want to pursue a cybersecurity career?

First, for all women, always continue learning. Look and see what is going on in the cybersecurity world and see what role in cybersecurity you would love to do and where you could make a positive impact. You’ll set yourself up for success by tailoring learning requirements to what you want to do. Are you good at coding? Great. I’m not and would love to have you as a team member. Do you like to find things that people try to hide in their systems? Check out digital forensics. Do you want a fast-paced career where you are going to learn a lot? Look into being a SOC analyst. Then prepare yourself for these careers by looking into training for them. 

What single piece of advice would you share with a CISO to improve her/his organization’s cyber defense posture? 

Train, train again, and retrain your people on security and password best practices.

We’re fortunate to have Tanya as a Security Operations Center expert at DeepSeas, and thank her for her service. Come back to meet more of our DeepSeas cybersecurity experts in future issues of our “Meet Our Deeps” series.