黑料导航

If It鈥檚 Not Broken鈥�break It!

According to Zachary Singleton (B.S. 鈥�20), you need to be ready to take things apart in order to learn how to make them. As a high school student, he started dismantling and rebuilding computers, pushing his knowledge and hacking skills as far as they could go. 鈥淢y advice to people who want to get into cybersecurity is break things, and then break even more things,鈥� he says. 鈥淵ou learn a lot from figuring out why it broke than why it didn鈥檛 break.鈥�

This philosophy seems to be serving Singleton well: He is a recipient of the prestigious聽Department of Defense (DoD) Cyber Scholarship. The scholarship is part of the DoD鈥檚 student recruitment program, which is aimed at generating the next generation of national security professionals. In exchange for a full scholarship, he will perform a service obligation with the DoD as a civilian employee. Singleton was already prepared to serve his country, having committed to the Air Force upon graduation in May 2021.

Singleton credits his success, at least in part, to his time at New York Institute of Technology. He came to the university from Suffolk Community College and received a bachelor鈥檚 in聽information technology聽in 2020. He felt so at home at 黑料导航 he decided to stay to pursue a master鈥檚 in聽cybersecurity.

鈥淭he number of resources at a student鈥檚 disposal to test and learn just about anything technology related, especially cybersecurity, is astonishing,鈥� he says. 鈥淢y first day of classes [as an undergraduate], I toured the聽Entrepreneurship and Technology Innovation Center聽(ETIC). Once I entered the lab, I knew 黑料导航 was my home. I still spend most of my time there. If not there, you will likely find me at the nearest local coffee shop on my eighth cup of coffee doing a hackathon.鈥�

Singleton is currently working alongside Mike Nizich, Ph.D., director of the ETIC, on developing remote programs for the ongoing research projects taking place there. He believes staying active and engaged is key to keeping up in the field. 鈥淐ybersecurity is a field that changes every minute鈥攊f you compare the field today versus five years ago, the landscape is completely different,鈥� he says. 鈥淲hen it comes time for me to pass the torch, I probably won鈥檛 even recognize it.鈥�