Welcome to “A Day in the Life” blog series. Each month, we’ll interview one of our team members to learn about their experiences at Code42 to give you an inside look into different roles within our company.
Introducing Denny Cheng, Senior Security and Software Engineer at Code42. Denny helps secure Code42 through infrastructure development and automating security tooling and processes. When he’s not at work, Denny enjoys hiking and recently started recipe testing for an upcoming Taiwanese cookbook.
What do you enjoy most about working at Code42?
The people and problems we are tasked with solving. I find the genuine nature of each Guardian has made remote collaboration and work easy to thrive in.
What excites you most about your work?
The opportunity to get hands-on experience on so many different technical domains. I’m able to truly own the projects I work on while helping Code42 stay secure.
Tell us about your favorite memory at Code42?
Attending my first MKO (Midyear Kickoff) event. It was such an empowering week to meet all my peers and understand the meaning of the work we are doing. It was such a great week of camaraderie, fun and growth.
How has Code42 enabled you to maintain a sense of connection, while working from home?
I think Code42 has grown and refined a remote friendly culture. Having Guardians all over the world I never find myself lacking connection from my team or from the overall community. From the endless hilarious Slack channels to quarterly virtual team events I find it easier than ever to not only learn more about my teammates but be a part of the culture of Code42.
What personal goals do you have that Code42 can help you achieve?
I want to help reinforce and expand the bridge between software and security.
In my experience, I found that developers and security analysts all want the same thing, which is secure software. How we go about that is where the conversation can differ and each solution of what is “secure” can be subjective. Some developers can see security requirements as just that – a requirement that needs to be marked off, versus an engineer with a security mindset would understand that the security requirement needs to be built into the solution from the ground up and not retrofitted into a solution that didn’t have security in mind. There are a lot of misconceptions of both domains that I feel are stronger together than separate and I hope to encourage that security by default mindset amongst my peers.
What have you learned recently?
From a technical perspective I’m learning a lot about cloud security practices and automation. I’ve been working on a cloud resource inventory project that’s allowing us to have consistent visibility on what’s going on in our cloud environments.
On a personal note, I recently learned that the McDonald’s x Mariah Carey collaboration is in fact a real thing and not fake. 🦋
What advice do you have for starting a role in security?
Best advice I’ve been taught is to take time to understand the environment and business you are working in. It’s easy to dive head first into tickets and problem-solving but you’re approaching it from a singular engineering-driven perspective. If you can’t look up and see the bigger picture within the boundary, you only have one perspective of the problems you are trying to solve. Take time and understand how your work correlates with business processes and partner with them so you can grow a strong communication dynamic.
What makes the security team at Code42 different from other places you have worked for?
The opportunity to work across multiple security vectors within a singular role. I enjoy how collaborative our department is, we are a small but scrappy bunch. It’s exciting to be working on securing a security SaaS company which exposes me to so many engaging problems to solve.
We are:
Accelerators of innovation. Enablers of collaboration. Protectors of ideas.
Code42 speeds the time to detect and respond to Insider Risks by delivering a fast, simple path to data loss detection, investigation and response. With our product, Incydr™, security teams easily protect corporate data and reduce insider risk while fostering a collaborative and productive culture for employees. We’re here to support organizations made up of people that move fast and think big. The ones who work together to solve hard problems and relentlessly pursue better.
You belong at Code42 if you crave being a part of a transparent and team-first culture, you want to drive innovation, and security is always top of mind. We look for authentic people who are inquisitive, enjoy solving complex problems, and provide diverse insights to help us think differently and thrive together.
Interested? Head to code42.com/careers to learn more about why we’ve consistently been recognized for the quality of our product and the culture of our company.
Don’t wait. #BeCode42