From Best Buy to Cybersecurity: Curiosity, Confidence, and Finding Your Place in Tech

In this episode of No Password Required: Next Gen, Yazzel interviews Karina Rosario, Applications SOP Writer at ThreatLocker. Karina shares how her curiosity about technology led her from working at Best Buy and Geek Squad to earning her bachelor's degree in cybersecurity and beginning her career in the industry.

From building a strong IT foundation to learning how important networking can be, Karina keeps it real about what it actually takes to break into cybersecurity. She talks about why a career in cyber is a “slow burn,” the value of taking chances on yourself, and how experiences from outside of cybersecurity can become some of the most valuable skills in your career.

Outside of cyber mode, Karina brings plenty of personality to the conversation, from being a Nintendo and Fortnite fan to imagining her own cybersecurity sidekick in the world of Kim Possible. She also opens up about being a first-generation college graduate and her goal of becoming a voice for young women and girls entering cybersecurity.

Karina’s story is a reminder that there is no single path into cybersecurity. Sometimes the experiences you least expect can become the foundation for where you’re headed next.

Find Karina on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karina-r-3088691b9/

Presented by ThreatLocker

Supported by Derscanner

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction to Karina and Her Role at ThreatLocker
03:00 Journey into Cybersecurity: Education and Inspiration
05:51 Skills and Qualities for Success in Cybersecurity
09:05 Personal Interests and Hobbies Outside of Work
12:02 Empowering Women in Cybersecurity and Future Aspirations

In this episode:

• Bruno's origin story: a fifteen year old in a French village of 1,200 people watches a late night TV show about two young American millionaires and wakes up his mom at midnight to announce his plan (05:47 - 07:08)
• Arriving in Seattle with a $10,000 loan, a backpack, and English as a work in progress (07:08 - 08:06)
• From MS-DOS to Windows NT to Exchange to Xbox to Hardware to HR, how a developer ends up running Microsoft's worldwide HR planning (08:06 - 09:42)
• The day Bill Gates walked into the shipping party and canceled the product Bruno had spent a year building, and the box he still has (09:42 - 10:57)
• Starting BEMO in 2010 before Office 365 or Azure existed and building a system that could deploy SharePoint in 15 minutes (11:07 - 12:07)
• Watching Microsoft decide to eat his lunch in 2012 and becoming the second biggest reseller of Project Online and SharePoint Online on the way out (12:07 - 13:39)
• The deliberate pivot to cybersecurity in 2018 and winning Microsoft Partner of the Year in 2023 (13:39 - 14:34)
• Why CMMC compliance is like having a child and the birthday is just the beginning (14:34 - 15:34)
• Opening the hood on companies that have been self-attesting perfect CMMC scores for five years and what you find inside (15:34 - 16:53)
• What the average SMB gets wrong about cybersecurity and why being on Copacabana beach with a laptop makes you a very effective hacker (16:53 - 18:28)
• AI versus AI: going from 46 agents to 21 and building a governance framework that mirrors BEMO's human staffing levels (18:28 - 20:34)
• Eight years working alongside his son Brandon, how he kept it professional, and why he is relieved they never had an accident (20:34 - 22:00)
• The Lifestyle Polygraph: éclairs, a French bakery, the 1998 World Cup, flying lessons, the Marshawn Lynch earthquake, and the leader who blocks his own employees from connecting on weekends (22:29 - 33:15)

Timestamp Highlights:

• (05:47) The midnight promise to his mom that became a thirty-six year adventure
• (07:08) Arriving in Seattle with a $10,000 loan and English as a work in progress
• (09:42) Bill Gates walks into the shipping party
• (11:07) Building BEMO before Office 365 existed
• (12:07) Watching Microsoft eat his lunch and becoming the second biggest reseller anyway
• (14:34) CMMC compliance is like having a child
• (16:53) Why hackers love small businesses who think they are immune
• (18:28) From 46 AI agents to 21 and why governance matters
• (20:34) Eight years working with his son Brandon
• (23:18) His favorite French pastry is the éclair
• (25:59) France beats Brazil two months before his wedding
• (27:31) The family intervention that ended his flying lessons

Resources & Links:

• BEMO — bemopro.com
• ThreatLocker — Presenting sponsor of No Password Required
• DerScanner — Episode sponsor
• Cyber Florida — The Mother Ship

Austin Walley - AP History Teacher Turned Cybersecurity Educator and a believer in figuring it out.

Austin Walley is a cybersecurity educator at George Jenkins High School in Lakeland, Florida, where he leads the school’s cybersecurity academy. But unlike many people in the field, Austin didn’t start in technology. He started as an AP history teacher and was recruited into cybersecurity after his administrators saw something beyond technical skills: his ability to question, teach, build relationships, and connect with students.

In this episode, Austin shares how he went from knowing almost nothing about cybersecurity to building and teaching an evolving cybersecurity program. He breaks down why teaching cyber means constantly rebuilding the curriculum, how to separate foundational skills from technology that will quickly become outdated, and why students don’t need to be “super, super technical” to get started.

Live from CyberLaunch 2026, Austin shares his experience preparing high school students for cybersecurity careers, emphasizing the importance of teamwork and communication and how CTF competitions reveal natural leaders in the classroom. He also explains why resilience and the ability to “figure it out” may be some of the most important skills a future cybersecurity professional can develop.

He also shares what it’s like when everyone assumes the cyber teacher knows everything about computers, why students from completely different backgrounds can thrive in cybersecurity, and how his school’s administrators took a chance on him and continued to support him every step of the way.

Follow No Password Required Breakout room for more conversations with the innovators, creators, and game changers shaping the cybersecurity industry

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction to Cybersecurity Education

02:58 Transitioning from History to Cybersecurity

05:52 Curriculum Development in a Fast-Paced Field

09:02 Student Diversity and Soft Skills in Cybersecurity

12:09 Challenges and Resilience in Cyber Competitions