About Me

My name is Crystal and I’m a Cybersecurity student at Southern Utah University. I’ll be graduating in April of 2025 with a major in cybersecurity, a minor in biology, and a minor in information systems. I love learning about the intersection between biology and cybersecurity, participating in competitions with my friends (I post about them on LinkedIn!), and hitting the gym.

During my time as a student I have worked as a pharmacy technician, a planetarium tour guide, and as an IT Help Desk technician. In these diverse roles, I’ve developed strong problem-solving skills, adaptability, and communication skills. Working summers as a pharmacy technician, I honed my attention to detail and developed a strong ability to work under pressure. Guiding tours inside SUU’s mobile planetarium improved my public speaking skills and ability to answer questions about complex topics clearly and confidently. Wworking at the IT Help Desk gave me valuable hands-on experience troubleshooting technical issues across campus and supporting a variety of users from administrators to professors to students. Between these experiences and my academic background, I am confident in my ability to analyze complex problems and communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical audiences.

In Summer of 2024 I had an exciting internship opportunity with the global Privilege Access Management (PAM) company Delinea, where I was selected from a pool of over 200 applicants for the role. Durinig the three-month internship I developed automated alert scripts and gained hands-on experience in incident response, application security, and threat modeling. I also learned how vendor risk assessments (VRAs) are used practically within the company as they work with vendors to deploy new security solutions for enterprise environments. Collaborating across time zones with senior security engineers in the Philippines gave me valuable insights into teamwork at an international level. Throughout the internship, I deepened my knowledge of NIST 800-53, ISO 27001, and SOC 2 standards and their application in real-world cybersecurity operations. My internship not only broadened my technical expertise but also introduced me to professionals in my field whose insights and career paths continue to inspire me.

In March of 2025 I had the incredible opportunity to present at SecureUSU, the security conference that occurred alongside HackUSU in Loga, Utah. My presentation was titled Cyber Immunity: Social Engineering and the Fight for Patient Privacy. I gave a 25-minute talk about social engineering in the healthcare field and how attackers exploit human vulnerabilities to bypass security measures. I discussed real-world tactics, defenses, and the implications for patient privacy. I enjoyed answering questions about my experiences working in pharmacies and whether certain lies could be considered social engineering. I look forward to my next opportunity to present at a conference!

As I finish my degree and begin to explore career paths in the cybersecurity field, I aim to combine my passion for healthcare with my growing expertise in cybersecurity. I believe that as the medical field becomes more dependent on confidentiality, integrity, and availability (the CIA triad), best practices will become more commonly recognized as necessities. The intersection of technology and patient care presents both exciting opportunities and complex security challenges. By combining my knowledge of cybersecurity with my background in pharmaceuticals and biology, I hope to contribute to innovative solutions that keep patient care convenient while minimizing the risks associated with constant digital access.

I am currently studying for the CompTIA Security+ exam, which I’ll be taking in March of 2025. I’m passionate about making a meaningful difference in patient privacy and I look forward to the opportunities my certification and experiences will unlock for me!