Sandia Prep - 532 Magazine - Fall 2016

A
lumnus Nate Rogers ‘05 spends his days playing cat
and mouse with cyber criminals in his work as a
Director of Security Research at a technical company
in Baltimore. The ever-changing task of finding and stopping
cyber attackers suits him perfectly. “Staying ahead of the ‘bad
guys’ is a never-ending challenge that is both captivating and
intellectually stimulating. Though sometimes it can be difficult
to stay ahead, I enjoy the challenge.”
His work in Information Security at CyberPoint International
includes threat intelligence, malware analysis, vulnerability
discovery, reverse engineering, and penetration testing. Rogers
oversees research conducted by the firm’s Security Research
Team that spans both commercial and federal sectors.
Rogers’ interest in Computer Science/Cyber security began
at Prep, which he attended for grades 6-12. Classes in precalculus,
calculus, and physics “helped introduce me not only
to the technical content, but also the time management and
the discipline required to study and pass technical courses
later in my academic career.”
An Albuquerque native, Rogers did undergraduate work at
Berkeley before earning a Bachelor of Science degree from the
University of California, Irvine. He will graduate in December
from NYU Poly with a Master of Science in Cyber security.
He worked as a developer at Intel in Rio Rancho in 2007 and
as a researcher for a digital security firm in Irvine, California
from 2008-2010 before joining CyberPoint International.
From 2012-2016, Rogers was deployed as a U.S. government
contractor to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. That
experience allowed Rogers and his wife, Lindsay Smith, to
explore their passion for travel. “During our time in the Middle
East my wife and I were very fortunate to be able to travel to
many different countries that would otherwise be inaccessible
to us while living in the U.S.”
break/circumvent it.” Just as law enforcement officers work
to prevent crime, not simply respond to it, Rogers and his
team try to beat cyber attackers to the punch in discovering
software vulnerabilities. “Even after nearly 10 years in the field,
I continue to be fascinated and captivated by the cleverness
and ingenuity of both attackers and info sec professionals that
defend against them.”
Both at Prep and in college, Rogers was a multi-time All
American swimmer. Rogers said he was more focused on
swimming than school work while attending Prep. But the Lion
has plenty of fond memories, including from non-technical
classes that he didn’t know would have an impact on his
career. “I will always remember and value my history classes
with Mrs. Moses. Mrs. Moses would always challenge us to
defend our own opinions and never let us settle for ‘good
enough,’ a skill that will always be valuable throughout my
professional and academic career.” Other favorite experiences
were trips with Mr. Hanley as part of the Outdoor Leadership
Program.
Rogers said he’s been interested in his career field for as long
as he can remember. And while he had many influential
classes and teachers during his time at Prep, the one most
relevant to his career was C++ programming with Mr.
Arsenault. “It was a very small class where he was able
to focus on each student and really give us one-on-one
attention.”
The couple had a horrifying brush with terrorism in March
2016. They were wrapping up a long weekend getaway in
Belgium, waiting in an airport ticket line to catch a return
flight to Abu Dhabi, when back-to-back bomb explosions
rocked the terminal building. At least 11 people were killed
and hundreds injured in the terrorist attack. “We were just
lucky and fortunate to be able to walk away,” Rogers told the
Albuquerque Journal at the time.
Rogers’ security team’s research recently was accepted at
Ruxcon, a technical conference in Melbourne, Australia. At
the conference in October, Rogers gave a speech in which he
disclosed “new, never before seen cyber security techniques
for both malware detection and penetration testing.” He also
recently received his first patent for his research on malware
analysis as part of a CyberPoint team.
Though he described himself as a “mediocre at best” student
while at Prep, Rogers said learning is his passion. “I am one
of the few, lucky people in life that absolutely LOVES what
I do for a living. A career in Info Sec means that every day I
need to learn something new and try to figure out a way to
Rogers and his wife, Lindsay
When he’s not working, Rogers still enjoys swimming for
fitness. He and his wife enjoy running races all over the United
States and the world. In 2014, they ran a marathon in Athens,
Greece. They share their home with two cats, Banksy and
Fiona. Rogers said he remains closes with a few of his former
Prep classmates. His brother, Jack Rogers, graduated from Prep
in ’07, and their parents still live near campus. “It’s hard to
believe how different it looks now than from when I graduated.
It’s great to see all the new buildings and athletic fields.”
- Patricia Gabbett Snow
Alumni PROFILE