People Who Love Fixing Things Make the Best Cybersecurity Ninjas

A Mechanic’s Mind is a Powerful Cybersecurity Tool

Handle-bar mustaches, loud motorcycles, hockey, and long beards may not be the first things that come to mind when thinking about protecting critical infrastructure. However, when you put it all together, you get S1’s very own Nick Huey, and we can guarantee you that there is no one you’d rather have on your side in the fight against cyber-attackers, or as the star of our next edition of Life at S1.

Nick has been having our customers’ backs since early on in S1’s history, joining the team in 2016 as a Senior Support Engineer. Born and raised in San Jose, CA, Nick grew up loving two things – The San Jose Sharks and electronics. Although professional hockey didn’t work out, Nick was able to put his other love to work by becoming an auto mechanic focused on repairing the electronics and computer systems in cars. For nine years, Nick fixed everything from Pintos to Porsches, while also keeping a Harley of his own in tip top condition. When the recession hit and his mechanic job was affected, Nick decided it was time to expand his skillset and enrolled in classes to learn the tech tools that would eventually lead him to S1.

Upon graduation, Nick brought his handle-bar mustache and Harley to S1, where his propensity to fix anything broken coupled with his new tech skills made him the perfect addition to S1’s support team. Nick joined the team as one of the first three support engineers in the Mountain View office, and just as a good mechanic is never satisfied unless the car is working at peak performance, Nick ensures that S1 is protecting our customers at peak levels all the time.  

If it isn’t clear yet, Nick is not one to shy away from new challenges or blazing new ground. So, when we started our Vigilance MDR service last year, Nick was the perfect fit to help get the engine running. The Vigilance team is a nimble, quick moving cybersecurity special forces unit that manages environments 24/7 to respond, react, and notify customers of any threat. As a Sr. Vigilance Analyst, Nick analyzes all new threat detections from customers’ environments and provides annotations for those detections to guide the customers in how to handle them. Additionally, Nick looks for trends in detections, so if there’s something that stands out as a potential threat he can proactively communicate to the customer and take additional precautions.

Nick is our resident auto mechanic (yes, we’ve all been known to ask him to “just take a quick look at my car?”) and our customers’ trusted cybersecurity ninja. So, the next time you see a Harley cruising down the street, we hope you’ll think of next-gen cybersecurity. At least, that’s what we always think about.

We hope you enjoyed learning a little bit more about Nick and the people who make S1 such a special place. Stay tuned for our next installment of Life at S1.

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