About the Author

I’ve seen a lot of things in my time, and frankly, security and operations are deeply and consistently dysfunctional. It’s not because people don’t care, or because the work isn’t important. It’s because we spend far more time on corporate theater than we do on work that's actually impactful.

I’m Stephanie, a cybersecurity practitioner, educator, and advisor. I created The Sec Edit to serve as a candid field archive of what I’ve learned from over a decade in corporate security, and where I think defense actually needs to go. Long ago, I had a blog called "Steph & Sec" where, as a security enthusiast, I chronicled my journey to become a security practitioner. The Sec Edit is a natural evolution of that blog.

My Experience

I didn't take an academic shortcut into security. I started from the "bottom": frontline web and help desk support, moving through networking, and eventually landing in incident response and program development, primarily within tech companies.

I’ve worn plenty of hats along the way, from supporting broader security teams to briefly steering the ship as a security-team-of-one. I know what it feels like to sit on a bridge with stakeholders at 2:00 AM, navigate chaotic audits, and fight the daily burnout of urgency culture. Those experiences shape everything I write, build, and teach.

What I Do Today

• Education & Course Creation: Over 350,000 learners have taken my cybersecurity courses on LinkedIn Learning. My goal has never been to teach textbook definitions or talk over people's heads; it’s to give everyday people and practitioners pragmatic tools they can use without drowning in jargon.
• Writing & Field Analysis: Through The Sec Edit, I write essays and field notes dissecting the disconnect between corporate security expectations and messy human reality.
• People-Centered Defense: Having ADHD in a high-stress industry taught me quickly that if a security process requires superhuman focus or heroics, the process is flawed. I advocate for resilient systems built around how human brains actually function under pressure.

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