Alumni Profile: System Architect and Security Lead

Ricardo Marques, Lisbon MSIT-IS, 2009

Ricardo Marques, Lisbon MSIT-IS, is a System Architect and the Security Lead for a line of Network Management Systems products. As a recent graduate, Ricardo talks about choosing a graduate school and finding inspiration for his research project. Through the year-and-a-half program, he gained the right knowledge and leadership skills to boost his career.

What were you doing before the MSIT-IS program?

Before the program started, I was working for Nokia Siemens Networks in Portugal, and had worked there while taking and have continued after completing the program. I joined this program because I wanted to refresh on some concepts learned while I was in college, because computer security is a subject I am interested in, and because I wanted to broaden my knowledge.

What research did you do during the program?

My research project was about securing and recovering misplaced computing devices. The work is almost entirely theoretical, using state-of-the-art technology, such as Trusted Platform Modules for confidentiality of the data, as well as GPS signals for positioning information, but all done in such a way that the user's privacy is not at stake at any time.

The idea came from a series of unfortunate events that ended with the robbery of a friend's house. The burglars took a laptop with very important data, for which there weren't, unfortunately, backups. The laptop was never recovered. Even though I could not do much to recover the lost documents, I felt I could try to create a solution that would prevent other people from going through the same trouble.

What is your current position? How has the program helped your career?

Being in a program about information security has given me the skills to accept the position of security lead, and to take almost all the responsibility related to the security of that line of products. My employer has gained knowledge in this area, and as a result managed to extend the discussions regarding product security to Portugal, instead of just carrying them in a central location. This proximity to the product allows me to know what is good for the product without much drifting from the company's guidelines.