Photo: Dominic enjoys vacationing in Hawaii.
Yuba Water Agency's cybersecurity analyst, Dominic Wiltermood, describes his position as being similar to a TSA agent at an airport. "Yuba Water is like an airport and employees' computers are like travelers' luggage,” he says. “My job is to make sure only approved items make it through security to keep our airports safe." Scroll to learn more about Dominic, his background and what he enjoys while he's off the clock.
How did you get involved in your current career path?
After four years of DJing, the late nights and constant travel started catching up with me. I decided it was time for a career that would allow me to be home with my family. I’ve always been the person friends would call to help fix their computers, so that’s what I pursued.
What is your background/formal education that led to where you are in your career today?
I graduated from Pacific Union College with a degree in psychology. After that, I decided to earn my Network+ and Security+ certifications from CompTIA, which helped get me into cybersecurity.
Photo: Dominic and his grandma-in-law pose for a photo together.
What does your average day look like? Or what are some of your essential duties?
My typical day includes reviewing alerts and email submissions to determine if they’re legitimate or malicious. I also tune our tools or build new ones to make alerts more meaningful, as well as collect evidence to prove that we’re staying compliant.
What do you enjoy most about working for Yuba Water?
Everyone is kind and down to earth. One minute you can be hashing out a difficult problem together, and moments later you can crack jokes and laugh together.
What are three words you would use to describe Yuba Water?
Noble, community and philanthropic.
Before working here, what was the most interesting job you had?
I used to work as a videogame play tester. My job was to play unreleased video games and give my opinions on them. A regular day consisted of getting briefed on the project we were testing, signing non-disclosure agreements, playing video games for a few hours and then filling out surveys. Pay day often came with free games too.
What do you like to do in your free time?
I enjoy gaming, golfing, spending time with family and making music in my home studio.