Maicon Lucinda is a Brazilian native who moved to Dublin, Ireland to pursue a Master’s Degree in Cybersecurity and now works as an instructor for Red Education.
Passionate about technology since childhood, Maicon enjoyed creating and building with whatever materials he had on hand, from remote control toys to broken household appliances, to invent new things.
By the age of 15, Maicon had already achieved an impressive feat – building his own internet service provider. Despite having to shut it down at his father’s request, Maicon continued to pursue his passion for technology. At 17, he took on a daytime job with Gigasat ISP in Brazil while continuing his studies at night. He quickly progressed through the ranks, moving into a Helpdesk role and then gaining extensive experience as he increased in seniority as a Network and Security Analyst.
Eventually, Maicon felt that he had reached the limit of what he could learn in this role and decided to accept an offer to become a Cyber Defence Analyst for the Brazilian government where he remained until making his latest move to Dublin.
“What I love most about cybersecurity is the challenge. Every day is different. Just when you think everything is ok, something new will go wrong. You always have to be watching, and that’s the reason I like it. I don’t like to do the same thing every day,” he said.
“The biggest challenge in cybersecurity is that you need to be learning constantly. You can’t just learn something one day and then expect that to be all you need. The next month things will have changed and you need to learn something else. You have to keep updating your knowledge to stay ahead.”
For anyone starting out in the industry, Maicon recommends that they start as soon as possible on their career. “You need time, and you need maturity. To be working in cybersecurity you need knowledge in a lot of different areas. You need to understand networks, security and applications in general. The most important quality you need is patience.”
Maicon loves living in Dublin because of the easy access to the rest of Europe. When he is not working, he loves to travel, having explored the UK, Portugal, France and Romania already, as well as his native Brazil, and with many more places in his list.
“When I’m traveling like to disconnect. I like to be fully present, experiencing the place I’m visiting. Wherever I go, I like to run in that city. It’s my way of getting to know it,” he said.
Now that he has settled in Dublin, Maicon is eager to embrace his new life and pursue his passions while furthering his career. He is looking forward to marrying his fiancée and taking advantage of the travel opportunities that are now within reach. With Red Education, Maicon is excited to continue learning and earn more certifications, recognizing the importance of staying up-to-date with the latest developments in cybersecurity. “You can never know enough in this field,” he emphasised, “and the key to success is a willingness to keep learning.”
Maicon joins us with the following certifications:
Certifications:
- CCSE Check Point Certified Security Expert
- CCSA Check Point Certified Security Administrator
- F5 BIG-IP Application delivery fundamentals – 101
- CCNA Cisco Certified Network Associate (in progress)
Education:
- Batchelor’s Degree Software Engineering/Estacio