Cisco Systems Summer 2023 Internship: AWS Security, Pen-Testing, & Red Teaming

As the Summer 2023 Internship season comes to a close, I want to reflect on my experiences as an Offensive Security Intern at Cisco over the past 12 weeks.

I came into this internship knowing the basics of cloud computing and ethical hacking, but I had no idea how much knowledge I would gain in such a short period of time.

Over 12 weeks, I did the following:

• Learned the ins and outs of Amazon Web Services (and got AWS certified)
• Participated in a real red team engagement and a real penetration test & singlehandedly found vulnerabilities in both engagements
• Created an AWS pentesting methodology utilizing AWS S3 buckets, AWS Glue, AWS EC2 & ECS images, and more
• Improved my web application hacking skills
• Learned how to use Postman and Burp Suite
• Learned about APIs, how they work, and how to hack them
• Learned how to find credential leaks in GitHub Repos using trufflehog
• Learned the ins and outs of working for a Fortune 100 Big Tech company
• Learned how to work on an extremely global team
• Attended dozens of intern events, including Executive Speaker Series talks, Intern Bonding Meetings, Intern Cabin meetings, panels with professionals in different job roles, and workplace skill development workshops
• Attended countless team meetings to learn about the work that our organization does and to contribute ideas and work
• Had dozens of Coffee Chats with my team members, other folks in Security, and other interns
• Had two mentors with whom I had biweekly meetings with to help grow my career
• Had weekly mentorship meetings with my manager
• Had weekly intern syncs with the other security interns
• Attended a team bonding event for the Offensive Security organization
• Revived a 5 year old open source AWS Identity attack tool
• Coordinated an Intern Fun Friday event and a Security Intern Farewell event
• Delivered a presentation to the whole of the Security organization and other interns about my work
• Supported my team and other interns with whatever they needed help with
• Built countless connections and lifelong friendships, all while completely virtual
• Had the greatest 12 weeks of my life!!!

To say that my summer internship at Cisco was a life-changing experience would be an understatement. Thankfully, my time at Cisco is not over, as I will be continuing part-time during the school year. I’m so proud of the work that I’ve done this summer and even more excited to see what the next year holds for me.

I want to extend my deepest gratitude to everyone that I worked with this summer. Thank you so much for your guidance and support.

Until next time!

Megan Howell (CyberQueenMeg) is a cybersecurity student at Grand Canyon University and an Offensive Security Intern at Cisco Systems. She is a bug bounty hunter, has been featured in Forbes Magazine for her work in AI Bias hunting, open source contributor to programs like BeeF and BlackArch Linux, former DefCon speaker, SkillsUSA Cybersecurity national competitor, National Cyber Scholar, and Cyber Patriot competitor. You can find her social media profiles at linktr.ee/cyberqueenmeg.