so what do you do?

[solarcipher]

Re: so what do you do?

@Eshal_Raza

Seriously it is such a difficult question to answer!!!

I work for Securities (finance) Business and once an Uncle asked, the conversation went like this:

Uncle: where do you work?
Me: I work for XYZ Securities

Uncle: Ajkal Pakistan main security k haalaat bohat khrab hain, aap loug kuch kertay kyun nae?
Me: Uncle woh wali security nae iss ka matlab hai Bonds, Stock etc

Uncle: Oh acha acha
Me:

Hahahahaha, I guess everyone who has ‘security’ in their job title is considered to be working with guns, police, etc…

For me, an intro goes something like this

**Uncle: haan, bhai ajj kal kia horaha hai?

Me: nothing much uncle jee, working as an Information Security Consultant

Uncle: Acha, SEKKUURRIITTYY ka kaam kartay ho? magar tumaray aba nay tou tumein engineer banwaya tha!! tsk tsk tsk … wasay ajj kal konsay chowkidar zyada reliable hain?

Me: … nahin nahin uncle, security guard wali security nahin hai, we primarily address security concerns in large scale computing environments, e.g. banks…

Uncle: ohh acha acha… woh CCTV camera lagatay ho tum??

Me: ummmmmm… well, CCTV camera tou nahin, bas apkay internet banking ki safety dekhtay hain

Uncle: oohhhhh.. hacker say bachatay ho!!

**
Though one time I had this very memorable incident that I’d like to share:

I was at this wedding and along comes an uncle in his 60’s or late 50’s… we start with the usuals like aboo kaisay hain, chacha kaisay hain, etc… and then he moves to the dreaded, “what do you do” part … I take a long sigh thinking that here we go again… Given that this gentleman was a business guy, I proceeded with my layman introduction

**Me: Infosec consultant

Innocuous looking non techie Uncle: acha Woh kia hota hai?

Me: (repeats the same old securing banking networks and systems story thinking everything is going over the elderly gentleman’s head)

Innocuous looking non techie Uncle: ok, then tell me, how can I stop a SYN Flood attack and suggest some countermeasures for thwarting a 400 Mbits DDoS spike ..

Me: < Faints>

**

Moral: Never underestimate uncles…