Duke Cybersecurity Student will Intern with Palo Alto Networks

A student in the Duke Master in Cybersecurity Program, Weijun Li has been very successful so far. He just received a job offer for an internship with Palo Alto Networks Unit 42. This summer, Weijun will be a Security Consultant on Compliance and Risk Management for one of the world’s top cybersecurity companies.

Weijun’s experience is transformational for him, but it is not unique in the young Cybersecurity master’s program at Duke. Like his peers, he has taken Cyber & Interdisciplinary Law, Cybersecurity Program Development, Operations and Analysis, and other courses. He also takes business communication and career-building classes that prepare him for success. When I asked him what skills he gained at Duke are most important, he responded: “The ability to communicate professionally with other people, to take the initiative in building a professional stack on myself, and cybersecurity hands-on skills.”

These skills were essential in obtaining the internship with Palo Alto Networks, but he added that the help he received from two professors was decisive. “Professor Art Ehuan helped me build my connections with multiple guest seminar speakers, and Professor David Faraone helped me share the open opportunities,” he explained.

Weijun is ready to take on this opportunity because his Duke cybersecurity courses prepared him with the knowledge required for the role. What excited him most about the courses was that they were grounded in cybersecurity practice. “The Incident Response and Cloud Security courses were very helpful to my professional career,” said Weijun. Asked how he would describe the Duke Cybersecurity master’s program in one word, he chose “competence” – “because it shows the ability that Duke gave me on networking, learning, seeking opportunities and asking for guidance.”

After graduating from the University of Rochester with a major in Computer Science and Economics, Weijun came to Duke with one goal: to learn to protect digital assets from cyber threats. His interests are at the intersection of financial technology and cybersecurity, and his focus is digital forensics. “I have seen news about a company’s financial loss from a Cyber-attack. I want to be an expert who can reduce the impact of these incidents,” he said. The summer internship with Palo Alto Networks will prepare him for achieving this goal.