\u2014 Well, my full name is Valter Generoso Silva. Silva is my surname, but it\u2019s a common one here in Brazil, so, when possible, I tend to present myself using my first name plus second name: Valter Generoso, since my second name is a very uncommon one. Besides, Generoso means \u2014 can you guess?! \u2014 generous, so it\u2019s a good way to start a conversation.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Where do you live in Brazil?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2014 My family wasn\u2019t much into traveling, so the first time I left my home town, Ribeir\u00e3o Preto, I was already 15. And last year, in order to work at Kaspersky, I moved to a town in the same state, called Jundia\u00ed, 50km from our office in S\u00e3o Paulo. The traffic in S\u00e3o Paulo is jammed most of the time, so it\u2019s faster for me to get to the office than for someone who actually lives in S\u00e3o Paulo!<\/p>\n \u2014 I thought the support teams worked remotely, from home. Or do you have to do some offline support, too?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2014 Here in Brazil we work based on a hybrid system, and yes, I work from home most weekdays. I\u2019m a part of the MSA LatAm team, where MSA stands for Kaspersky\u2019s Maintenance Service Agreement. We take care of clients who have Premium Support contracts \u2014 in other words, high-priority support. On top of typical activities like remote sessions and follow-up on support cases, I really like to take care of the most complex of problems, like when a client is unhappy with something and I need to change their perspective.<\/p>\n \u2014 Is some technical education required for such a job?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2014 Sure. I have a bachelor\u2019s degree in Computer Science and MBA in Information Security.<\/p>\n \u2014 Did you get it from university? I\u2019m asking because most of my colleagues my age don\u2019t have degrees in infosec; in the 1990s, there were no infosec classes in universities at all!<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2014 Interesting! Yes, I studied at the UNISEB university in my hometown. But I was a late student: I was 27 when I graduated in Computer Science. And my Information Security MBA was obtained much later, in 2022.<\/p>\n \u2014 So what did you do before uni?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2014 I started work when I was 16. A lot of retail jobs. Here in Brazil everyone has a labor book in which you log all your jobs \u2014 and mine is full. Working at a bar, selling shoes, telemarketing\u2026 Perhaps my most unusual job was being a card dealer in poker tournaments.<\/p>\n \u2014 Wow, great experience! And after all that, you got interested in computers?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2014 All of my friends started coding, and they were doing well. So one day I left everything, took a test for a scholarship, and went to work in customer support for telemarketing for a telecoms company here at Brazil. It was the only place where they didn\u2019t ask for experience and I could make a career change.<\/p>\n I tried to be a developer, but it wasn\u2019t for me. However, my first work experience in an IT company helped me learn about IT infrastructure. So I thought, \u201cI\u2019m almost 10 years behind everyone else my age, so I need to be a fast-paced learner\u201d. And ever since I never stopped studying as hard as I can.<\/p>\n \u2014 How about infosec? Why did you pick up this specialization? Is it a serious problem in Brazil?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2014 It\u2019s a really serious problem, and what makes it even bigger is that there\u2019s very little security awareness \u2014 even among IT people here.<\/p>\n Take me, for example. I was working for an IT company for three years, then I started working for a car dealer, and they used Kaspersky in their IT infrastructure, and this is where I learned about antivirus for the first time. But other basic concepts of information security \u2014 like firewalls and network protection \u2014 I learned only when I started work for a company that was selling these solutions. In a similar way, I found out about advanced security trends (like red teaming), only when I started working for a company that provided these services.<\/p>\n In short, some businesses in Brazil take information security seriously and they buy security solutions. But around 80% of SMB companies don\u2019t even know about the risks \u2014 or don\u2019t have the budget for solutions to deal with them.<\/p>\n \u2014 Can you describe in one word the main quality needed to work successfully in the support service for a cybersecurity company?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2014 Empathy. Be in the shoes of those who are facing the problem.<\/p>\n \u2014 Does it always work for you? I bet you have some funny stories to tell involving misunderstandings!<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2014 Well, there was the time I was in a remote session talking about a serious issue. Since I provide support in different Latin America countries, I\u2019m usually speaking Portuguese or Spanish. This particular discussion was in Spanish, but I tried to use a Portuguese popular proverb. Unfortunately the Spanish translation didn\u2019t make any sense. I was trying very hard to explain the proverb, but it just kept getting worse. So eventually I started laughing and thankfully everyone else did too. After this experience I promised myself I\u2019d never go for proverb translations again!<\/p>\n \u2014 Is there anybody in Brazil who can call your support service and speak some indigenous language?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2014 Unfortunately, no. Indigenous languages here are dead. Historically, we didn\u2019t take sufficient care of indigenous culture and languages. And Brazil is the only country in South America that was colonized by Portugal, so we speak Portuguese mostly.<\/p>\n \u2014 As you talk to people from other Latin American countries, do you see any differences in their attitudes towards cybersecurity?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2014 Well, Costa Rica is now facing a tough phase from a cybersecurity point of view. There\u2019s an official state of emergency there now because of attacks against several government sectors<\/a>. The sense of urgency there is way higher than in other countries.<\/p>\n \u2014 So you can actually help in some global analysis! I wonder if our analysts ever used data from support services, to see a global picture of threats\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2014 I think they might use some data about the support cases, but from a macro point of view. At least from my side I never directly helped in this kind of analysis.<\/p>\n \u2014 Do people in Brazil care about the fact that Kaspersky has Russian roots?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2014 No. Here in Brazil, at least as I see, people don\u2019t care that much about the origins of the company I work for. I know that people at the enterprise level may get real problems because of it. But from my family or friends or on social media I\u2019ve never been asked about anything connected with Kaspersky\u2019s Russian roots.<\/p>\n![\"Meet](\"https:\/\/media.kasperskydaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/102\/2022\/06\/20224245\/interview-valter-generoso-photos.jpg\")
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