Matthew Berninger

Some sports, such as skydiving and mountain climbing, have moments when participants must totally commit themselves to dangerous situations to gain control of them.

A career in the emerging world of cybersecurity can require similar leaps. Matthew Berninger, who until recently was a senior cyber incident response lead at the Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team, has clearly committed himself to getting control of cyber threats and becoming the kind of cybersecurity expert the federal IT community needs.

At US-CERT, Berninger collaborated with public- and private-sector partners to analyze threats and vulnerabilities and deliver timely and actionable information that could help protect the nation's cyber infrastructure.

He had a background in math and quantitative analysis but little computer science experience when began working in the executive secretary's office at DHS. However, he took an early interest in cybersecurity and seized every opportunity for online and on-the-job training.

He has also made it a point to give back to the cybersecurity community by taking the lead in Cyber Career Day events, which seek to educate high school students about cybersecurity careers at DHS.

Berninger's own career path, meanwhile, has led to him to the commercial side: He recently took a job at cybersecurity firm Mandiant.