CyberWire Daily Christian Lees: It's not always textbook. [CTO] [Career Notes]
Mar 15, 2026
Christian Lees, CTO at Resecurity, went from a donated PC to roles in desktop support, network and security engineering, and CISO work. He talks about starting late, cutting his teeth at IBM and Level 3, moving into pen-testing and PCI work, building dark-web alerting and product diversification, and why curiosity and persistence matter.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
How A 486 And One Key Changed A Career
- Christian Lees discovered computing in college after a family friend gave him a 486 DX and showed him F10.
- That simple moment shifted him from pre-med uncertainty into computer science and set his long-term career path in security.
Desktop Support To Cutting Teeth On Networks
- Christian took an entry-level desktop support role at IBM Global Services and quickly embraced being 'at the bottom' to learn.
- The role led to exposure and later a network engineering position at Level 3 where he 'cut his teeth' on enterprise networking.
Dot-Com Cutbacks Taught Change Management
- After the dot-com bust Christian was moved into change management, which he initially resented but later found crucial to security.
- That forced detour taught him the importance of understanding impact and organizational process control.