Joining the team lets Petitt test herself on all that she has learned on her own at home since she was 14. As a student at Centennial High School, Petitt excelled in her classes but wanted to take control of her education and challenge herself beyond the standard curriculum.
“I just was very curious about the world, and I wanted to understand how the world worked,” Petitt said. “Sometimes that meant exploring scientific disciplines, other times it meant doing introspection and understanding my motivations and values.”
Petitt eventually landed in the realm of technology. She was drawn to coding because it was something she could start right away in her bedroom with just a laptop, fully taking advantage of the free time and access to the internet available to her. Teaching herself how to code required a lot of patience and perseverance, however. Petitt gave herself 20 hours to learn as much as possible about coding, and if she didn’t like it, she could give it up.
“It was very frustrating sometimes, but it was also that much more rewarding when I did figure it out,” she recalled. “I really liked the feeling of being able to take education into my own hands and not necessarily have to rely on an external criterion. I could go at it at my own pace in the way that was most suited for my interests and goals.”
With her newly honed skills in coding, Petitt landed an internship at MK Analytics, where she first learned of the concept of cyber-attacks. This was the catalyst for her investigation into the world of offensive security that led her to create a technical blog at ally-petitt.com, setting up home labs, and attempting to find security vulnerabilities within them. She eventually put her skills to the test in the real world, discovering 18 security vulnerabilities in digital infrastructure relied upon by several thousands of people, including that of the Department of Defense, and responsibly disclosing her findings for them to be secured.
The creativity of using an application’s own logic in an unexpected way fascinated her. The vast world of cybersecurity was one that appealed to Petitt, who has always followed her curiosity.
“There’s a constant learning curve, and I love that it’s so broad that I would always have something more to learn,” she said of the field. “I tend to enjoy exploring different ideas, so if I ever get stale of one area, I could just transition a millimeter over and there’s an entirely new world to investigate.”
Petitt has worked in five internships since March 2021, including ones for MK Analytics, Tech for Good Inc., Smart Course, the City of Bakersfield and Chameleon Consulting Group. Just before the city internship, Petitt earned a highly regarded certification in the industry — the Offensive Security Certified Professional (OSCP) — at just 16 years old, after passing a rigorous 48-hour hands-on assessment simulating a real-world network security assessment, becoming one of the youngest globally to attain it.
Currently, Petitt is a vulnerability researcher at Chameleon Consulting Group and does contract security research on the prestigious Synack Red Team, joining at the age of 17 and reaching the top 14% of 1,500-plus researchers on the platform within six months of joining.
Even though she’s already working in her field, Petitt wants to earn her degree in computer science to formalize her qualifications. Although she chose CSUB because of its affordability and proximity to home, the autodidact will cut her time on campus short after just one term to resume her college education at Western Governors University, an online school where she can finish classes at an accelerated pace and earn her degree within six months to a year.
Sylvia Petitt has had a front-row seat for all her daughter’s success in the world of cybersecurity. The proud mom said she could talk about her all day long.
“It's been an exciting journey to see her explore cybersecurity, blossom and find her passion,” she said. “It totally took me by surprise, as she wanted to be a doctor as a child. At first, I thought she was just trying new things, like teenagers do. I didn't know this would be her passion and she would be so good at it. My daughter a famous hacker!”