UMass Amherst student blazes an impressive, nontraditional path in cybersecurity
As a white-hat hacker, cybersecurity student Thao Trinh ’21 catches criminals and finds bugs
When she arrived as an international student at UMass Amherst, Thao Trinh ’21 recalls her excitement, anxiety, and deep desire to excel. As a first-year student from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, in 2017, she aspired to study ethical computer hacking, known as white-hat hacking.
Four years later, supported in so many ways by the UMass community, she is in her final semester, having just completed the highly selective Cybersecurity Mentorship Pilot Program sponsored by the MassCyberCenter. This state program supports diversity and resiliency in the cybersecurity sector, and matched Trinh with a research expert at MIT’s elite Lincoln Laboratory.