A bit off-topic, but I hope I may ask: Which malware removal academy did you graduate from, Corrine? :)
I guess you could say I had private tutoring. A bit of a story but you asked so here goes:
In 2003, I began helping with Ad-Aware on the old Lavasoft forums (prior to the current forums), picked it up fairly quickly and soon was promoted to LavaXPert (
). It wasn't long that I was Forum Admin. The "Lavasoft Team" had a private chat where we worked with the original creator of Ad-Aware, Nicholas Stark (screen name, Urizen). Without going into detail, early in 2005, things started going downhill. Fortunately, we saw the demise coming and were ready to go at LandzDown Forum, created by one of the team members. Just as well because suddenly the "old" Lavasoft forums I mentioned were actually closed down. Although some have since "retired", there are still a number of us from that time at LandzDown. Our motto: "Stronger than the past, united in our goal." There's a lot more to the history but that will give you a bit of an idea. (BTW, in 2011, Lavasoft was acquired by the Solaria Fund and operates as a subsidiary of Lulu Software with ties to Upclick.com.)
Anyway, it was because of what I had done at the old Lavasoft forums that I was accepted as a security analyst/expert/whatever title at the various security forums. I served as Secretary, ASAP Admin Council and am a member of the UNITE Teachers group.