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Seven Women Who Have Rocked the World of Cyber Security
It was International Day of the Girl on the 11th of October. This day has been observed since it’s launch in 2012 to address issues affecting young women around the world like child marriage, inequality and gender-based violence.
Each year a different theme is selected and initiatives are started, programs are launched and important conversations are sparked. This year’s theme is Digital Generation.
So, for this year’s International Day of the Girl – Digital Generation we wanted to bring something to the conversation and talk about seven women who have rocked the world of cyber security, which is no easy feat in an industry where women only make up 20% of the workforce!
Check out these inspirational leaders below.
Nicole Eagan
Nicole Eagan is the Co-Chief Executive Officer of Darktrace and she put the company on the map, establishing Darktrace as a global leader in Artificial Intelligence Cyber Defence. Eagan has over 25 years’ experience in the field and has previously worked on some of the largest projects at Quest Software, Peregrine Systems and Oracle.
Darktrace stops cyber threats from causing any damage with AI algorithms. These AI algorithms have consistently detected unseen attacks that traditional security tools cannot find.
Eagan not only brought disruptive machine learning to the industry and is recognised as an AI thought leader, she also introduced systems to address the gender disparity in the tech world, with Darktrace maintaining a roughly equal number of male and female employees.
You can read more about Nicole Eagan here .
Tarah Wheeler
This industry giant is a leader with a capital L. Her achievements are too numerous to get through here but to name just a few she is an electronic frontier foundation advisory board member and a project fellow at the Belfer center for science and international affairs at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. She is a foreign policy contributor on cyber warfare and she’s leading a new international cyber security capacity building project with Hewlett Foundation’s cyber initiative.
Wheeler has worked for Symantec, Microsoft Game Studio and Splunk. She’s a recognised thought leader in her industry with multiple high profile speaking engagements at universities such as Standford, West Point, Oxford and various governmental and industry conferences.
She’s a digital and social disrupter with her book, Women in Tech: take Your Career to The Next Level With Practical Advice and Inspiring Stories. The book gives women advice on breaking into the tech industry, interviewing with an aggressive directness, and finding your power in tech.
Jaya Baloo
A respected authority on all things cyber security, Jaya Baloo is the Chief Information Security Officer at Avast Software and she has over 20 years’ experience in the field. She is an expert in lawful interception, surveillance, and cryptography.
Before joining the team at Avast, Baloo held notable roles across the industry sector including practice lead lawful interception at Verizon, chief information security officer at KPN Telcom and as the technology security specialist overseeing fraud and revenue assurance at France Telecom.
Baloo is an expert on quantum computing, she is a quantum ambassador of KPN Telecom.
In addition to her demanding role in Avast, Baloo also works as a facility member at Singularity University and contributes to various boards in the industry including working as the vice chair of the Quantum flagship Strategic Advisory board of the EU commission.
You can read more about Jaya Baloo here.
Sri Subramanian
Although Sri Subramanian spent only one year as the senior director of Product Management at Netskope, her legacy lives on. While in the role she was instrumental in the creation of a secure co-processor that went on every intel motherboard, the highest-rated SSL VPN, the most used identity management product and the first ever set of products on Oracle Cloud.
Subramanian is still with Netskope now with the team in charge of creating the next generation of security solutions. Netskope is an industry giant founded in 1990, it retains a reputation as one of the leading cyber security firms in the world.
Runa Sandvik
Runa Sandvik originally hailed from Norway but now lives and works in Washington, USA and is currently the Senior Director of Information technology at the New York Times.
This computer security expert is passionate about freedom of the press. She famously interviewed whistle blower Edward Snowden in 2014 and she has also provided counsel as a technical advisor to the Freedom of the Press Foundation.
Sandvik and her husband made headlines in 2015 by hacking a so-called smart rifle allowing them to change the target or disable the gun. They presented the research and showcased the technology at the Black Hat Hacker conference that year.
You can learn more about Runa Sandvik here.
Katie Moussouris
Katie Moussouris is an entrepreneur, computer security researcher and vulnerability disclosure advocate. This ethical hacker is passionate about responsible security research.
She was directly involved in the inaugural ‘Hack the Pentagon’ pilot program. The first of it’s kind in the digital sphere that has encouraged other bug bounty programs.
She has served as the Chief Policy Officer at Hacker One, the San Franciso based vulnerability disclosure company and she is currently the founder and CEO of Luta Security, bringing a comprehensive approach to their clients’ cyber security.
Learn more about Kate Moussouris here.
Amanda Berlin
This information security architect is based in Ohio and brings more than 13 years’ experience in the field to her role as lead incident detector at Blumira.
Berlin has a reputation as an accomplished network defender and thought leader in the Cyber Security industry. As if her role with Blumira wasn’t enough to keep anyone busy, Berlin is also the co-host of the podcast Brakeing Down Security and author of a Blue Team best practices book called ‘Defensive Security Handbook: Best Practices for Securing Infrastructure’ with Lee Brotherston through O’Reilly Media.
Berlin is also a passionate advocate for mental health in the industry. She is the founder and CEO of Mental Health Hackers, a nonprofit dedicated to providing education and guidance to tech workers on all things mental health.
Learn more about Amanda Berlin here.
We hope you found these women’s stories inspiring and remember there is always a need for more female representation in both the cyber and security industries.
If you’d like to chat about the options available for women in cyber security or security operations you can book in to have a chat with one of our friendly course advisors here.