Women in Security: Improving cybersecurity engagement

A series of dynamic technical talks at the inaugural CSO Australia-AWSN Women in Security conference highlighted the innovative perspectives and problem-solving nous that women bring to cybersecurity roles.

Atlassian’s Brianna Malcomson, for one, talked through strategies for effective red-teaming and the importance of consent – making sure that the targets come along for the ride.  “Too often I see red-team exercises being restricted to upper management, and the fixes are just dictated out,” she said. “People have to deal with it and don’t get any explanation – but even small fixes might be multi-year projects. You need to be extremely aware of the capacity of the organisation to respond to what you do.”

Red-team managers also needed to make sure they are engaging productively with victims, Malcolmson said, advising them to “be humble and hire for empathy on your team. You don’t want the most brilliant jerk hacker; you want someone who knows how difficult it is to secure an enterprise.”

Fatemah Beydoun, who co-founded successful cybersecurity startup Secure Code Warrior and now serves as its vice president of customer success and operations, shared her self-doubt about her ability to be a new mother and a successful executive – but noted that the support of a strong team, including some de facto babysitting responsibilities, had made it possible.

“I felt like it was a decision to make whether I wanted to stay working and be part of this growing company that was doing so well, or did I have to stay home,” she said. “I didn’t want to have to make that choice, and now I truly believe it is possible to do both.”

Although it had been challenging finding female engineers – much less one who was willing to come work for a startup – the company has adopted a strategy of diversity and currently has 45 females out of 100 staff.

Diversity had been crucial in enriching Secure Code Warrior’s team and cultural structure, Beydoun said, noting that differences in male and female problem-solving meant that combining them provided “whole-brain thinking”.  “We can all leverage the different experiences and knowledge perspectives of the different people that come from such a diverse background,” she said. “The key is not being so strict on people’s day-to-day: great businesses are results driven and have that flexibility.”

“Diversity is key to making strong teams, then taking good ideas and turning them into great ideas.”

To read more follow the link: https://www.cso.com.au/article/666002/women-security-improving-cybersecurity-engagement/