Women are still hugely under-represented in cyber security, with recent research showing that only 10% of those working in the field are female. However, here are some women blazing a trail for the security sisterhood.
1. Jenn Lesser Henley
Lesser Henley had a communications background, but is now director of security operations at Facebook. Given the amount of data the firm stores, this role makes her one of the biggest security players in Silicon Valley. S
he joined Mark Zuckerburg’s social media giant in September 2011 as operations manager, and has been in overall charge of the security team since September 2013. Before joining Facebook, Lesser Henley held senior roles at PayPal.
2. Dr. Carrie Gates
Gates’ title at Dell is Senior Distinguished Engineer and Chief Scientist in Dell Research. In practise this means she formulates Dell’s security across the board, taking in both its hardware and software divisions. Indeed the company credits her as one of the factors for its growing presence in cyber security.
Gates is also a highly regarded academic, with 40 peer reivewed papers to her name on computer and network security. She has also served as director of research for CA Labs.
3. Christy Wyatt
The Good Technology chairman and chief executive is at the head of a company trying to make security less painful for businesses, and improve mobile security. Blackberry recently said it was taking over Good Technology, a personal success for the Wyatt as the firm’s boss.
Wyatt’s career has also taken in major firms such as Citi, and Motorola, as well as Apple, where she worked as an evangelist with developers.
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4. Meagan Kruman
Another Facebook employee, Kruman is an eCrime investigator, and regularly speaks on how non-technical women can build a career in cyber security. Recognising that not all problems come in the form of viruses or malware, she uses a background in international relations and language to asses threats, and was involved in tracking the Hong Kong Umbrella protest at the social network.
5. Angela Knox
Knox is the engineering director at Cloudmark, with extensive experience in the security field. She is in charge of research and development at the firm. She also contributes to itsThreat Report researchm and blog, and has spoken on the issue of women in security.
The firm recently detailed an investigation into an email exchange discussing payment of 1.05 Bitcoin, around $250 to not release hacked Ashley Madison data, to see if such a blackmail would be successful.
