Finalists of Women in Tech & Cyber contest

When I look back, I find myself to be really fortunate to be in the hot space of technology.  I loved the way technology was shaping up in the lives the internet boom. Cyber security happend to me by luck first and now passion.

The Best thing I have achieved being in this field is the community. The peeps here are so collaborative and supportive I can vouch no other industry has such amazing folks. I have been globe trotting for conferences..

I have been leading the efforts for Infosecgirls and OWASP WIA. It gives me immense satisfaction to see these budding women to grow their careers in Security Space.

About me:

Vandana Verma is an experienced application security practitioner, OWASP Bangalore Chapter Leader, OWASP WIA Committee Secretary, and Asia Volunteer Coordinator. She has given talks and workshops at many colleges and security conferences including AppSec Europe, AppSec USA, AppSec Cali, NullCon, BSides Delhi, c0c0n (Kerala Police Conference). She is also one of the co-founder of Owasp seasides.

Thank You for the initiative. Happy Women’s Day

My name is Bouchra Nassir Ousselat, I am a student in computer engineering specialty Genie Software, I am 26 years old. I do entrepreneurial activities in the field of technology which I created my company called OusselaTech in parallel I am in the associative life, I co-founded 03 associations, currently I am the founding president of the TdChix association a network of Chadian women and girls in technology, through this association.

I organize training and awareness activities for girls to get them to integrate the fields of technology that is considered a purely field difficult to integrate by women. Among my activities, I lead workshops in health and ICT during the month of November Digital, training in digital entrepreneurship, conferences debate on the benefits and dangers of the Internet while talking about cyber security and cyber sexuality which I developed an Android application in the field of sexual and reproductive health and I won with a digital innovation award in Chad in 2017.

I preside every year the organization of the international day of the young girls in TICS in collaboration with the Ministry in charge of Post and ICT of Chad to inspire young girls. I travel to the Summits and International Forum to inspire global leaders, share my experiences and benefit from new experiences. I hosted a session on the occasion of the World Forum on Internet Governance in Paris 2018 on cyber security issues before the European Parliamentary delegation.

My name is Makka Issa, a Chadian national, I am 24 years old, I am a lawyer by training. After my bachelor’s degree, I turned to private law studies. After obtaining my Bachelor in 2016, I pursued my studies with a Master’s degree in Business Law, in Tunisia.

During my studies, I met professors and specialists in information systems security and computer research who made us aware of cyber defence and cyber security issues. I found it fascinating. It’s really a very evolving dimension.

After my return to Chad, I did a professional internship in a Professional Civil Society of business lawyers, before receiving my permanent contract. During this experience, I was involved in cases in which we accompanied clients in all aspects of cybersecurity, cybercrime and personal data protection.

I found this field fascinating, which is why I wanted to train in technology, information and communication law specialising in cybersecurity and data protection issues. Cybersecurity has become a major issue for companies and individuals alike. Indeed, at a time when all aspects of our lives are managed online, the security of our exchanges and data is crucial.

Attending this conference will allow me to be informed of the latest trends and threats in the field of cybersecurity and to communicate with high-level experts, decision-makers and technical geeks in order to get an overview and understand the issues on both sides.

Kritika is a dynamic personality, very popular within the entire team working on Global Alliances, She is proactive and often goes out of her comfort zone to understand the needs of the clients and delivering the best suggested approach or course which will help them grow, succeed in their career. She has a great rapport building with our MENA partners. A committed, go to person, continuing on the journey of Blockchain, empowering students, professionals to join the community and spreading the colors of Blockchain across the Globe.

I have started my career in Cyber Security as an Anti-Fraud expert, fighting the after-effects of cybercrime – identity theft, credit card fraud, account hijacking etc. and I was fascinated by this strange thematic, asking myself how I can go deeper in the ICT area by further developing my skills to recognize cybercrime and its effects and be able to do something about it. It was 10 years ago and you probably know the Cisco advertisement – “Security is in the Network”, they said. And that’s how people imagined Cyber Security is delivered – through the network.

In its emerging universe, there weren’t much women either (almost none), but I did it and it was life-changing for me. I’ve fought through peoples’ disbeliefs and those who underestimated me – by proving them wrong and not creating confrontation, but going through their stomachs (well, most of them were men and you know what people say about men and their affections going through their stomachs) by backing huge amounts of pie, cupcakes, muffins and banana bread.

Eventually, I made it to deliver so many successful projects improving security posture in various ways, establishing teams and security functions from scratch, bringing people together and keeping up the good spirit. If you ask some of those colleagues now, they will probably not remember the stress of the projects, but they will remember the achievements and the treats we were having as rewards, a lot of treats. And it was all worth it ?.

The women leader in Tech@Cyber? The careerist or the person with the balanced values? It all started with the equal family approach of mathematics professor and Slovak language teacher. Successful study in University of Zilina followed by first contract with Andersen Consulting signed during the study.

Quick career from ABAP developer, SAP consultant, via change manager up to IT leader in various IT companies. Challenging role of CIO in Ministry of Defence Slovakia focused on Cyber Technology. Both, my private as well as my professional life created the balanced baseline of knowledge and experience for my position of Oracle Country Leader.

And a little extra on the top of it – multiplication of information from different resources led me to use creativity in business. My empathy and sensitivity enabled my colleagues to act as a one team. I am proud to be successful Tech@Cyber woman – most probably because I have never thought about if it was right or suitable for woman… just willing to live balanced personal and professional life.

I’m loving working for peace by embracing the challenge in preparing a MONUSCO digital environment out of cybercrimes and attacks. It involves not only working with technology but also with humans – those considered the weakest link in the security chain.

I educate all staff on ICT Security Awareness to ensure the mission is ready to fight against social engineering and all other digital attacks to sustain peace in the working environment. While our military fights against Ebola virus, I fight against computer virus & malware and when they are fighting against militia, I along with my team fight against hackers.

I also arrange workshops within FTS for improved collaboration and ensuring IT Security is integrated into every sphere of our digital lives. While our colleagues are in the front line of the battlefield to ensure peace, I work with my team in the background to support them by ensuring confidentiality, integrity, and availability – the CIA triad!

Data protection and information security has been my cup of coffee since 2012 when I have worked in Office for Personal Data Protection of Slovak Republic. As an inspector, I was involved in law creating and preparing the legal environment of upcoming data protection regulations. From the very beginning I realized that understanding of data protection requires wider understanding of technology and information security and therefor self-education became a passion. Since that time, I have gone through plenty of workshops and conferences in the field of information security and cyber security and gain the understanding of the community and become a part of it.

As a GDPR lecturer and trainer I have been educating hundreds of other professionals and tried to bring the best of my knowledge to the community.  In 2018 I decided to leave the public position and I became a data protection consultant and entrepreneur operating on my own. And that was another great experience and a new way for me. It opened various doors to my professional growth.

Now I can understand the business perspective of data protection even better and constantly overcoming myself in order to provide the highest quality advisory to my clients. I truly believe in building the circles of the trust with other professionals, to share the knowledge and experiences. I feel privileged to be a part of information security community in Slovakia and will keep on doing my best to help to develop current state of data protection environment there.

I´m Lenka Srchová working as a Division Manager (Executive Search & Recruitment) at the human resources-consulting company SYNERGIE, a member of the SYNERGIE GROUP, the fifth largest HR services provider in Europe. I´m responsible for the leading specialized recruitment teams in the areas of IT, Finance & Banking, Sales & Marketing, Logistics & Engineering and Automotive. In my previous position of Senior HR Consultant, I focused on recruiting varied specialized and managerial positions across industry sectors.

Since autumn 2018, Synergie has had the opportunity to exclusively participate in a very exciting project for the international humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)/Doctors Without Borders. MSF is currently building a Centre of IT Shared Services in Prague which will provide support for the whole movement worldwide. In the role of HR Stream Leader, I´m in charge of leading the dedicated Synergie Recruitment Team, but also, I took an active part by successfully filling the positions of General Manager and Service Delivery Manager (what have been covered by a woman with 8 years of experience in the IT field).

For me, this is an absolutely new experience because it is not about placing only one person or creating a smaller team or a department but about establishing the whole centre. MFS Shared IT Services Centre plans to fill about 25 positions by the end of this year. But we will continue in recruiting for other additional positions in the following years. We have worked on creating a leadership team and hiring for various specialized and supportive IT and non-IT positions. Obviously, such an organisational unit requires a functional structure: administration, HR and having processes in place. This large group of people must work together and function as a healthy organism.

The task of my team and me is not just to find and select experienced professionals, but also to recognize the right personality fit into the team, and into the whole organization. From my position, I have coordinated direct approaches of potential candidates in different sources, HR online marketing campaigns, advertising positions on job portals, screening and interviewing candidates, their presentation, organizing the MSF recruitment and final selection processes for diverse positions.

In cooperation with MSF we define responsibilities and competencies of roles, set-up requirements on potential candidates and consult on the actual situation of the Czech labour market.

I´m trying to understand the specifics of the IT world, the motivation of IT people and their goals. What they like, what is challenging for them, what are the preferred conditions to enjoy their work. And I´m increasingly succumbing to the IT world.

The cooperation with MSF is one of the biggest and most beneficial experience in my professional and personal life. It would probably not have occurred to me earlier that this would come about in the IT world.