Women in IT Security News, Features, Awards and Commentary| SC Media

Featured Content

Maggie Amato is business information security officer at Salesforce.

Former HHS cyber leader, whistleblower speaks out for the first time about harassment

The story of Maggie Amato, now business information security officer at Salesforce, serves as a troubling reminder of what women in cybersecurity – any industry – can experience when people of power fail to address or acknowledge hostile behavior in the workforce.

Spotlight

Nicole Jiang, second from right, was the eighth employee at Abnormal Security (Abnormal Security)

Abnormal Security’s Nicole Jiang: Looking for team members with a CEO vision

Said Abnormal's director of product and design: “Everyone here should be the CEO of the product that they are responsible for,” Jiang said. “They should be the visionary for how we choose to innovate our solutions that will bring maximum value

Sponsor Content

(ISC)2’s Dwan Jones on luring women to infosec

CRA’s Jill Aitoro spoke to Dwan Jones, director of diversity, equity and inclusion at (ISC)2, sponsor of the 2022 Women on IT Security program, about the two-way advantage that can come with diversity efforts by security teams.

Advocates

Cyber Veterans

Women to Watch

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More Women in IT Security Coverage

Leadership

Congratulations to our 2022 SC Media Women in IT Security honorees

Jill AitoroSeptember 12, 2022

Conversations with honorees in the last couple of years demonstrate an inspiring drive to succeed and a demand for respect of their expertise. These women don’t seek validation. They understand the value they offer to an organization and their ability to drive progress both within and across the infosec community.

Rear view of casual businesswoman raising her hand to ask the question on education event in a board room.

Careers

The formative moments: Women share what kept them in cyber or drove them away

Derek B. JohnsonSeptember 12, 2022

A handful of early or formative moments can heavily shape or influence women's decisions to remain on their career path in cybersecurity or pursue other kinds of work entirely. Together they reveal insights into where the industry has gone right — or wrong — in attempting to foster and develop female talent.

Careers

Salesforce BISO Maggie Amato finds her voice, vindication

SC StaffSeptember 12, 2022

From harassment to falsehoods, Maggie Amato experienced a backlash she could never have anticipated as a government whistleblower. That situation demonstrated the power of finding one's voice in silencing the naysayers. Amato, now BISO with Salesforce, spoke to SC Media’s Jill Aitoro about her experiences.

Under the current abortion climate, it’s crucial for women to better understand who controls their digital health footprint and whether their privacy is fully protected. (Photo credit: “EMT/Nursing Pediatric Emergency Simulation – April 2013 1” by COD Newsroom is licensed under CC BY 2.0.)

Privacy

Who owns digital health data? HIPAA privacy myths may put women at risk

Jessica DavisSeptember 12, 2022

Myths around digital health data amid the abortion conflict pose greater risk to women’s privacy and safety. As part of the 2022 Women in IT Security, SC Media spoke to a force in women's health and privacy about the current state of digital health controls to disbunk myths and find ways to protect providers, and their female patients.

Leadership

Reddit CISO Allison Miller paves her own way

SC StaffSeptember 12, 2022

The road to CISO for Allison Miller was not typical – but ultimately demonstrated the value that comes with the road less traveled for the security professional and the companies that choose to hire them. Miller, now CISO and VP of Trust with Reddit, spoke to SC Media’s Jill Aitoro about her experiences.

Careers

Representation is empowerment: Accelerating the diversity of women in cybersecurity

Best Buy’s Zinet Kemal educates the next gen of infosec leaders

SC StaffSeptember 12, 2022

The immigrant experience can often drive individuals off course. But for Zinet Kemal, it helped propel her into a new professional world and fill a gap in education to drive security awareness into the youngest generation. Kemal, now a cloud security engineer with Best Buy, spoke to SC Media’s Jill Aitoro about her experiences.

Identity and access

JPMorgan’s Rhea Marpu drives innovation and infosec convergence

SC StaffSeptember 12, 2022

Serving the needs of customers that demand digital access, without compromising the security of systems or data, is an ongoing struggle – particularly in finance. Rhea Pritham Marpu a vice president with JPMorgan Chase & Co. and an SC Media Women in IT Security honoree, spoke to SC Media’s Jill Aitoro about her experiences.

Careers

Inclusive terminology: Not just a “nice to have” for the cybersecurity industry

Nominations for SC Media’s 2022 Women in IT Security now open

Jill AitoroMay 24, 2022

Women from all segments of the cybersecurity market qualify – vendors, practitioners, educators, researchers – with the goal being to spotlight the advantage of broadening the aperture to recognize talent and power where it exists, not just where societal norms have historically led us to look.

About

Celebrating significant and consequential contributions to the field and community, the SC Media Women in IT Security program honors leaders who have faced down the security challenges, shaped the industry, and made a positive impact on the advancement of cybersecurity in government or the private sector.

Honorees were unveiled digitally on September 12, 2022. We’d like to congratulate all women recognized.