|
|
|
NEWSLETTER #12 - APRIL 2022
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Celebrating Successes!
|
WCF is one year old!
|
|
|
|
On March 8th, Women Cyber Force celebrated International Women’s Day and its First Anniversary in a hybrid event with members.
|
|
|
|
|
In our year of operation, we have grown our membership and held virtual and in-person events, creating opportunities to learn and connect.
We have about 50 members, created an ICT officer role, and have recently welcome 2 new volunteers.
|
|
|
|
We celebrated our anniversary by hosting a “Boost Yourself in Cybersecurity” competition, aimed at providing support to new joiners.
|
We received essays from all across the globe, including Australia, Nigeria, Germany, and Belgium.
|
|
The competition was such a success that in addition to our three winners, Excellium, as member of the jury, sponsored an additional winner in support of the Africa Cybersecurity Resource Center (ACRC).
|
|
|
|
|
|
"Boost Yourself in Cybersecurity" Competition Winners
|
|
|
|
|
|
A cyber security career aspirant with an engineering degree in computer science and five years of IT experience. Originally hailing from India, she lived in Singapore for 5 years before permanently moving to Australia.
|
|
|
|
|
After a career break, Nivedita has embarked upon a journey to reskill in cybersecurity, a domain which she is very passionate about. She has been inspired by several women in cybersecurity who are breaking the gender bias and contributing to the global cyber workforce.
|
She is looking forward to joining several women centric cybersecurity initiatives to spread awareness, share and collaborate, promote diversity & inclusion in the cyber industry and guide others who are looking to make a career in it.
|
Resident in Rwanda and currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Information Technology at the University of Kigali, her passion for the tech field grew during her high school years. She became acquainted with cybersecurity last year through a free introductory course from Cisco Networking Academy.
With the prize she plans to invest in her cybersecurity skills by following a full course and to apply for different mentorship programs.
Nawal wishes as well to start a small local organization for Women in CyberSecurity, to give fellow women the confidence to make world-changing decisions in the tech world.
|
2nd Place - Jimena González Hernando
Originally from Spain, she currently lives in Brussels where she works for a Swedish consultancy firm. Jimena helps clients navigate EU regulatory changes in the field of digital policies and as part of her work, became familiar with EU legislation on cybersecurity.
She believes the prize from the competition will help her fill the gap of cybersecurity in her career and sector - which is also very male-oriented. In Jimena's own words:
|
|
|
|
I am extremely honoured to have received the second prize from the cyber competition and I will now have the chance to get a full training so I can then inspire other women and girls to do the same. We need a more inclusive cyber world and the change starts with all of us. We need to leave our comfort zone and start learning new things and that is why, in the upcoming months, I am expecting to enrol in a cyber course and will share with all of you my journey, so welcome on board!
|
|
3rd Place - Aurélie Mbianda
|
A graduated a network engineer from France, she recently arrived to Luxembourg to work as cybersecurity analyst for Wavestone. Aurélie told us:
|
|
|
|
I’ve chosen the path of cybersecurity to mark the first steps of my professional career. Just a couple weeks ago I had the opportunity to celebrate one last time everything I’ve accomplished as a French engineering student. My graduation ceremony has marked the end of my student years, but hopefully not my learning years. I’ve come to Luxembourg to keep growing on a professional but also personal level. I wanted to challenge myself to do more, to do better and therefore I applied to this Cybersecurity Award. Thank you again to the Women Cyber Force for the price they have rewarded me with. In the future, I wish to spread the message of cybersecurity through my work at Wavestone, and through my involvement at WCF whose message is truly precious to me.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This month we are pleased to introduce you to our member Mehtap Numanoglu Tasiapolus.
|
|
Mehtap is the Chief Risk Officer and a member of the Executive Committee for BBH Luxembourg, London and Zurich. Mehtap has held senior risk positions in leading global financial institutions in different countries for over 25 years, including HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group.
|
|
|
|
After her university degree, she started her career in internal audit. Being someone passionate about continuous learning, she has obtained several global certifications in relation to various subjects including ESG and climate related matters, Artificial Intelligence, audit, risk and control related matters.
|
|
During her professional career, Mehtap has been active in speaking, lecturing and writing in relation to governance, risk management, internal control and audit.
|
|
|
|
|
Mehtap is also currently the Co-Chair of the ALFI Digital/Fintech Forum Cybersecurity Working Group and has active leading roles in other industry initiatives in relation to ESG Risk and AI.
|
|
She received various awards and recognitions in relation to her commitment to the risk management matters and industry engagement. In addition to her passion about cybersecurity and ESG related matters, she is passionate about painting, interior design, writing and shoes!
|
|
|
|
|
Her interest in cybersecurity started as part of her CRO role, but also she volunteered to be a “cyber risk ambassador” and a “translator” between senior management and the technical departments as well as between business functions and CIO and CISO. She thinks that the digitalisation and cyber are the present and the future in everything that we do. It is the golden age of cybersecurity and the focus can only increase. She would highly encourage more women to embrace a career in cyber risk management and cybersecurity and she thinks that the encouragement and empowerment should start in the schools and continue during the career.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Upcoming Events!
|
Girls in ICT Day
|
|
|
|
|
|
April 28th @17h - Join us for this event at PwC premises, including presentations from our member Mehtap Numanoglu and Emilia Tantar about Artificial Intelligence, and Thomas Campione about Blockchain & Crypto-assets.
|
|
|
|
The full program can be found here and registration is now open at this link.
We are looking forward to seeing you there!
|
|
|
|
NISDUC conference: How to tackle the implementation of NIS/NIS2.0?
|
|
|
|
|
May 10th & 11th - The Institut Luxembourgeois de Régulation (ILR) and the Belgian Institute for Postal services and Telecommunications (BIPT) together with the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST), Security made in Lëtzebuerg (SECURITYMADEIN.LU) and the Centre for Cyber security Belgium (CCB) are organizing the first NISDUC conference in Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce.
|
This conference aims to:
- develop a community of practice around the NIS Directive
- share knowledge and exchange practices
- experience the training sessions.
|
The conference is free of charge and open to OES, DSPs, Competent Authorities, SPOCs, CSIRTs, sectoral associations, cybersecurity institutions and other relevant actors.
|
|
|
|
|
|
June 30th & July 1st - A centrepiece of Luxembourg’s event calendar and one of the top European tech conferences. Organized by Farvest and hosted at LuxExpo the Box, the event will inspire delegates across a variety of important topics.
|
|
|
|
Key areas of focus are the fast-growing FinTech industry, innovations and technologies building the future of the economy, European Sovereignty in Data & Cloud, Supply Chain initiatives, IT Security, HealthTech, entrepreneurship as well as Space technologies.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Light reading
|
Interesting Links
|
|
|
Book Club Corner
|
|
|
In need of a new bedside table book? Why not read one about cybersecurity?
|
|
|
|
The Perfect Weapon is the startling inside story of how the rise of cyberweapons transformed geopolitics like nothing since the invention of the atomic bomb.
Cheap to acquire, easy to deny, and usable for a variety of malicious purposes, cyber is now the weapon of choice for democracies, dictators, and terrorists.
|
Moving from the White House Situation Room to the dens of Chinese government hackers to the boardrooms of Silicon Valley, New York Times national security correspondent David Sanger reveals a world coming face-to-face with the perils of technological revolution, where everyone is a target.
|
|
|
|
|
Two presidents-Bush and Obama-drew first blood with Operation Olympic Games, which used malicious code to blow up Iran's nuclear centrifuges, and yet America proved remarkably unprepared when its own weapons were stolen from its arsenal and, during President Trump's first year, turned back on the United States and its allies. And if Obama would begin his presidency by helping to launch the new era of cyberwar, he would end it struggling unsuccessfully to defend against Russia's broad attack on the 2016 US election.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Thanks for reading and we hope to see you at the upcoming events!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
