CyberWayFinder Stories

Sonia Rosu is a cybersecurity consultant, born in Romania, who moved to Belgium 7 years ago to pursue her studies in Business Management.  

She was part of the CyberWayFinder Program in 2018 cohort and is currently specializing in Cyber Strategy & Risk, being a certified CISSP, SSCP & CCSK. 

Sonia has experience with clients across different industries such as : Finance, Energy all the way to Pharmaceutical sector and is always up for a nice challenge whether it is related to Access Control, Business Continuity or Vulnerability Management. 

Starting her career in cybersecurity in a major consultancy firm, Sonia described herself as a sponge - using active listening skills and observing her colleagues and mentors - absorb and learn as much as she could. She tells us how she overcame impostor syndrome and why life-long learning is necessary for anyone wanting to succeed in the cybersecurity field

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Ghariba has a lot of plans for the future! Coming from a business management background, she engineered a career transition into cybersecurity by sheer force of will, courage and compassion. 

If you really want something - you can do it! This is her mantra - in spite of what people might say about the hurdles and challenges - Ghariba remains focus on her dreams and plans on how to turn them into reality. Being in such an important role as the right-hand of the CISO - she tells us that compassion, curiosity and understanding the needs of others is very important in the practice of cybersecurity.  

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"Crossing the Globe and Thriving in Europe: A tradition of Strength and Drive in a Male-Dominated World "

This is the third and last part of our CWF Founder Series - featuring one of the most
ardent ambassadors of CyberWayFinder's mission - Jessica Ramos, Head of
Regulatory and Oversight Affairs at a major financial market infrastructure in
Europe.  

Jess has held a number of positions at the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial
Telecommunication (SWIFT) namely in Oversight Affairs, Legal & Compliance,
Finance and as Chief of Staff to the global CEO. At SWIFT she was also
responsible for diversity and inclusion initiatives for the business. She
started her career as an Associate in Consortium Central America in 2006,
focusing on banking, finance and corporate law.  

She is a member of the Belgian Company Lawyers Bar, the New York Bar, the Honduran
Bar and the In-house Competition Lawyers Association. In addition to her Law
Degree, Jessica holds an MBA in Finance, an LL.M. in Corporate Law from New
York University (NYU) and an LL.M. in Competition Law and Economics from the
Brussels School of Competition. She has recently been certified in Governance,
Risk and Compliance (GRC), Cyber Security for Business Leaders and Social Media
Marketing.  

Jessicafounded Mizbiz in 2016, an organisation aiming to connect, inspire and empower
women in Belgium. She is a Board Advisor to CyberWayFinder, The Nine and a
mentor for ConceptionX. 

NOTE: Our next "Foundation of Security" career transition cohort starts in
March 2022. For more info, check out our website at https://www.cyberwayfinder.com/ 

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"Finding Meaning and Joy in a New Career: Reinventing Yourself after a long CV Gap"

This is the second episode of our 3-part Founder Series, where CWF cofounder Patrick Wheeler interviews Rosanna Kurrer - cofounder and managing director of CyberWayFinder. 

Rosanna talks about her journey from being an architect, studying engineering, loving tech, and deciding to make a career in tech education and cybersecurity. She talks about a common thread she sees in communities in cities such as Brussels and Luxembourg where there is a large concentration of international organizations attracting professionals from all over the world, with their partners as "trailing spouses" who then have to adapt their careers to fit into a new context. 

Rosanna shares the challenges she encountered in reinventing herself in a new career - trying out different activities to find out what brings her joy while at the same time comes with a "market demand" and opportunities, and how she bounced back after a long gap in her CV while creating opportunities for others.

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"Scaling Lightning Strikes In Cybersecurity Career Pivots"

Patrick describes his career pivot into cybersecurity as a typically atypical story. He came to Brussels, Belgium from Silicon Valley in 2005 as he was working for a well-known American clothing company based in San Francisco. A few years later he became CISO (Chief Information Security Officer) of a Luxembourg-based bank and is now working as a cybersecurity architect for one of the major banks in Europe.

But years before all that - before he made the pivot into security - he was working in the construction and environmental services in California - and was well-known among colleagues as the "alpha-geek" ready to troubleshoot all their IT woes. He points out that at that time everything was a greenfield - having a computer science or STEM background was not a requirement to get into a career in technology.

Find out what Patrick calls "lightning strikes" that converge to make a successful career pivot into cybersecurity. And why the call for more STEM profiles is an incorrect systemic disqualifier that keeps minority groups out of the security field and consequently hinders innovation.

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How can we level-up cybersecurity awareness campaigns? Could incorporating gaming elements increase their effectiveness and retention?

Gamification is a learning technique that uses gaming elements to create a more effective learning experience leading to better understanding and retention.

Using these techniques in a corporate context is increasing in popularity-especially for its potential use in preventing cybersecurity incidents. But how is it done and what is the most effective way to do it?

Could gamification techniques really boost the effectiveness of cybersecurity campaigns? What are the benefits of gamification and how can it improve an organisation's cybersecurity posture?

Listen to Episode#5 in two parts - a recording of one of our CWF Forum Panel Discussions with the following speakers - leaders in their fields:

Carla Vadell is partner and Chief Operations Officer of Aiwin, a corporate video game streaming service that allows their subscribers to offer their employees unique and interactive digital experiences to solve the main challenges faced today by companies. With a background in film & television, she is truly passionate about images and how they can influence our decisions to make us change our perception.

Daria Catalui - Global Information Security Education Manager at Allianz

Daria is a cyber security training and awareness professional with working experience in EU’s cyber security agency- ENISA, the European Commission and the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the EU. She is an advocate for the following projects, which she had the chance to kick-off and helped grow for public awareness and scaled-up for impact: Cyber Aware and CyberReadyGame, European Cyber Security Month, NIS quiz, NIS educational map, European cyber security challenge and the Annual Privacy Forum

Mercedes Diaz leads the Cyber Culture practice at NVISO, a Belgium-based cybersecurity firm. She helps clients to shape and run their security education and awareness programs, from 1-off events to multiyear strategy. She is a member of the Awareness Focus Group at the Belgian Cybersecurity Coalition, and a trainer for the Awareness Manager Certification.

Jérôme Jacob is Cyber Security Advisor at Security Made in Luxembourg. He holds a PhD in Scientific and Technical Information, and graduated from the special military school of Saint-Cyr. His first research work led him to develop an information system dedicated to real-time risk analysis. He subsequently worked as a consultant and was responsible for the IT security of the European Parliament data center for seven years. For the last seven years, he has been working for Security made in Luxembourg (SMILE) as a cyber security advisor, focusing initially on IT related risks assessment and governance. Given his experience in crisis prevention and management, he developed the concept that led to the creation of the Cyber-crisis simulator called ROOM#42.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How can we level-up cybersecurity awareness campaigns? Could incorporating gaming elements increase their effectiveness and retention?

Gamification is a learning technique that uses gaming elements to create a more effective learning experience leading to better understanding and retention.

Using these techniques in a corporate context is increasing in popularity-especially for its potential use in preventing cybersecurity incidents. But how is it done and what is the most effective way to do it?

Could gamification techniques really boost the effectiveness of cybersecurity campaigns? What are the benefits of gamification and how can it improve an organisation's cybersecurity posture?

Listen to Episode#5 in two parts - a recording of one of our CWF Forum Panel Discussions with the following speakers - leaders in their fields:

Carla Vadell is partner and Chief Operations Officer of Aiwin, a corporate video game streaming service that allows their subscribers to offer their employees unique and interactive digital experiences to solve the main challenges faced today by companies. With a background in film & television, she is truly passionate about images and how they can influence our decisions to make us change our perception.

Daria Catalui - Global Information Security Education Manager at Allianz

Daria is a cyber security training and awareness professional with working experience in EU’s cyber security agency- ENISA, the European Commission and the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the EU. She is an advocate for the following projects, which she had the chance to kick-off and helped grow for public awareness and scaled-up for impact: Cyber Aware and CyberReadyGame, European Cyber Security Month, NIS quiz, NIS educational map, European cyber security challenge and the Annual Privacy Forum

Mercedes Diaz leads the Cyber Culture practice at NVISO, a Belgium-based cybersecurity firm. She helps clients to shape and run their security education and awareness programs, from 1-off events to multiyear strategy. She is a member of the Awareness Focus Group at the Belgian Cybersecurity Coalition, and a trainer for the Awareness Manager Certification.

Jérôme Jacob is Cyber Security Advisor at Security Made in Luxembourg. He holds a PhD in Scientific and Technical Information, and graduated from the special military school of Saint-Cyr. His first research work led him to develop an information system dedicated to real-time risk analysis. He subsequently worked as a consultant and was responsible for the IT security of the European Parliament data center for seven years. For the last seven years, he has been working for Security made in Luxembourg (SMILE) as a cyber security advisor, focusing initially on IT related risks assessment and governance. Given his experience in crisis prevention and management, he developed the concept that led to the creation of the Cyber-crisis simulator called ROOM#42.

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A major cybersecurity event that happened in 2010 -  called Stuxnet, a sophisticated malware, that targeted the nuclear program in Iran - was what kick-started a change in Claudia Macedo’s career path. She was working as an automation and quality management engineer in the energy sector when the malware demonstrated how sophisticated cyberweapons could be used to cause physical damage to critical infrastructure and potentially harm human life. Her team ’s mission was pivoted to meet a new challenge - to assure the safety of critical systems providing electricity to major cities in Europe.

❗"Cybersecurity is a continuous process, not a project."

‼️ "Having an analytical mind, organizational skills, understanding the business, communicating well and learning the language of tech, while staying curious because it is an unending learning process - these are what you need to pivot into cybersecurity."

Listen to Claudia’s inspiring story of how she pivoted into cybersecurity, and the skills that helped her bring the most value to her team faced with a complex challenge of protecting a critical infrastructure vital to the proper functioning of our cities.

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.