Women in Security Podcast

Samana Haider is a Manager at Forcepoint's Security Labs. She is originally from Pakistan and has been living in Ireland for the last 16 years, and working in the security industry for the last 10 years. She graduated in Mathematics and Statistics, and holds a Master's Degree in Computer Science.

She believes in giving back to the community, and has been in the local school board for the last number of years. She has worked closely with the school management as well as the parents, working on various issues that are faced on day-to-day basis by the school teachers students and parents.

She is also involved with ISC2's  initiative for online safety for children, more  details can be found here: https://www.safeandsecureonline.org/

ISC2 Safe & Secure https://enroll.isc2.org/product?catalog=CCSE-SafeSecureOnline-Global

In this episode, I sat down with Laura Fitzgerald, Principal Legal Counsel in Forcepoint, a global cyber security company. Laura is a lawyer based in Dublin and leads the EMEA legal function and has responsibility for the global engineering Centres of Excellence. In 2019, Laura was the only Irish woman selected by Banco Santander for the World 50, where she attended UCLA Anderson School of Management Executive Leadership programme designed to prepare the next generation of global leaders for service as board directors and as senior industry leaders.

Joanne O'Connor brings her experience in public relations, UX, and project management to her current role as Cyber Security Training and Education officer at HPE. She is the lead of Cyber Women Ireland – which at a country level looks to encourage the advancement and capacity of women involved in all aspects of the Irish security sector and security community, through the exchange of information and the cultivation of productive relationships. Joanne was nominated to represent Ireland in the ECSO – European Cyber Security Organization initiative ‘Women4Cyber’ which launched in Jan 19’. Joanne is also a board member of Cyber Ireland. She was named in SC magazine as one of the Top 50 Women in Cyber in Europe 2019. She has spent the last year working on introducing Cyber Security Education into the Irish school system with the 'Cyber Ireland Schools Academy.'

.Coming from a previous career as a University Research Academic and Professional Archaeologist, Eimear made the jump to Cybersecurity about 10 years ago; since then, she’s held Senior Management roles across Information Security, Privacy and Data Governance, and is currently focused on Identity and Access Governance. A self-confessed life-long learner, she also has special interests in Strategy/Policy Development, Organisational Culture/Change, as well as Creativity and Innovation Management. An original ‘Derry Girl’, Eimear is now based in Dublin.

Louise O Hagan is the Education Officer in CyberSafe Ireland, which is a not-for-profit organisation, established in 2015, that works to educate children, parents and teachers to navigate the online world in a safe way  -She has a masters in Cyberpsychology and is in write up phase of a PhD in the human element of cybersecurity ( her research is specifically on how human are exploited for data online in illegal contexts phishing emails, social media brand pages and legal contexts clickwrap terms and conditions and browsewrap cookies ). also part-time education and awareness officer in UK company creating e-learning material for their employees.

For more details on how to identify phishing emails, please click here.

Valerie Lyons is a highly experienced and respected information security professional. An accomplished Information Security Risk Manager with extensive experience at senior level in the financial services sector, Valerie has a successful track record in delivering business-driven information security solutions. She has a strong focus on team development and leadership, with excellent collaborative and interpersonal skills. Prior to joining BH Consulting, Valerie was a Research Assistant in DCU’s Irish Centre for Cloud Computing and Commerce, a lecturer in IT Security at Marino College of Further Education and was an IT security risk management consultant. Previous to those roles, she spent 14 years as Head of Information Security Risk in KBC Bank. Valerie is also currently undertaking a PhD, where her research explores differing organizational privacy protection approaches.

Lydia Behan joined CRH, one of the world's leading building materials companies, in 2018. She joined the organization after moving back to Dublin from Toronto, Canada where she was a member of the Fraud and Financial Crimes Management Group at TD, the largest bank in Canada. At TD, Lydia was responsible for the management and development of the Threat Intelligence and Cyber-Enabled Fraud practice. Prior to TD Bank, she has several years of experience at PwC Canada in both Forensic Technology Services and Cybersecurity consulting, working alongside both Canadian and international clients across a wide range of industries.

At CRH, Lydia heads up the Governance, Risk & Best Practice function within Group Information Security and focuses on helping business units and operating companies achieve their security objectives and manage risk.

Michelle Garrigan has recently joined the Global Information Security team as Country Information Security Officer for Bank of America Merrill Lynch International in Ireland. Michelle brings with her a wealth of knowledge and experience in both financial services and information security, having worked across Retail and Corporate Banking, Supplier Relationship Management and Information Security. Prior to joining Bank of America, Michelle led the Cyber and Information Security Programme for Ulster Bank Ireland DAC. Michelle is passionate about all matters relating to information security and actively works within the industry to promote security, in particular addressing the skills gap and gender balance along with helping support the responsible use of technology among children. 

For more information on CyberSafeIreland. 

In this episode, my guest is Ciara Feeney, Chief Information Security Officer at Athora.  Ciara has worked in IT and networks for over 15 years managing large and complex IT environments. She started her career with BT in a 3 months contract which progressed to an 8 years career with them  which saw her move from sales to engineering. She has also successfully transitioned from telco to retail and now financial services. Outside of work,  Ciara has ran 5 marathons with 2 planned this year, have a Masters and is a member of the New York Bar.  She learned to swim a few years ago and completed her first (and so far only) triathlon.  

Martina Costelloe is a Security Risk Professional with 25 years’ experience in all aspects of Information Security in Financial Services. Having previously filled a number of roles in Information Technology with AIB, she joined SMBC Aviation Capital as Information Security Manager in December 2014. Areas of specialisation include risk assessment, standards and good practice, Cybercrime prevention and user awareness. Martina is particularly interested in the human dimension with regard to embedding good information security and when designing control frameworks. Martina holds a Bachelor of Financial Services from University College Dublin and is a fellow of the Irish Information Security forum. She also holds a qualification in Advertising. For more  information on Irish Information Security Forum

Eliza-May Austin is the CEO and Co-Founder of th4ts3cur1ty.company, who specialize in delivering intelligence lead adversary emulation purple teaming & the bespoke building of Security Operation Centers. Eliza is also the Founder and Director of Ladies of London Hacking Society, a passion project that has become one of London's leading technical security communities.  

In this episode, I sat down with Jacky Fox, Managing Director and Security Lead for Accenture Ireland. Prior to that. she led the cybersecurity and IT Forensic practice for Deloitte in Ireland and lectures on the MSc in Cyber Security for University College Dublin. She is also the vice chair of Cyber Ireland. She has 20+ years’ experience working in technology and security and advises leading Irish and international organisations on managing their cyber risk. Jacky holds an MSc in Digital investigations and forensic computing and is a certified forensic analyst and industrial control systems professional. She is an active researcher and public speaker on topics ranging from windows registry analysis, cryptography, threat intelligence, incident response and hacking. Jacky was named Security Champion of the Year at the 2018 Women in IT Awards Ireland for her strong technical skills and determination in helping address the problem of gender diversity with the tech world. 

In this episode, my guest is the Director of Technical Services at Blizzard Entertainment in Irvine, California. Previously, Tammy Hawkins served as Vice President of Cyber and Intelligence at Mastercard in Dublin, Ireland. During her decade at Mastercard, she led important security innovation initiatives which included launching one of the first mobile biometric authentication payment systems (Identity Check), and managing AI/ML Fraud Detection and Prevention services across the payment network giant. Tammy is a proponent of diversity and inclusion initiatives. 

In this episode, my guest is the Chief Information Security Officer at Truata, a Data Anonymization firm set up by IBM and MasterCard. Kelly Mckillen started her career with AIB, one of the leading financial institutions in Ireland, as a graduate and worked, over the years in several departments, before moving into Information Security. Kelly explains how important it is to leverage your network and resources in a role. She describes some of her previous roles in her career which lead her to her current position, and reveals whether or not having a technical background gives you a better advantage over those who don't.  

 Hi and Welcome to the Women in Security Podcast.   This podcast is devoted to the world of cyber security and the great women who make it turn.  In each episode, I sit down with a guest speaker to discuss their experiences and touch on some of the lesser known aspects of the industry. We'll shed light on the routes to the various technical and non-technical roles in this space, as well as exploring the skillsets required to be successful.  We will share in the experiences and journeys of the women who lead the way innovating and disrupting on the front lines of this digital landscape.  If you're hoping to further your career in or just interested in any aspect of this industry, then stick in your earphones, crank up the volume and settle in for an informative and edifyingly good listen.  I am your host Lifen Tan, and I lead the Cyber Security Recruitment team at Morgan McKinley, Dublin