Australian Women in Security Awards winners announced

Employees from IT services providers EY, CyberCX, KPMG and Baidam Solutions won awards and commendations at the 2022 Women in Security Awards held at Crown Towers Sydney last week.

The awards night is an initiative to inspire more women to join what is one of Australia’s fast-growing but most male-dominated sectors. 

KPMG’s cyber strategy and diversity director Dominika Zerbe, who took home the IT Security Champion Award, told CRN that “while many employers will ask for ten years plus experience in cyber, we have found that this inadvertently excludes women who have either had a previous career in a different field or have stopped working to raise a family.”

“This is why we are focusing on who the individual is and the transferable skills they bring – and less about their years of experience. This is because research has confirmed that women will underestimate their skills and undersell their experience.”

Zerbe said KPMG had succeeded in lifting the female representation of its cyber team from 22 percent to 38 percent in 15 months.

“Cyber SMEs are often still represented as hoodie-clad young males sitting in dark rooms. Schools and education institutes haven’t focused on socialising, attracting and diversifying cyber enough to get young girls and women into the sector early enough in their careers – it starts in primary schools and high schools.”

“By the time women realise they can join have a fulfilling and exciting career in cyber they think they’ve missed the boat or need to be heavily technical to have flourishing careers – and this is simply not the case.”

CyberCX’s cyber capability, education and training Elena Scifleet scored best security student. Scifleet studies Masters of cybersecurity at Charle Stuart University, launched AWSN’s Newcastle chapter and volunteers at the NSW Government’s Cyber Ambassador program.

CyberCX director of cyber intelligence and public policy Katherine Mansted was highly commended in her nomination for Most Outstanding Woman in IT security. Mansted oversees CyberCX’s threat advisory capability. 

Elena Scifleet, a part-time masters of cybersecurity student at Charles Sturt University and CyberCX principal consultant, scored the Best Cyber Security Student award. Scifleet launched the Australian Women in Security Network’s (AWSN) Newcastle chapter and volunteers at the NSW Government’s Cyber Ambassador program.

CyberCX executive director of engagement and communication, Melanie Truscott, was highly commended in her nomination as Unsung Hero. Truscott has led CyberCX’s Women in Cyber program to support female employees’ capability development and networking opportunities.

“The underrepresentation of women across the cyber security workforce is frankly unacceptable – and it’s on every leader from industry, through to schools, universities, TAFEs, and government to do what we can to address it”, CyberCX CEO John Paitaridis told CRN.  

CyberCX’s AWSN platinum partnership provides its female employees access to mentoring programs to support career growth. Its recently launched training program CyberCX Academy aims to deliver 500 new security professionals in the next three years. 

EY’s emerging leader program was highly commended in the Best Program for Young Women in Security award category. 

EY program spokesperson Rachel Bamberg said the emerging leader program “is designed to open pathways for females at a junior level by connecting them with strong female leaders, building their skills, and ultimately increasing female executive level representation over time. It also creates an important community of peer support.”

Baidam Solutions’ southern sales director Caity Randall was highly commended as the One to Watch in IT security.