Instead of attracting diverse, qualified candidates, many cybersecurity positions and programs may actually inadvertently be precluding women and minorities. The needle just hasn’t moved on the dramatic underrepresentation of women and minorities in the security industry, even as the security talent gap crisis deepens. A distinguished and diverse panel of women in the security field will share their perspectives on what can be done to remove the roadblocks impeding the recruiting, hiring, and promoting, of women in the industry.
Join moderator Kelly Jackson Higgins, Executive Editor of Dark Reading, as she leads this discussion with panelists Jamesha Fisher, Security Operations Engineer at GitHub; Rebekah Brown, Threat Intelligence Lead at Rapid7; Angie Leifson, Security Operations Center (SOC) Analyst at Insight Enterprises; and Chenxi Wang, Chief Strategy Officer of Twistlock. The panel will share their firsthand experiences as well as insight into what can be done to attract and retain women in a growing field with a broadening set of skills.
Lunch: 13:00 - 13:30
Panel “Removing Roadblocks to Diversity”: 13:30 – 14:30
Q&A: 14:30 – 15:00
Breakout Sessions & Networking: 15:00 – 16:00
*No pre-registration required. However, seating will be first-come, first-serve, so we recommend you arrive early to claim a seat.
Kelly Jackson Higgins
Kelly Jackson Higgins is Executive Editor at DarkReading.com. She is an award-winning veteran technology and business journalist with more than two decades of experience in reporting and editing for various publications, including Network Computing, Secure Enterprise Magazine, CommunicationsWeek, Virginia Business magazine, and other major media properties. Jackson Higgins was selected as one of the Top 10 Cybersecurity Journalists in the US in two consecutive award cycles. She began her career as a sports writer in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, and earned her BA at The College of William & Mary. Follow her on Twitter @kjhiggins.
Jamesha Fisher
Jamesha Fisher has worked in the tech industry for over ten years and is currently a Security Operations Engineer at GitHub. With a degree in information assurance and security engineering, Jamesha has lent her keen eye towards security to operations and systems engineering at companies like Google and CloudPassage, prior to her role at GitHub. In her spare time she’s a maker of things musical, delicious, and objects that use binary numbers. You can find her on twitter as @jamfish728.
Chenxi Wang
Chenxi Wang is Chief Strategy Officer of Twistlock, where she is responsible for strategy and thought leadership. Chenxi built an illustrious career at Forrester Research, Intel Security, and CipherCloud. At Forrester, Chenxi covered mobile, cloud, and enterprise security, and wrote many hard hitting research papers. At Intel Security, she led the ubiquity strategy that spans both hardware and software platforms. Chenxi started her career as a professor of Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. She is the chair for the Security & Privacy track of the 2016 Grace Hopper Conference, the founder of the Equal Respect initiative. She has been frequently quoted by New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes.com, Fox News, Bloomberg, and other media outlets. Chenxi holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from University of Virginia.
Rebekah Brown
Rebekah leads the threat intelligence programs at Rapid7, where her responsibilities include programs architecture, management, analysis, and operations. Rebekah has spent over a decade working in the intelligence community; her previous roles include NSA network warfare analyst, Operations Chief of a United States Marine Corps cyber unit, and a U.S. Cyber Command training and exercise lead. Rebekah has helped develop threat intelligence and security awareness programs at the federal, state, and local level, as well as at a Fortune 500 company. She is co-author of SANS FOR578: Cyber Threat Intelligence.
Angie Leifson
Angie Leifson is a Security Operations Center (SOC) Analyst at Insight Enterprises. Angie has served as a volunteer at Black Hat since 2014, and DEF CON since 2015. She holds a degree in network security, as well as in technology forensics.
