Inspirational Women in STEM and Tech: Elisa Costante of Forescout On The 5 Leadership Lessons She Learned From Her Experience
Speak up: Do not be silent when you have a good idea even if you think it is not good enough — and dissuade yourself of the notion that your ideas are not worthy of sharing.
As a part of our series about “Lessons From Inspirational Women in STEM and Tech”, we had the pleasure of interviewing Elisa Costante.
Elisa Costante is the VP of Research at Forescout. In her role, she leads the activities of Vedere Labs, a team of cyber security researchers focused on vulnerability research, threat analysis and threat mitigation. She has 10+ years of experience in the security challenges posed by the IT/OT/IoT convergence. In her prior role she was CTO at SecurityMatters, where she led product innovation activities in the field of network intrusion detection. Elisa holds a PhD in Cyber Security from the Eindhoven University of Technology where she specialized in machine learning techniques for data leakage detection.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
My brother and I had a lot in common. This was a source of sibling rivalry. When we were growing up in the 1990s, we had many arguments about whose turn it was to use the computer. I remember telling him that I was considering Computer Science as my university path. He said, “You will never make,” which was all the motivation I needed to succeed.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began at your company?
Working with so many talented security researchers at Vedere Labs, my team and I have discovered an array of vulnerabilities affecting hundreds of vendors and millions of connected devices around the world. During this project I understood the bit and bytes of vulnerability disclosure and really had an inside view into the many stakeholders and processes involved. Nevertheless, going through it made me a better security professional and build thicker skin. Now I understand how it works and I am way less scared by large-scale vulnerability research projects.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I have problems remembering the names of people I just met. I would constantly run into people that would greet me, and I couldn’t remember their names. At the beginning I would just try to guess and that would lead to all sort of weirdness. Eventually, I learned that just admitting I could not remember and politely asking to be reminded of a name would be a much better approach.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
Forescout’s Vedere Labs is a highly sophisticated cybersecurity research lab that contains a wide variety of operational technology (OT) and IoT devices, which enables our researchers to really get hands on with how cybersecurity vulnerabilities impact physical environments. One of the most interesting studies we conducted focused on ransomware for IoT (R4IoT), which demonstrated how a motivated attacker could exploit an IoT device to spread ransomware across an organization’s network.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
We are working on A LOT of exciting projects. Currently, we are studying how threat actors pick their targets and how their attack techniques evolve over time. This research will help organizations to be better prepared to respond to future attack scenarios.
Ok super. Thank you for all that. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. Are you currently satisfied with the status quo regarding women in STEM? What specific changes do you think are needed to change the status quo?
Although a lot of progress has been made I think we still have quite a workload ahead of us. I see a lot of effort focused on raising the next generation of women in technology with STEM education and an increasing amount of conferences and mentorship groups focused on empowering women in technology. However, I think to make real changes, we need to make sure males and females have the same opportunities in the workplace, and that means we need more women in leadership positions.
In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by women in STEM or Tech that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts? What would you suggest to address this?
I believe that medical leave for new parents is one of the biggest challenges for equality. Mothers are still seen as primary care givers. It is expected mothers step down from highly demanding careers once they become mothers. If paternity leave matches maternity leave (in terms of days), then it would be a good way to start closing the gender gap and changing expectations.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a woman in STEM or Tech. Can you explain what you mean?
Sometimes, I feel that the few women in tech are seen as unicorns — these magical-like beings. That is an unrealistic viewpoint. Women in tech are very diverse but they all have something in common: a passion for technology.
What are your “5 Leadership Lessons I Learned From My Experience as a Woman in STEM or Tech” and why. (Please share a story or example for each.)
- Sit at the table: Ask to go to those meetings where you think you can contribute. Do not wait for the invite to come to you.
- Speak up: Do not be silent when you have a good idea even if you think it is not good enough — and dissuade yourself of the notion that your ideas are not worthy of sharing.
- Reach out: Lack of collaboration and communication are some of the biggest roadblocks in any organization. Women are great communicators. Reach out to people to solve problems, let them sit at the same table to come up with solutions.
- Embrace equality: Feel the equality, embrace it. Expect and demand for equal salaries, same responsibilities, same treatments.
- Lean In: Read the book from Sheryl Sandberg “Lean In: Fostering Women’s Leadership & Workplace Inclusion.” It is truly inspirational and full of data points and incredible tips. It has had a huge impact on me!
What advice would you give to other women leaders to help their team to thrive?
Be transparent. Show your team your daily challenges and how you address them. Be open to feedback. Finally, this is true for both men and women — embrace equality.
What advice would you give to other women leaders about the best way to manage a large team?
I would give women leaders similar feedback to what I shared above. Transparency is one of the best ways to manage a large team and ensure your team is thriving. By being open to feedback and discussing challenges with your team, you’ll be more successful in the long run.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I have been lucky enough to have many people in my life that helped me discover who I am and what I want. From a professional standpoint, my PhD promotor (and then boss and now personal friend) has played a fundamental role to unlock my hidden capabilities. He trusted me, and he made me believe I was worthy.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
I share my story hoping it can serve to empower other people. I do give back as much as I can, but I am still looking for that one thing I can do that would truly make an impact on other’s people lives.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
Establishing a cybersecurity without borders association that could help improve organizations and government agencies’ security posture but who have limited resources.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Done is better than perfect. Sometimes we just need to keep the ball rolling. I used to find myself spending a lot of time and energy to make everything perfect. I then realized less-than-perfect would allow me to do many more things!
We are very blessed that very prominent leaders read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them :-)
I’d love to speak to Kevin Mandia and see his perspective on the future of cybersecurity!
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
