Epic Women in Cyber — Damini Soni
I am currently working as a Security Analyst in US Healthcare. My work primarily revolves around AppSec but threat hunting is also something I enjoy working on.
I also try to contribute back to the community by collaborating with non-profit platforms and also have been invited to New Delhi at the National Convention for my contribution in securing Indian Cyber Space.
When I am not working on “security”, you will find me reading about Space and Life beyond Earth, it’s something I absolutely adore and love to explore.
How did you get into the cybersecurity field?
In my final year there was this two day workshop on Ethical Hacking & Cyber Security — which I think was probably the first ever workshop that was organized in my town (my hometown is not a city so you cannot expect to have people talk about information security and hacking that often) which actually introduced me to security and InfoSec world. I now know a lot of people who from their very early days were passionate about cyber security and hacking and gradually got into the field however, I started exploring this field at the end of my graduation. So after that workshop I was determined to choose this field but unfortunately knew no one from the field or had any leads that could guide me. I think it also worked out as a benefit for me (obviously there are challenges) because InfoSec world is where you will never have or can have someone to guide you at every step, it’s not possible. From there on I managed to get myself into an internship, worked on live projects and eventually my journey began.
What are the main challenges in this field?
Main challenges are staying updated with so much going on in the field. I think that’s also the beauty of it, it always challenges you to raise your game, you get to know about new techniques, technologies, attacks, etc. — it’s never ending. You find an endpoint not vulnerable to an attack and within an hour you may come across a bypassing technique which could lead to even bigger damage or you make sure the patches are in place and a zero day can completely change the game, it’s unpredictable. But it also teaches a lot about prioritization, new possibilities and so so much more.
What are the things you’ve learned being a woman in cybersecurity?
If you know something, have enough drive to accomplish it then being a man or a woman doesn’t make much difference. Of course when we see women are a minority in InfoSec industry but things are changing slowly. There are these fine women’s like my personal favorite Tanya Janca who is here making all the difference in the world and she is also inspiring so many people through her #cybermentoringmonday campaign to be a part of this field, learn and mentor so something that has been so stagnant over the years where man’s hold a major part will definitely take time to reflect the changes. Another standpoint is you have to make your voice heard, it does not depend on being a man or a woman.
What advice would you give to women who would like to join the industry?
I would suggest women to explore the topics that interest them and not have a dependency on people to teach you. You can find tons of information on google, you just need to start. Another view is if you are really passionate about information security than do not limit yourself in learning since InfoSec has so many verticals to explore; to have a clear picture we can divide it into three segments R&D, technical security and compliance all of which has its own pros and cons. If you are landing in a job which is not of your choice but still a part of InfoSec then take it as an advantage and use it to elevate yourself to your next goal, having knowledge of more than one segment is always good.
Who are your role models?
Specific and non specific to security I won’t limit it into a few names, I would rather say if I find someone inspiring and ambitions about certain segments that interests me (also some which I didn’t knew I would be interested in until I explored it or came to know new perspectives about it) then I always look forward to those people.
If you could go back in time to your first days in the industry, what would you do differently or tell yourself?
When we see the bigger picture everything good, bad or challenges you go through teaches you so much. I would love to tell everyone to have patience because experience really teaches you a lot.
