Epic Women in Cyber — Priya Pandey
Priya is a senior consultant at one of the consulting firms. She has over 6 year of experience in Cybersecurity. She has extensively worked on cloud security, data privacy and protection and risk management including third party security.
How did you get into the cybersecurity field?
Well I knew that I wanted to do something in my career related to cybersecurity while I was pursuing my engineering and found network security as a very interesting and challenging topic. This was 8 years back and my journey to the vast Cyber world wasn’t a cakewalk. I started my career in IT services and mainly focused on solving customer’s and user’s problems related to IT, networks and security. I was first introduced to the world of cyber in this role and slowly, I moved my focus to be more aligned to IT and Information security. I was always fond of reading, so I read a lot of tech blogs, news related to cyber, completed various training to equip myself more on the cybersecurity concepts, but, majorly more on the governance and compliance first.
What are the main challenges in this field?
This field is always changing and as a professional in this field, you need to be updated with all the recent events, technologies and continuously learn new trending topics. Having said that, this is also a benefit, as you never get bored of this field as everyday there is a new innovation or a new event, which keeps it interesting.. Additionally, working hours are always quieter than the other fields, I think.
I know that one of the key challenges people discuss in inequality, I would say I have been lucky so far that I always got the managers/mentor around me, who treats me equal to my male peers.
In addition, my husband works in the same field and has always been supportive in my career. Since this profile is very challenging and requires the majority of your time to self-learn and think outside the box, it is good to be surrounded with supportive people.
What are the things you’ve learned being a woman in cybersecurity?
In these few years, I have learnt that this journey is amazing and what we could do to help others, is to share the knowledge by using platforms such as Ted talks, LinkedIn cyber communities, etc. As I mentioned earlier, being agile, focused, patient and adaptable, is the key to be successful in the cybersecurity world, and that’s the most important lesson I have learnt. Currently it’s all about the digitalization, which started 3–4 years back and this will continue for a few more years. After this time has passed, there will be another technology disruptor and we need to continue to learn and enhance our knowledge and skill sets, to be relevant in this field.
What advice would you give to women who would like to join the industry?
During my initial career, I kept thinking that I needed to try out all the areas in the field of cybersecurity, but that’s actually not possible, as it is vast and no one can be an expert in everything. I tried a bit to work on different streams and domains, but since this is more to do with your acquired skill, I would advise to start small and see what excites you. I am very happy where I am today; having to work on different things throughout my career span and currently, my focus is majorly on cloud security, data privacy & security and IT regulatory & compliance. So find that 1 or 2 things that connect with you and give it your best, only then you would be successful in this field.
Who are your role models?
Padmashree Warrior and Indra Nooyi
If you could go back in time to your first days in the industry, what would you do differently or tell yourself?
Though it’s just been over 6 years in this field, I would have liked to join these communities earlier, so I could learn from various experts around the world. Lastly, I love to communicate and share, I would have also liked to explore the training and education areas for cybersecurity.
If you are a founder or a member of a community for women in security, can you introduce it?
I am based in Hong Kong and I have recently started a group to connect like-minded, technology and cloud security focused women in Hong Kong — She the TechWomen. I am also part of the LeanIn group.
