Epic Women in Cyber — Saman Fatima
In August 2019, I started an epic #FF to promote amazing women from the cybersecurity industry. The list kept growing, and I decided to collate all the names in an article to make it a little bit more accessible. Now it’s time to sit down with all these amazing women and learn more about their experiences.
My name is Saman Fatima, currently working as DevOps Engineer in Macquarie Group in IAM Domain.
Trained in Identity and Access Management, I have always been a CyberSecurity enthusiast.
Co-leading the Delhi Chapter for Infosecgirls Community, member at OWASP Delhi chapter.
Finalist at the Capgemini — Tech Challenge 2019.
How did you get into the cybersecurity field?
I completed my bachelors in 2017 and was really interested in a few of my security related subjects. I had kept them as my primary subjects when I gave my first interview with TCS and landed into the Cyber Security domain.
Right from the start of my training days I got a good picture of all the sub topics, be it Application Security, Network Security, Forensics, IAM and started learning about each in detail — keeping IAM as my favourite.
Initially I started up with a project on Splunk and was part of the Blue Team and learned more on different kinds of attacks and then shifted to work on Identity and access management using Gartner’s tool SailPoint.
The above 2 tools were my start and they piqued my interest in learning more about this domain.
What are the main challenges in this field?
There is one undeniable point about this field — “The digital world in which we do business is vulnerable and open to attacks.”
Technology is upgrading everyday and so are the threats which poses a great risk to the industry, so training one and all is a challenge to cope with all the effects.
The Cyber Security field does not require a computer science degree to cater to the alerts, rather it requires one to stay up-to-date with the latest technologies and trends.
What are the things you’ve learned being a woman in cybersecurity?
I had completed my Graduation from an all girl’s college which has actually given me a platform to explore the opportunities and learn.
Communities and conferences play a major role in uplifting the confidence of an individual. It did happen for me as well — Infosecgirls, OWASP & Null and Bsides helped me in learning about this field in depth and have upskilled me tremendously.
I am fortunate enough to have got both female as well male mentors to help me in my journey to move forward in this field.
I have been part of many OWASP Sessions (New Delhi Chapter) as speaker and as an audience, and met my favourite — one of my role models, Vandana Verma at the Bsides Conference (New Delhi).
What advice would you give to women who would like to join the industry?
Cyber Security is a new emerging field which has made its place and is booming.
The young/new aspirants who would like to join this field or want to transition to Cybersecurity need to keep the following points in mind:
- Believe in yourself and your abilities. You won’t know it unless you try.
- Join Cyber security communities and learn from the experts.
- Attend the conferences so that you learn new trends and network with people from the domain.
- The Internet is an ocean of knowledge — have your fill.
Who are your role models?
Since I was new to this field, I had major support from a few people namely — Vandana Verma, Aastha Sahni, Ken Underhill who have guided me and continue to do so.
Special mention to all the chapter leaders of Infosecgirls who are part and parcel of my life — my security family.
If you could go back in time to your first days in the industry, what would you do differently or tell yourself?
I would like to quote the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Do the thing and you will have the power.”
3 years back, when I had entered the industry I wasn’t much of a people’s person, was not much aware of my potential and passion.
With every passing year I have recognized my passion for this field, networking more with people to increase my circle.
I learnt and made progress in this domain and yes, I’m happy with the results.
If you are a founder or a member of a community for women in security, can you introduce it?
Infosecgirls: New Delhi Chapter co-lead with Aarti Bala. Infosegirls is a community for women passionate about information security, managed by Vandana Verma. Our main objective is to educate and train middle school students, women and everyone curious about Information Security.
