Women in Cybersecurity: Mentorship, Advocacy & AI

Mentorship and self-advocacy are immensely important for women building successful and rewarding careers in cybersecurity. Mentorship is ideally a two-way conversation in which both senior and junior participants gain from the conversation.

Self-advocacy may be a soft skill, but it is as important as many technical skills when working with diverse, global teams to develop innovative software.

This career advice, along with a frank discussion of AI’s uses and threats, was central to the conversation in our first episode of Women in Cybersecurity.

This four-part webinar series launched with the theme, “From R&D to Cloud Computing”, and focused on two standout female engineers who are helping to build secure, cloud-based application security tools. The speakers, Shailaja Golikeri, Associate Director, and Samantha Gustafson, Senior Software Engineer, both work on HCL AppScan on Cloud, a SaaS application security platform used around the world.

Golikeri and Gustafson shared their personal and professional experiences, beginning with their backgrounds, education and what led them to careers in cybersecurity. As women in a male-dominated field, they also spoke about the challenges they have faced along the way and the achievements they are most proud of. Their insider views on the rise of AI and career advice for women–and men–entering the field made this entire episode one well worth watching.

The Momentum of Technology

Golikeri has worked in technology for 45 years and began her education in India when technology careers for women were non-existent and software development was in its infancy. The opportunity to study in the United States set her on a path towards software engineering, and she credited technological momentum with driving her career forward.

Gustafson comes from a family of engineers and credited her parents and brother for showing her the path and providing her earliest mentorship. After six years at HCLSoftware, she is now lead engineer on AppScan Go!, a client tool designed to streamline scanning and improve user experience.

From Self Advocacy to Mentorship

When the discussion turned to challenges and achievements, both Golikeri and Gustafson spoke candidly about the need to develop not just technical skills, but also soft skills like confidence and self-advocacy. Each discussed how these attributes seem to come easier to men in the field, and one of their shared challenges has been intentionally developing these skills. Confidence and self-advocacy have helped them contribute more, collaborate better, and grow into well-deserved leadership roles.

Mentorship was another major theme of the conversation. Golikeri stressed its importance, whether through formal programs or peer relationships, and is proud to have implemented a policy for her most recent teams where every junior engineer is paired with a mentor.

Both speakers agreed that these peer relationships are positive for both the mentor and mentee and Gustafson listed one of her career achievements to date was in developing the self-confidence to become a mentor to junior engineers on her AppScan Go! team.

The Rise of AI

The conversation also dove into current trends in cybersecurity and, in particular, the rise of AI as both a cyber threat and a security tool. Gustafson shared some of the pros and cons of her experiences using AI development tools. She stressed the importance of understanding the context for each use of AI so that it can be handled responsibly and deliver the best results.

Golikeri shared her concerns over the aggressive pace of AI adoption and the unintended consequences that are often overlooked, including use by bad actors. She advocated for users to be constantly aware of what they are sharing with AI since we have little control over how AI will use that information in the future.

Conclusion

As the session came to a close, both speakers offered advice for future engineers and emphasized adaptability and continuous learning as important keys to success. One of the key takeaways from this episode was that software innovation, especially in areas like cloud computing, requires collaboration and teamwork. The soft skills that help women engineers navigate professional relationships are important to delivering innovation and advancing careers.

Watch the replay to enjoy the entire conversation with Golikeri and Gustafson and hear firsthand how they’re shaping the future of AppSec, one innovation at a time.

Next Up

This webinar series will continue on Wednesday, May 21 with Part 2: Securing the Future with Global Teams and Agile Development. This second episode will feature interviews with Urmi Chatterjee and Michaela Perrotta, both engineers at HCLSoftware, who will share their experiences working across the globe and in multiple development models.