As per the Gartner 2021 CIO Agenda Survey, cybersecurity was the top priority for new spending. Of the 2,000 CIOs surveyed, 61 percent increased investment in cyber/information security in 2020. Though cybersecurity is such a rewarding field, the number of women in this space is low and worrisome. According to the 2019 (ISC)2 Cybersecurity Workforce Study, which polled 3,237 individuals responsible for their organizations’ security across North America, Europe, Latin America, and the Asia Pacific, women accounted for only 30 percent of overall respondents.

We need to address this gap and bring more women to take up such a  challenging yet rewarding career path. Reading stories of women who have already excelled in such careers can serve as great motivation for others to go the same way and excel.

Today we look at the story of Satyavathi Divadari, who has spent over 24 years in  IT and cybersecurity. She is currently the Head of Enterprise Security Architecture at Micro Focus as well as CyberRes Cloud CTO at the same organization. She has had leadership positions in Wells Fargo as Vice President – Information Security Risk Management, Cognizant, Director of Cybersecurity, Capgemini as Enterprise Security Architect, and Head of Risk Assurance.

Satya says, “My father wanted me to pursue engineering. I, too, am interested in Maths and Science. So when I had to choose my career path, pursuing engineering seemed like an obvious choice.”

Presently, Satya’s role at Micro Focus focuses on taking care of all security-related risks. As the CyberRes Cloud CTO, she leads the company in building security solutions for the cloud across four pillars – data, application, identity, and threat-defense. Satya also chairs the Cloud Security Alliance Bangalore chapter.

Taking a new role in an unfamiliar environment, scary yet exciting

Spanning over two decades, Satya has had a long career where she has headed various leading organizations. During this time, she has encountered a variety of challenges but has been able to overcome them; these obstacles have taught her crucial lessons.

Satya says, “Change of job is never easy. Adjusting to a new environment, aligning to the new role, building relationships with people around, and many other complications come with that. My first move was from Tata Communications, where I worked for more than 8 years, to IBM. Moving from a public company work style to a pure corporate space was quite difficult. Taking a managerial role for the first time was just another challenge. Once I caught hold of the environment and made friends around, as a team, we were able to achieve outstanding results together and won several awards there.”

Choose a career you love the most, more smiles and fewer tablets

We often hear that one must follow their passion, but it is easier said than done. Satya was in a delivery role sometime back in her career but wanted to shift to the purely technical side of things. A delivery role needs more business knowledge than technical acumen. When someone is 10 to 15 years into their career, it is not easy to make that shift. But it was her passion, and she eventually did it, despite roadblocks.

Satya adds, “I am building solutions and enterprise architectures around security products, which is mostly technical. When doing the job you love, it is just another game you are playing. That leads to more happiness and further leads to career growth. Choose a career you love, not necessarily the one that pays more.”

Cybersecurity professional, white-collared friendly police to a business enabler 

Satya regularly hires cybersecurity professionals and feels they play a crucial role in any organization. She adds, “ Their work used to be like police, geared with compliance enforcements and checklists. The roles are moving to business enablement slowly and steadily.”

To become a good cybersecurity professional, it is crucial to have critical thinking abilities. Another trait she looks for while hiring is the ability to question. Along with technology, one must also understand business needs and where a particular solution will be implemented. Communication, negotiation, and collaboration skills are must-haves.

Work towards self-sustenance and financial independence

Women are often told to follow traditional job roles from childhood, like teaching or nursing. Even in contemporary times, building a career in technology is hardly encouraged in many households. But things are slowly changing. For example, a visit to an engineering college now will show many girls are pursuing such courses, but the question remains whether, after engineering, they take up job roles and utilize their skill sets.

Even today, girls are not the breadwinners of most families, and they work just to support. To add to that, often after marriage, women stop working. Satya adds, “In this dynamic world, women have to think and work towards self-sustenance and financial independence. We need to influence the mindset of the youth, who will be parents of the new generation. ”

Talk about your achievements in a louder voice.

A second barrier comes after solving the first step. Sometimes, even if women pursue tech careers, they find themselves in a pickle—scaling up to leadership positions is seen scarcely.  

Satya feels, “In my career, I have seen women not showcasing their work to a larger audience or higher management even when they are doing all of their duties perfectly, sometimes even going out of the way and performing additional responsibilities. This hampers their growth. Women have to talk about their achievements in a louder voice to make everyone take notice.”

Cybersecurity will become a part of pure IT

Satya believes that in the future, the cybersecurity landscape is going to grow and may become a part of pure IT. 

Due to rapid digitization in the last few years and the global pandemic, more and more people are attending online classes, working from home, shopping from online stores. As a result, digital consumption is increasing, and so is cyber exploitation. She adds, “As long as there is money, there will be thieves, and as long as there are thieves, cops (here, cybersecurity professionals) will be there.”

She further says, “The number of cybersecurity jobs will also grow due to this. In, say, ten years, every IT role might need to know the basics of cybersecurity. It can get integrated into their job roles.”

CISOs will become business leaders

Another possible change in the future, says Satya, is that CISOs will become business leaders. With the hyper-scale digital transformation, security will not continue to be just a compliance enforcer but move towards business enablement. Until now, most CISOs are performing advisory roles, some are performing business enablers, and very few are in a business leadership position. That situation will change very soon with more CISOs taking decision-making and business enabling roles.