Message from AWSN founder - Changes in Leadership

Over the past couple of years, AWSN has grown and developed in more ways than I could ever have imagined. This is thanks to all the volunteers who generously give their time to AWSN, our sponsors, other supporters and most especially, our members.

In creating AWSN, our initial aims were to connect women working in security across Australia and provide them with a supportive platform and community. We hoped that by doing this we could help inspire women from diverse backgrounds and career stages to pursue and stay in security. These aims remains unchanged today, and I am really proud to see how we have been able to progressively bring like minded people together.

Over the past 6 months Michelle Weatherhead, Chris Miller and I have been reviewing how we can best set AWSN up for success into the future and I am really pleased to announce AWSN’s new National Leadership team comprised of a Board and key National Leadership roles.

The Board of Directors are:

·        Chair - Tamsyn Harris

·        Vice Chair - Michelle Mosey

·        Secretary - Marilena Salvo

·        Board member - Thomas Hanbury 

We are still exploring additional capabilities we may need in the Board and will look to appoint further director/s once we have identified the right candidate/s.

The Board will be supported by several key National Leadership roles including: 

·        Special projects manager - Jacqui Loustau

·        National events manager - Tory Lane

In addition we will have two National Communications roles who will continue to help connect and support our members: 

·        Social media manager - Chris Miller

·        National blog manager - Mandy Turner

Over the past couple of months we have also had a number of changes in our state based chapters and I would like to summarise our current Chapter Leads:

·        Sydney - Mairead Bourke, Johanna Williamson, Alexandra Venardos, Heather Hoddinott

·        Melbourne - Linda Li, Emma Neville, Renee Gaspar

·        Canberra - Chris Miller, Christina (Tina) Rose, Amy Roberts

·        Perth - Sam Moody, Georgie Cooke, Cairo Malet

·        Brisbane - Sheena Downey, Mandy Turner, Sarah Hufnagel 

I would like to thank and acknowledge a number of the people who have made significant contributions over the years to getting us to where we are today. A number of these people will continue to be actively involved in AWSN but in different capacities in future.

- Helaine Leggat

- Yvonne Sears

- Yvette Lejins

- Claire Pales

- Heide Young

- Jodie Siganto 

- Fatemah Beydoun 

Finally, a big thank you must go to Michelle Weatherhead and Chris Miller who have worked tirelessly over the past few years to help us make the AWSN what it is today.

This is a really exciting time for AWSN and I know a number of you may have questions and want to get to know the new leadership team. We plan on sharing further information on the Board’s priorities and how everyone can get involved in the coming weeks, but in the meantime please join me in welcoming our new national and chapter leaders. 

Kind Regards,

Jacqui Loustau

(Founder AWSN)

(c) AWSN 2018

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author/s and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any agency, organisation or association.

Bridging the gap between uni and industry - AWSN Cadets

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By Jacqui Loustau, Founder and one of the Directors of the Australian Women in Security Network

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I remember when I was at school, I always questioned why I was learning certain subjects (typical teenager I guess..!). Why we had to study maths, why I had to learn french. I didn't understand the importance as I couldn't apply it to real life situations. When I started uni, studying the Bachelor of Information Systems, I was lucky enough to also work part time at Australia Post in their helpdesk. It was then that I started to understand the point of all this learning.

Having a curiosity for technology is one thing, but to understand why you need to know something can enhance your learning considerably. Being able to apply and understand how things operate and work can be a great advantage before entering the workforce. 

Being in a male dominated field can sometimes make it intimating for some females to fit in and can make some of us shy away from asking questions in the fear that we will be judged. 

The importance of role models and finding great mentors is vital. To see someone working in an area and to understand what their everyday job entails can help shape where you want to go in the future. 

The AWSN Cadets brings together female students from different universities interested pursuing a career in the information security space.
It provides a safe environment to:
- meet others with similar interests and challenges
-  facilitate networking opportunities to help apply study into real life and relevant industry contexts
- practice hands-on technical skills
- helps broaden perspective and provides real insights into what it’s like to work in cyber security

- connect with industry

- build confidence

We are about to complete our first AWSN Cadets pilot programme - 5 technical workshops on the basics of malware reverse engineering. Our first mentor Noushin Shabab has been teaching us the difference between static and dynamic analysis, the tools analysts would use in order to understand and dissect what malware does. These have been very interesting sessions, and have helped these students understand why file types, address of entry points and size of code matter! 

To get this rare insight to what a malware reverse engineer does in her every day job is fascinating. I wish I had known this years ago, my life may have taken a different path! 

We are thankful for Noushin and our future mentors for the time they are giving in order to pass their knowledge onto to us.

The last session will have various companies come and present on what they do as a malware reverse engineer at their company. This helps provide different perspectives on what this type of job entails.

The group of maximum of 10, meets every fortnight and each topic runs for approx. 5 weeks after hours.Future topics currently lined up are penetration testing, blue teaming and digital forensics.The initiative is run and supported by Kaspersky labs, ANZ, Telstra and PWC.

We will be opening future places over the next few months. Places are strictly limited and selective due to the nature of what is being taught. If you are interested in participating, finding out more information or becoming a mentor, then please contact our AWSN cadet leaders Elizabeth Bonny and Diane Loi at:

Testimony from an AWSN Cadet:

The AWSN Cadets technical workshops with Noushin Shabab have been a rare and valuable opportunity for me to expand my info sec horizons! I have experienced a completely different side of the information security industry - malware reverse engineering - that I may not have otherwise had exposure to as a university student. The small class size of 10 students also means that you really get to know both your peers and the industry mentor well. I feel like I've formed some great friendships as a consequence.  
Thoroughly recommend AWSN Cadets and their workshops for their content, networking opportunities, and support - you'd be hard pressed to find opportunities like this anywhere else for tertiary female students interested in all things information security!" 

(c) AWSN 2017

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author/s and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any agency, organisation or association.

AWSN Announcement: AWSN national events manager

Change in roles - AWSN national events manager

We would like to thank Claire Pales (Fulford) for the terrific work she has done as the AWSN national events manager for the past year. Everyone has appreciated her passion, professionalism, her insightful blogs and her amazing ability to organise events nationwide. 

Claire will be concentrating on some very exciting projects. 
and will be handing over the AWSN events manager role to Heide Young from October 2017. 

Please join us in thanking Claire for the time she has dedicated to our cause and please help support Heide in her new role at AWSN.

- Jacqui Laustou, AWSN Founder 

(c) AWSN 2017

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author/s and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any agency, organisation or association.

National Volunteer Week 2017 - thanks from AWSN founder Jacqui Loustau

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By Jacqui Loustau, Founder and one of the Directors of the Australian Women in Security Network

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This week is National Volunteer week. 

It is a week where we recognise volunteers for all their hard work, passion and tireless efforts for causes that they believe in. With this in mind it’s time to acknowledge what goes into making the Australian Women in Security Network what it is today. I feel that it is essential that we say thank you to you all and to recognise what we have achieved together in the AWSN in the last 2 years.

 

The AWSN is now active across Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth and has over 600 members. The 3 chapter leads in each city are volunteering their time because they truly believe in this cause and can see that we are making a difference.

• It’s the stories of women that we have helped get a job
• It’s the women who we have helped have a voice and be bold and speak at conferences. 
• It’s the connections we have helped make within our community or abroad. 
• It’s the support we have offered those women who are alone in this male dominated field and to encourage them to keep at it. 
• We have given so many women a voice and chance to showcase their abilities in this field.
• We have inspired women to give security a go. 
• We have educated people on challenges we face in this industry and ways in which to avoid unconscious bias. 
• We’ve nurtured graduates and provide students hope and a pathway to their future dream jobs. 
• We’ve provided opportunities to those who may not have had the confidence to ask.
• We have had not-for-profits and students thank us for the help we have provided.
• We got access to senior managers and industry leaders that we never would have had imagined would open their doors for us.
• We’ve provided real testimonies of what jobs in security would really entail and how to get in it.
• We have provided girls with the awareness that jobs in security exists and that they can actually help people.
• We have provided a platform where people can provide their ideas, thoughts and let their personalities shine through.
• We’ve collaborated and learnt from other industries, professions and company sizes. It’s organising the local chapter events and getting awesome feedback after such a buzz in the room.
• We do all this in our spare time. 

Some of you may or may not know what is involved in keeping a group afloat. It’s a lot of late night work, emails on the train, phone calls while walking to and from the office and using all your lunch breaks for meetings. For some of us it's flying across the country for different events on our own money (thank you Chris!) and countries (thank you Michelle). Most of us volunteers have a paid day time job and young families to attend to in the evenings. Many of us have moved into new roles and are trying to keep abreast of that at the same time. When volunteering, you are using your spare time to help someone or a community out. It’s motivating, rewarding but it’s also exhausting…! 

I am not writing this to complain or moan. I am writing this as it’s the truth of what is involved every day for most of the volunteers working for the AWSN in their spare time. Something that I admire about every one of them. Through providing an open diverse network of individuals where no matter what gender, age, skillset, level and industries are welcome to come together to learn about security. This is a group which we should be proud of.

There are so many people I would like to thank. You know who you are. You are the ones who go out of your way to help, you are the ones who ask for no thanks but just do it as you believe in our case. You are the ones that we recognise today. Thank-you.

More support is needed to help drive the initiatives we feel so passionate about. 

So please reach out to your chapter lead today to give a HUGE thanks them and to offer a lending hand. Our volunteers and chapter leads certainly deserve this.

Thank-you.

To see some thoughts on volunteering from our AWSN cohort please have a look at the post: Thoughts on volunteering.

 This post has been created on behalf of AWSN. 

(c) AWSN 2017

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author/s and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any agency, organisation or association.

Article Series - Support through Sharing - interview with the founder of AWSN

 

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By Amanda-Jane Turner, Chief Editor & National Blog Manager of the official AWSN Blog

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The official blog of the Australian Women in Security Network (AWSN) is running a series of interview articles with the theme of Support through Sharing. The intent of these articles is to share the human experience with others to inspire, motivate and encourage readers via a brief glimpse into the life of others. Some interviews may include experiences you can relate to, or learn from, other articles may amuse you, but hopefully all the interviews will provide you with valuable encouragement and inspiration. This article series feature interviews with a diverse range of people who have willingly participated in the process to inspire others. It is fitting therefore that the first article features the founder of AWSN, Jacqui Loustau.

An interview with the Founder of the AWSN – Jacqui Loustau

Jacqui grew up in Australia and  loves a good coffee! She is married with children and successfully juggles her family with her employment and her volunteer work with the AWSN all of which keep her very busy. Despite all her competing priorities, Jacqui kindly agreed to be interviewed for the first article of our new series.

Knowing Jacqui is very committed to helping others I asked her about her community involvement. Jacqui shared that she has always volunteered her time to help others and ever since high school has been committed to participating in her community. Jacqui explained that when she was in high school she dedicated every Saturday to looking after children with disabilities which she absolutely loved to do. She also volunteered for World vision, Starlight Children's Foundation and Make-a-Wish. These days of course Jacqui, as the founder and leader of the AWSN, does not have the time to be involved in any other community organisations. The reason, as she excitedly informed me, is that the AWSN has lot of amazing initiatives in progress that are currently taking up her time.

Jacqui has a variety of interests, chiefly of course is her family. Prior to having children however, she was an active rock climber, Mont Blanc being amongst her climbs! Jacqui had this to say about rock climbing:

I often liken security to rock-climbing and mountaineering. You never know what could happen at the next step. Conditions can change quickly and you need to be ready to respond! When you get to the top of the mountain, you breathe and take in the view until it is so cold that you have to gather your energy for the hard path back. Same goes it security, you think you may have solved one issue or completed something, but new challenges are always there and they are getting harder. I guess it's why I love rock climbing and security! Always challenging with never the same route to the end.

An avid traveller Jacqui shared that her parents also loved travelling which introduced her to many places as a child. During her early travels, she visited the Philippines where she witnessed the poverty there.  This was the catalyst that motivated her to volunteer for World Vision and make her wish to see Thailand and Africa to help people there, but at the time she said she ‘didn’t have the guts to do it’. This changed however, after she read the book Living Poor by Moritz Thomsen.

Always wanting to travel as an adult, Jacqui desired to see the world and visit her two pen pals along the way. Eventually she went on a two week Contiki tour, and this led to her staying overseas for thirteen years! To keep herself in needed travel money she worked her way up from a Helpdesk position to a security consultant. Her employer at the time could see her potential and put her through six weeks of what she said was the hardest training of her life.

As the interview concluded  I asked Jacqui if she had anything else she would like to share with the readers of the AWSN blog. Here are her words:

For those who already volunteer...Thank-you! 

Some people think that they cannot make a difference in this world and therefore don't give any time to even try. But even if everyone gave a little, you would be surprised at how much impact it can make to someone's life. We are all time poor and have moments where we just cannot do anything but just live day-to-day. But during the times when we can, we should as it makes you more alive. Everyone has different passions and experiences, and there is always someone out there needing you to support and bring them up. I encourage all of you to volunteer for something you are passionate about or mentor someone (or both)! Just try!

Thank you to Jacqui for giving her time to participate in this interview.

(c) AWSN 2017

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author/s and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any agency, organisation or association.

The birth of the Australian Women in Security Network (AWSN)

This post has been written by the AWSN founder, Jacqui Loustau AWSN is an industry network with the aim of connecting, supporting, collaborating, and inspiring women in the security industry. 

The network literally came to life after my son was born, during my maternity leave. Lack of sleep, happy hormones, the need to do something other than change nappies and clean the house, I decided to start something I have always felt passionate about. I wanted to connect with other women in security, to see if anyone else felt the same way as I did and understand if they had the same need to help our industry.

I wanted to share the story of how AWSN started, because I think it is important to understand where the vision came from, how it was formed and what we are trying to achieve.

AWSN founder Jacqui Loustai

Have you seen the article featuring some of our AWSN members?

AWSN in the news - CSO . com 

The article highlights the thoughts on diversity of six champions of diversity who were recently nominated for awards at the AISA National Conference 2016. 

Thank you to the authors of the motivating article who are also AWSN members and supporters, Iresha Fernando, Micah Agustin and Claire Fulford.

The article is available from this link.

For other news items about AWSN and its members please see this page.

 This post has been created byA Turner on behalf of AWSN. 

(c) AWSN 2016

Congratulations to AWSN founder - Jacqui Loustau - Award winner AISA 2016

Diversity in Cyber Security Award - AISA 2016

Congratulations to AWSN founder Jacqui Loustau who won the diversity award at the 2016 AISA National conference!

Jacqui with her award AISA National conference 2016

• Over the past 18 months, Jacqui has worked tirelessly to get the AWSN off the ground. In addition to raising her young family and delivering on her work commitments, Jacqui has worked many volunteer hours each week on AWSN and partnering with other related organisations like AISA and the SANS Institute

• The growth has been very strong with over 300 members in AWSN’s LinkedIn group. AWSN grows each day and has chapters established across Australia in Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, Brisbane and Perth with plan to develop AWSN chapters in Adelaide, Hobart and Darwin, if there are members interested in taking leadership roles

• This year, AWSN has hosted networking events and learning opportunities in five states; facilitated mentoring and on-the-job training opportunities; contributed to women in security research; presented at universities and in the creation of a job profile project.

 This post has been created by Amanda-Jane Turner on behalf of AWSN. 

(c) AWSN 2016