2024-11-23 –, Ngaio Marsh Theatre
Stop me if these phrases sound familiar: "Management just doesn't understand the issue", "The executives don't care about security", or "If the board would just give us the budget......". You've probably heard or even uttered many of these common phrases yourself. There seems to be this perennial divide between our technical security practitioners and engineers, and the leadership at the top levels of an organization. Have you ever considered what it would be like to be an executive, what you’d do differently, or even wondered if it’s possible to move from a technical security role into the C-Suite of a multi-billion dollar organization?
In this presentation we’ll follow the journey of someone who did just that. Alyssa Miller, a childhood hacker who grew up in the hacker culture of the 80’s and 90’s is now the CISO of such an organization. She’ll share the lessons learned as a hacker that helped her understand and influence executives at the highest levels of leadership. She’ll give you tips, tricks, and even warnings about potential pitfalls to avoid if your goals include the C-Suite at some point in your future. You’ll learn that you don’t need to abandon your hacker roots to join the management ranks, and in fact you’ll see how those tools uniquely equip you to be exceptional in such a role. Come join us for fun stories, learning from examples, and inspiration to chase those dreams in your most authentic way.
This presentation will include an origin story but will not focus on it. Instead, that origin story will be used to draw specific learning experiences to be shared with the audience. Tales of successes and failures will be shared, connections between hacker skill sets and the skills needed to be successful in the C-Suite will be drawn, and attendees will leave the session feeling prepared and inspired to take their hacker persona to the boardroom.
Alyssa Miller is a hacker who, in her pre-teens, bought her first computer and hacked into a paid dial-up community platform. She grew up in hacker culture, finding her hacker family in IRC channels in adolescence. While IT was not her original plan, she ended up working as a developer and later a penetration tester in the financial services industry. Moving into consulting, her focus on defending technology systems grew to the point where she was advising fortune 100 companies on building comprehensive security programs.
Alyssa is now in an executive role as the CISO of Epiq Global. Still very much a hacker, she’s built on that identity to grow her career. She is an internationally recognized public speaker and author of “Cybersecurity Career Guide”. She advocates for helping others make a career out of their passion for security. She’s also a proponent for the open sharing of ideas and perspectives on securing our connected world.