Page 23 - Institute Quaterly 5 Final

Prof Alison Wakefield CSyP FSyI listed as

one of the Most Inspiring Women in

Cyber UK 2020

our finalists enough for all that they do for our cybersecurity
community,” said Yvonne Eskenzi, co-founder of Eskenzi PR and
the IT Security Guru. “It is heart-warming to see that, despite their
grand successes and high-rankings, these brilliant women are
willing to take the time to advocate for equality and act as role
models as well as mentors for future generations.”

“The judges had an immensely difficult task as they had such a
wealth of talent to choose from. Our winners range across highly
technical practitioners to business leaders in both the public and
private sectors, academia, regulators and leaders in the drive to
increase diversity in the cyber security workforce - reflecting the
range of concerns of the judges themselves,” commented Tony
The Security Institute Chair, Professor Alison Wakefield CSyP FSyI, Morbin, Editor-in-Chief of the IT Security Guru. “They are already
has been honoured as one of the Most Inspiring Women in Cyber inspirational, and by gaining this additional recognition for their
UK 2020 in the IT Security Guru digital event this week - sponsored successes, the aim is that they will act as role models for the next
generation of women considering cyber security as a career, those
by BT Security, Kaspersky, BAE Systems AI, KnowBe4 and ISC(2).
considering changing career, and reassuring women already in
Selected by a distinguished panel of judges, who are themselves senior roles that there need be no limit to their ambitions.”
inspirational, the panel voted to reduce an impressive list of
accomplished women in cybersecurity down to just 25 - though this Alison Wakefield PhD CSyP FSyI is Chair of the Security Institute,
the UK’s largest member association for protective security
had to be extended to 26 this year.
professionals, as well as Professor of Criminology and Security
The virtual event saw the winners awarded with medals, and Stir Studies at the University of West London, where she is a member
Crazy mixologist, Patrick Fogarty, attended the event to ensure of the executive of UWL’s Cybersecurity and Criminology Centre
everyone had a cocktail or two in hand. The evening also included and Course Leader of the Professional Doctorate in Policing, Crime
and Security. Alison is also an Associate Fellow of the Royal United
a panel discussion addressing the need for women’s lists, the Services Institute, Academic Adviser to the Chartered Security
importance of role models and the steps that can be taken to
ensure more women succeed in cybersecurity. This was led by Professionals Registration Authority, and a member of a number of
Tony Morbin, Editor-in-Chief of the IT Security Guru, with panellists editorial boards and advisory councils, including those of Security
Jane Frankland, Anna Collard – SVP Content Strategy and Security Journal as well as the International Security and International
Disaster Response Expos. She recently completed her fourth book,
Evangelist of KnowBe4, Deshini Newman – EMEA Managing titled Security and Crime: Converging Perspectives on a Complex
Director of ISC(2), Mivy James – Head of Consulting at BAE Systems,
Lynn Studd – Director of Security at BT, and Alina Topchy – Deputy World, due to be published by Sage in 2021, and last year was
CBO & VP SalesOp at Kaspersky. recognised by SC Media UK as one of the UK’s 50 most influential
women in cyber security for 2019.
“It has been over ten years since we founded the IT Security Guru, The full list of winners, their videos and panel discussion are
and this is by far one of our greatest feats. I cannot commend
available at: https://www.itsecurityguru.org/women-in-cyber/
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