Women in IT Security

Many of the solutions Target developed — with 17 patents secured and more pending — comes down to "getting out of the way of these really smart people on my team," says the company's vice president of cybersecurity.

Unafraid to be criticized, the languages and literature major worked her way from the Defense Department to chief information security officer of Finance of American. "“I don’t want to be a human being who can’t be told they can do any number of things better, and I expect the same from those I hire. Let’s talk about where we can all improve together.”

The co-founder of Menlo Security described the mantra simply: That “isolation is the only way you should connect to the internet.” And it's resonating: Nine out of the 10 largest banks are Menlo customers. "Wells Fargo is the holdout.”

Said chief information security officer of Auth0: “Representation is so much more important than we realize. And it’s not just about what you can give to the organization. It’s about those young people being able to see the world as it truly is, and it’s a truly diverse and beautiful space.

Said the chief technology officer and founding partner of advisory firm SecurityCurve: "I always like to keep a balance. I think it's really easy to just start looking through one lens — forget what else is out there.”

The chief trust and security officer of OneLogin didn't let "hitting a lot of brick walls" in the 1990s world of telecommunication get in the way of success. “I tell young people and any people of color, just keep going. You don't have to know everything, you just have to know something.”

“For an industry that builds client relationships and growth on partnership and trust with its customers, we're also an industry that sells zero trust, as a goal. So those two things can be very dichotomous in concept,” said the chief information security officer for the cloud services of NTT.