ITWC’s 2023 High Ladies in Cybersecurity: An interview with Susan Chiang of Cloudflare

Consultants recurrently insist that variety — be it in age, color, ethnicity or different classes — helps make a corporation vigorous.

An instance is Susan Chiang. A lady born in Taiwan whose household moved to the U.S., she has risen to turn into senior director of safety at Cloudflare, overseeing a workers of 100.

But, by her account, she “fell into cybersecurity.”

She was interviewed by IT World Canada CIO Jim Love in a hearth chat as a part of the High Canadian Ladies in Cybersecurity occasion on Wednesday.

“I didn’t know what I used to be obsessed with for a profession” after graduating from college, she recalled. Chiang began with administration consulting in healthcare, in addition to advising corporations on mergers and acquisitions. That work taught her about empathy and the way in which to maneuver innovation ahead. After a short stint with Salesforce, she moved to Uber, the place initially she labored on M&A offers. However it additionally took her deeper into IT and finally cybersecurity, “the place a number of the most fascinating issues are solved.”

It wasn’t all the time simple.

“I used to be informed to attenuate my variety to slot in, to not stand out,” she stated. “I additionally struggled with confidence, when it comes to feeling I belonged, feeling I may do the job folks requested of me.”

“Over time as I reached success I saved reminding myself that, ‘I did it earlier than, I can do it once more’.” However she additionally credit others who noticed her potential.

Variations, she additionally realized, will be an asset in cybersecurity. “If you happen to rent 10 individuals who put in the identical resolution of their prior firms, it’s a lot tougher for them to assume outdoors the field. It’s a lot simpler to do what you’ve executed earlier than.” However whereas a extra various group of 10 would possibly create friction as they speak by way of the professionals and cons of an answer, she stated, a significantly better reply will emerge as a result of they problem one another.

“We’re all going to make the improper selections over time … so we want folks to problem us, we want clients to problem us. We love listening to from clients saying, ‘We’re utilizing this and I’m getting a wholly totally different expertise.’”

“It’s actually cool to be on a cybersecurity crew at a safety firm,” she added, “as a result of you’ve gotten the chance to assume, ‘How may I resolve this in a method I couldn’t earlier than’, and encourage the product engineers on the firm to do it.”

“Curiosity is critical in cybersecurity,” she stated at one other level. “Safety is just not a type of issues the place you take a look at a rule e book and test the bins. You want creativity to remain forward of adversaries.”

She advises girls pondering of going into cybersecurity — or who’re already within the career — and who’ve doubts, to look inside themselves. “You may have strengths as an individual. Play to your strengths and construct confidence from that.”

“Select roles primarily based on the folks you get to work with,” she added. “That’s the place you should have essentially the most studying and essentially the most pleasure in your profession. If you happen to work with good folks, you’ll advance one another. Cybersecurity is a small group, so discovering your folks will convey you essentially the most sustenance and essentially the most pleasure.

“I may have made extra or have fancier roles, however I don’t assume I might be right here at the moment if I selected these over discovering folks I’m excited to be round each day.”