Across the Globe, millions of people are celebrating the day of the girl which is a day set aside to celebrate the 1.1 billion girls across the world who are breaking boundaries, inspiring, innovating, setting their minds on things that matter to them most and not letting anything stop them.
According to Moneyish “this year’s International Day of the Girl Child is working to change that under its 2018 theme “With Her: A Skilled GirlForce.
A year-long effort to find partners and investors to advocate for and fund ways to make the globe’s 1.1 billion girls more empowered and employable. Today’s generation of girls is preparing to enter a world which is being transformed by innovation and automation — but they face adversity to getting the educational training needed to enter into that workforce,” Ritah Muyambo, the senior consultant for youth at the U.N. Women’s civil society division, said.
“Girls between five and 14 spend more than 160 million hours on housework and chores than boys do … so it’s quite important for us to focus on how we can prepare those girls for the workplace.”
#DayoftheGirl: African Women in CyberSecurity celebrate the day of the girl to Inspire Others
In Africa, as we celebrate the day of the girl, we recognize some of the most amazing young African she-roes who are behind the scenes enforcing security on the most used applications globally. From our interactions with them, they all couldn’t deny the importance of having a skill that you’re truly proud off knowing how much time you have to dedicate to learning or growing into it. Also, having a squad to push and encourage you into being the very best can’t be over emphasized.
So let’s meet our she-roes and find out what their super powers are, how they acquired it and what they plan to do with.
- Kessiana: CyberSecurity Analyst – Follow Kessiana On Twitter
Super Powers: Scientific research, Application of Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Algorithms, to solve real life problems, and the application of programming language into cybersecurity.
What she uses her powers for: Process automation.
Motivation: Complex tasks!! They motivate me into finding simple automated ways of solving such problems.
What i hope to see more: Female professionals in the industry balancing careers and family. That way younger girls don’t think/feel they have to choose one or the other
2. Enid: Information Security Analyst – Follow Enid On Twitter
Super Powers: Helping Organizations to comply with global security standards they need to operate
Motivation: Though my background is in telecommunications and information engineering, over the past couple of years, I have really grown in the field of information security more so Governance, Risk and Compliance. I have gotten to appreciate the cyber risks that organizations face and how as cyber security professionals we can help in managing such risks.
Goals: My biggest goal is to one day be able to influence and develop policies that aim to protect the digital rights of Africans.
What i hope to see more: have more women who are already in the industry reach out to more young girls in primary/high schools and mentor them
#DayoftheGirl: African Women in CyberSecurity celebrate the day of the girl to Inspire Others
3. Febisola: Incidence Monitoring and Reporting Analyst – Follow Febs on Twitter
Alias: Triage Jedi
Super Powers: Identification and Analysis of cybersecurity breaches
Biggest Challenge: Transitioning to a career in CyberSecurity
Motivation: I like to challenge myself and also wanted to make a difference. The decision was worth it after-all. The learning curve can be thrilling and terrifying, there is something new to learn everyday and i am happy doing this.
It’s fun helping individuals/companies with online safety!
What i hope to see more: Women who are willing to push more and not ready to give up easily.
4. Lilian: CyberSecurity Specialist – Follow Lilian on Twitter
Super Powers: Vulnerability Assessment and Incidence Management
Motivation: Being an incident manager and having the adequate skill to know what to do when a business or organization is under an attack is just phenomenal.
5. Sophina: CyberSecurity Engineer – Follow Sophina on Twitter
Super Powers: Hunting Bugs on web applications and Providing Security Audits for organizations
Having these skills means i can find and fix the loopholes in a system before a cybercriminal exploits it.
Motivation: So long as the internet exists, and we are all connected. Cybercrimes will continue to be on the rise and organizations and individuals will constantly be threatened.
The internet, the organizations and the people are my constant motivation. They drive me to be research new tricks that cybercriminals are using and find ways to protect the organizations that could be vulnerable.
What i hope to see more: More girls in school and standing up for what they deserve. The Woman’s place is not in the kitchen.
