If you work in cybersecurity and want to stay up to date with the trends and challenges, make sure you’re following these industry experts.
A key piece of career advice, no matter what industry you’re in, is to network, get to know the main players and leaders in the sector and stay on top of the latest industry trends.
To help you do this in the cybersecurity world, we’ve taken a closer look at just seven experts in the field whose work you would do well to follow.
It’s worth noting that, before his passing, legendary white hat hacker Kevin Mitnick would have been on this list.
Mitnick rose to fame when he was arrested in 1995 for multiple offences, including breaking into the networks of major firms such as Nokia, Motorola and IBM. His interest in hacking began thanks to his curious, mischievous nature and a love of both magic and pranking.
It is still worth reading up on his life and work, including an interview he did with SiliconRepublic.com in 2018, before diving into the rest of our list.
Raluca Saceanu
Raluca Saceanu, CEO of Smarttech247, an enterprise cybersecurity organisation headquartered in Cork. She holds a master’s degree in strategic management from the University of Innsbruck and received the Women in Technology Advocate Award by Deloitte in 2021.
In an interview with SiliconRepublic.com in 2021, she said the threat landscape is evolving at a dangerous pace. “The other part of the problem is that cybercriminals are just getting better at what they do.”
Raluca Saceanu. Image: Michael O’Sullivan/OSM PHOTO
Brian Krebs
Acclaimed cybercrime expert and journalist Brian Krebs has been writing about all things cybersecurity for nearly 30 years, starting with his work as a reporter for The Washington Post.
Now, Krebs works as an independent investigative journalist, regularly publishing cybersecurity insights on his Krebs on Security website. In 2016, his site was targeted by a severe DDoS attack.
Rinki Sethi
Rinki Sethi is vice-president and CISO at Bill, a cloud-based software company that digitises and automates back-office financial processes for small and medium enterprises. Notable previous roles in cybersecurity include CISO of Twitter and Rubrick and VP of information security at IBM.
Sethi also serves on the board of ForgeRock, a public company in the identity and access management space, as well as on the board of Vaultree, the data-in-use encryption company. She is on the advisory council for ISACA, a professional organisation for members who work in digital trust fields.
Brian Honan
Brian Honan is an internationally recognised expert on cybersecurity. He has acted as a special adviser to Europol’s Cybercrime Centre (EC3) and is the founder of Ireland’s first Ireland’s first Computer Security Incident Response Team, known as IRISS-CERT.
Honan is also a member of the advisory board of several innovative security companies and the author of several books and regularly writes for various publications. For his contributions to the cybersecurity industry, Brian has been awarded the ‘SC Magazine Information Security Person of the Year’ and has also been inducted into the Infosecurity Europe Hall of Fame.
Image: Brian Honan
Keren Elazari
Israeli cybersecurity analyst Keren Elazari describes herself as a proud “friendly hacker”, as well as a security researcher, public speaker and founder of Leading Cyber Ladies, a dedicated event for women in cybersecurity in Israel.
Elazari is also a senior researcher at the Tel Aviv University Interdisciplinary Cyber Research Center and said we can learn a lot from criminal hackers. “They teach us a lot about innovation,” she told SiliconRepublic.com
Troy Hunt
Troy Hunt is an Australian web security consultant best known for creating Have I Been Pwned?, a website that lets people check if their information has been compromised in a data breach.
Hunt has also created several Pluralsight courses on web security and other technologies, and regularly runs developer-focused security workshops and speaks at international conferences.
Jan Carroll
UCD Professional Academy lecturer Jan Carroll is a passionate cybersecurity leader and educator. She founded Fortify Institute, a dedicated security training and education provider and is particularly passionate about bringing more women and underrepresented groups into the security industry.
Carroll is also the programme leader for the postgraduate diploma in cybersecurity, a Springboard programme delivered by Chevron College in partnership with the University of Sunderland. She was also shortlisted for Cyber Educator 2022 in the EU Cyber Awards.
Image: Jan Carroll
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