Nancy Willi Maliackel is an ambassador of the Catalyst’s CyberStart program and a Software Engineering student at Toronto Metropolitan University. She is a network analyst co-op student at RBC and the conference chair of TMU Cyber Summit.
A few years after her sister got a start in cybersecurity, Nancy followed in her footsteps. “I always had one ear to her calls, and I really liked the words she was using: containment or escalation. From her bedroom, adjacent to her sister, Nancy wanted to find her way into cybersecurity, and TryHackMe seemed like the optimal route for a beginner. It was on this search that she came across CyberStart. Soon after, Nancy attended her first cybersecurity conference and made new contacts, including a local chapter of Leading Cyber Ladies. She was inspired by cybersecurity, particularly by the women in the field. “My sister was the only woman on her calls,” she says.
Nancy is interested in the technical, and says she’s benefited most from a foundation in the practical. She specifically enjoyed the TryHackMe labs which enabled her to run online lab instances without worrying about installation concerns on her laptop. On top of that, she received valuable certifications, with the support of the Catalyst, which made her resume stand out. She was moved when a member of the CyberStart team reached out to put her resume in front of RBC. This close collaboration between RBC and the Catalyst has been, according to Nancy, a gateway to a career in cybersecurity.
Nancy’s observations in the field have helped her form an opinion on the traits that best support the work of a cyber professional. First, she believes curiosity is essential. “You need to be curious and ask the whys,” she says. “Why did this thing happen?” Curiosity helps you ask questions such as, “Why would the attacker think like this?” “Can I think that way?” Triage and pentesting, for instance, depend on this. That curiosity is critical to success in the technical field.
As AI develops, Nancy’s interest and career niche keep pace. She is interested in a mentor’s idea that everyone is excited to use AI, but they don’t necessarily consider the security risks associated with artificial intelligence or machine learning. Nancy is committed to helping solve this problem.
All of it started with a conference, and my experience with the Catalyst has changed my outlook and built my foundation.
Nancy also sees irreplaceable value in good communication skills. It’s important to be able to reduce complex cybersecurity details into accessible business terms. She learned this lesson in CyberStart as well her co-op role with RBC. A lot of compliance work happens, and many times, people may not understand the risk or the reason. “I think critical thinking is really important because many times you need to escalate to the right person when there is an incident.” The IT team may need to be informed of an incident and how it will affect implementation or verification on the site, or the finance team needs to understand a project utilization request. This is when plain speech is more important than ever.
Again, you don’t need to be an expert on every little detail or technical aspect, but you need to understand the fundamentals so that you can give your opinion or advice when needed.
When asked how Nancy has changed since she listened to the wall to pick up the details of her calls, she describes CyberStart in one word: opportunistic. By that, she means that it has opened a world she has always longed to find her place in.