2019: Riding the cyber highway - University of Wollongong – UOW

A courageous move to Singapore to take on the role as Head of Security Risk for an international banking group opened up an unexpected cyber journey for Kate Healy.

Since taking that leap of faith at the age of 29, the UOW computer science graduate has held senior roles across some of the largest organisations in Australia and continued to help organisations better manage their cyber risk.

As Telstra's Principal Cyber Security Strategist, Telstra Enterprise, she now works with the chief information security officers of Australia's largest organisations, understanding their cyber strategies and advising on industry trends and innovations.

She is also a cyber evangelist, regularly presenting at industry events both within Australia and Internationally.

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my name is Kate Healy and I'm the principal cybersecurity strategist at

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Telstra Enterprise at Telstra and I studied a Bachelor of computer science

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here graduating 20 years ago just seeing the students today I mean I'm so blown

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away of what they've produced and I'm so excited for how they're going to be

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changing the world once they leave the University and I was reflecting back on

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my own career and all the change and all the things that I've done since leaving

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and I'm just so excited for them I love being at Telstra I really feel that one of

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the things I noticed when I joined Telstra is I didn't feel different sometimes in

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organizations as a woman in the room and usually only woman in the room you do

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feel a little bit different but at Telstra I've always felt like I was

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equal to everybody else in the organization and I think a big part of

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that is because we do have a lot of female leaders so it feels like the

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normal rather than the the unusual it is an incredibly rewarding career working in

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cybersecurity there are so many different roles you can do in this space

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I think there's a misconception that all we do is hack

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I haven't coded or hacked since I left University there's roles in architecture

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there's roles in communication there's roles in governance and policy and

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compliance and you get to work on amazingly interesting projects I've

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worked on high-frequency trading platforms online banking platforms

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the A380 hangers when they were coming to Qantas I mean it's just such a

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rewarding space to be but particularly for women I think

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and I don't mean to generalize but we do tend to want to look for a role which

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has a purpose and working in cyber security I'm not just helping

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organizations I'm helping individuals so the work I do with organizations helps

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make individual Australians be more secure I really love understanding new

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technology and strategy so I my love area is actually how do we think about

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cybersecurity in a strategic way and how do we actually look at better ways of

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solving the problem we have a big part of cyber Security is we have a big skill

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shortage and the reality is we can't keep throwing money and resources and

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you consider that the industry alone or globally is just on security products

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and services it's a hundred billion dollar industry and we can't really

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afford to keep doing things that way so I'm really interested in looking for

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ways that we can start integrating security into what we do and better ways

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of solving these problems my advice would be if there's any other alumini

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listening to this today and you get the opportunity to come and speak to

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students you please do it it's been such a rewarding day and I think it's really

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important that we give back to places that we started and we help inspire

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these students because really they're gonna be creating amazing things

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we want them to be the best leaders they can be and you can help that journey

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by coming talking to them understanding what they're doing and maybe even give them

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a helping hand

Healy recently returned to UOW to provide the keynote address for the annual School of Computing and Information Technology (SCIT) Trade Show, sharing insights into her career and cyber security with today’s students.

“It’s been 20 years since I was in their shoes and it was a wonderful experience visiting the place my career started and seeing the amazing work these students produced. And, I’m so excited for how they are going to be changing the world once they leave university.”

Healy was keen to open students’ eyes up to the multiple opportunities available to them if they wanted to pursue a career in cyber security.

“It’s a really rewarding career. There are so many different roles you can do in this space. Roles in architecture, communication, governance and policy and compliance. And you get to work on amazingly interesting projects.

“I’ve worked on high-frequency trading platforms, online banking platforms and the A380 hangars when they were being adopted by Qantas.

“I love being at Telstra. And working in cyber security, the work I’m doing with organisations, helps individual Australian’s be more secure.”

Having both a risk and cyber background allows her both to understand and communicate with senior executives, whilst translating needs into technical security requirements, ensuring a faster path to better managing cyber risk.

“Cyber is a constantly evolving landscape, with new threats and new solutions the status quo. I help our customers make sense of this always changing environment and work with our products and consulting teams to ensure we have the best solutions.”

Drawing on her expertise and leadership in the industry, Healy has recently launched a cyber risk meetup group called the Australian CyRisk Network to allow knowledge sharing on cyber security and risk issues and how to better communicate and drive conversation.

“So it’s not just a technical conversation, but a vital business conversation that we’re having.”

Healy encourages other alumni of UOW to get involved in activities like the SCIT Trade Show, which showcases samples of work by current students and provides an opportunity to discuss the latest innovations and technologies.

“If you get the opportunity to come and speak to the students and understand what they’re doing, please do it. It’s been such a rewarding day. And I think it’s really important that we give back to the places where we all got our start and we help inspire these students and future leaders.

“It was an honour to give back to my University and I am looking forward to looking at ways I can help in the future.”

Kate Healy
Principal Cybersecurity Strategist, Telstra
Bachelor of Computer Science, 1999