OWASP / Women in AppSec Updates (2018, part 1)
Behind the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) Foundation (https://www.owasp.org/index.php/Main\_Page) and its globally renowned application security tools is a community of committed like-minded individuals, volunteering our contributions to open source tools, guides and trainings to secure our Internet.
OWASP member roles (builders, breakers, defenders” etc.) are key to our collaborative development of information security practices. OWASP empowers each participant to develop a unique approach toward securing software and its people. The resulting diverse contributions bring unique impact to security.
The OWASP Women in AppSec (Committee adds value to OWASP’s mission, bringing talent, community and leadership contributions toward securing the World Wide Web by addressing the industry’s gender gap: https://www.owasp.org/index.php/Women_In_AppSec
Among the WIA activities that have engaged women in security are:
- Caroline Wong leads Women in Security panel at AppSec California 2018: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=56ze8cggM3c&t=106s
- WIA Committee Secretary and Asia Volunteer Coordinator, Vandana Verma leads monthly OWASP WIA + InfoSec Girls Information Security Knowledge Exchange webinars. The recording of the August webinar, with presenters, Alka Bhargava and Tanya Janca is available on YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3_xpiwbzl5Q
- PortSwigger journalist, Jessica Haworth, captures WIA value after connecting with Vandana Verma, Jessica Robinson and fellow WIA participants at the OWASP AppSecEU 2018 conference in July: https://portswigger.net/daily-swig/a-seat-at-the-table-owasp-champions-women-in-cybersecurity
- Debra Okwuzi, along with Vandana Verma and Tanya Janca gave a OWASP WIA + SheSecures (https://shesecures.org/) women’s cybersecurity training webinar in July
- OWASP WIA collaborated with Women’s Cyberjutsu, hosts a women’s event at the major annual Las Vegas information security conferences (BlackHat and DefCon): https://womenscyberjutsu.org/events/EventDetails.aspx?alias=LVHappyHour
- OWASP WIA partners with Janie Gelfond and Mark Miller to encourage community building for more OWASP chapters to host (free) All Day DevOps 2018 view parties, based around industry research presented by global DevOps / DevOpsSec experts during the online conference. Janie Gelfond, describes view party suggestions in the following blog post: https://www.alldaydevops.com/blog/friends-dont-let-friends-devops-alone
Aligned with the OWASP / Women in AppSec shared mission, I’m proud to share just a few of many samples of multi-industry cybersecurity insight thus far in 2018, made possible by open community engagement:
- “Cyber Insurance, a Primer for InfoSec” by Nicole Becher (OWASP Brooklyn Chapter and OWASP WIA Committee) at CrikeyCon 2018 (https://www.crikeycon.com/) in Australia: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yD2Lc9f6kUE
- “Value-Driven Threat Modeling — Security by Design” by Avi Douglen (OWASP Israel Chapter) at PyCon Israel 2018 (https://il.pycon.org/2018/en/): https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ml3HJqFJMOY