Job: Cyber security expert and futurist
Salary Range: The median salary for information security analysts is $95,510.
Worker: Ina Wanca
Age: 35
Education: Master’s degrees in law, global affairs and cyber security
Company: AI Governance
Ina Wanca has always thought one step ahead. Growing up in communist Bulgaria, she relished the freedom of her own imagination, which she used to dream about what life might be like on other planets.
Inspired by art and literature, Wanca studied the humanities and earned a law degree before becoming intrigued by the growing problems posed by cyber security threats. That interest led her to return to school, where she sharpened her technology skills and conducted research about international efforts to improve cyber security across countries. Wanca then worked as the director of cybercrime prevention at the nonprofit Citizens Crime Commission of New York City.
Today, the 35-year-old runs her own consulting company, AI Governance, which aims to train people how to anticipate and avoid hacking schemes and other challenges related to technology and artificial intelligence. She also teaches classes about cyber security at New York University and John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City.
And she’s still thinking about life beyond Earth. Wanca’s many research projects include creating a video for a NASA competition about life on Mars.
Wanca shared the following advice about gaining cyber security skills, tips for women to succeed in the industry and forging a career path that draws on diverse interests.
[Read: How to Design a Job You Love.]
You describe yourself as a “futurist.” What does that mean?
In general, I intersect artificial intelligence and cyber security, along with policy. The glue is technology. It enables you to create solutions you can’t create with anything else.
Since I was little, I’ve always had this tendency of thinking about the future. I always wanted to help people and businesses to understand their risks. Working in law and security, you need to be a step ahead [and] to have a road map to anticipate what is going to happen, so you know how to craft and offer solutions to your clients.
It’s all about this curiosity of exploration. I always carry curiosity in me, which enables me to rise in whatever domain I work in.
What sparked your interest in technology?
Technology is this piece that allows me to not only imagine what is possible, but also to create what is possible. This is what I wanted to do when I was growing up.
In Bulgaria, we used to have computers [and] I was curious to learn but we didn’t have the training to do it. When I came here, I learned by myself how to use computers through tutorials online. When I started with my first company, I signed up for every single seminar on how to use PowerPoint, Excel [and] Word. I signed up for all this available free training. Whatever they had available, I was on it. I was always asking, ‘Can I go to this seminar? Can I learn that?’
The real technology came when I went to New York University; when I had to develop a certain level of knowledge. I started to take programming classes. I leveled up my technical skills along with my other skills in terms of understanding how to do cyber security assessments.
[Read: How Workers Can Adapt to the Technology Revolution.]
What challenges are you tackling in the cyber security field?
Cyber security is not a technological problem — it’s a human problem.
My job with the Crime Commission was to think about cyber security in terms of how we can improve the human element and focus on the human vulnerability, because we know that 80 to 90 percent of data breaches occur due to a human error.
We were thinking, ‘How can we develop better trainings for users, employees and students to focus on the risk they create when they expose themselves to different types of tricks that hackers use?’ We developed an artificial intelligence exercise, helping students to spot phishing emails and understand biases in their thinking.
What skills do you need to succeed in the industry?
Even if you have a technology skill set, and you know how to code, you have to be good at speaking.
That is what’s lacking right now. The cyber security framework and technology was developed by the military. Unfortunately, what that really did is create this notion that cyber security is all about technology. But it’s not. What we’re lacking is the human understanding of the problem. We need to communicate what is happening to the general public better.
People are afraid of certain terms. That is what is limiting women from entering the field. Women represent 11 percent of the field globally because of the fact that it’s very limited to this mentality of defensive capability, military operations [and] tactics. But actually, there is a behavioral component to it, and a cultural component and a managerial component.
This is where companies need to spend more money and involve more women. Universities need to better craft their curricula to attract women and add that component of human understanding.
How can women break into cyber security since they’re outnumbered by men?
I would definitely tell them to find a mentor — it could be a man or a woman — and then a community, a network of people who are discussing issues.
Women especially need to expose themselves and network and talk with people, so they can form opinions on where exactly they fit in the cyber security domain. There are women who would be better in coding, using their technological skills. Others, like me, like to communicate. Yes, I can develop and I can code, but I love to empower and create.
Have a mentor, find a network and then open up a blog and talk about these issues with the public. Even Instagram, where you can capture images of events and reflect on that, can be useful in the field of cyber security.
The majority of my speaking events, at the first level of my career, started when I was approaching different conferences and people and just talking with them, finding the best of the best cyber security experts. I would be curious about everything [and] read everything. Now, I’m invited to all of these events as a keynote speaker.
What is the job outlook for people interested in cyber security work?
Cyber security is a big, enduring problem. The problems are not going to go away, and we’re going to have more. That means we need more experts.
The majority of jobs I can see in the market focus on cyber security penetration testers or software engineers who can build the technological solutions. I’m starting to see, slowly, that companies are spending their money on attracting people who can do training, who are cyber security communicators who can help with cyber awareness programs.
[See: 25 Best Jobs That Pay $100K.]
How can people with multiple interests create their own career paths, as you have done?
It starts with a question or idea. There should be a problem you want to solve.
The most important part is to look from a 365-degree perspective. I have a very good understanding of the public and private sector, as well as academia. It’s always good to be able to understand those environments, because then you can work with different types of people and understand problems from different perspectives.
As Steve Jobs said, you just have to connect the dots along the way. I think it’s cross-connecting, really. Being brave enough to say, ‘Yes, art and math do go together.’ Even if it’s invisible, there’s still something there that connects.
Exploring this connection is very important, because when other persons see there is a value in that, you’re creating your competitive advantage. Just be really different in the way you think about problems.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity. Salary information comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
More from U.S. News
10 Tech Jobs That Make the Most Money
The 12 Best Jobs That Help People
Tracking Hackers: How to Work in Cyber Security originally appeared on usnews.com
