Sophie Powell | Graduate | Cyberwomen Groups

 

My name is Sophie Powell, and I am the Co-Founder of CyberWomen Groups CIC, and an incoming Graduate Cyber Security Consultant with CyberFort Groups.

Recently graduated from the University of Warwick with a first-class degree in Cyber Security, my technical career began as a Science Leader back in my secondary school, that has flourished into a fully-fledged Cyber Security career I have grown to love. Embracing my first Cyber role working with the West Midlands and South West Cyber Resilience Centres as a CyberPATH student, I have had extensive experience working with a range of clients to strengthen their security posture and provide training to their employees to make them more Cyber aware. Not only this, but I was lucky enough to begin to build my technical skills, with vulnerability assessments and Open-Source Intelligence projects.

To further my expertise throughout my time at University, I have held an internship position at Equilibrium Security with a focus on Penetration testing and Red Teaming, and a current role within HansaCyber that works with clients to deliver a range of Cybersecurity services.

With a broad insight into the field, my proficiency now lies with Open-Source Intelligence, and I have received a first-class dissertation for my work on understanding how an employee’s online activity may affect a companies overall security posture. Using and comparing the findings of two very different companies, the findings were able to show patterns of behaviour, and has scope for further work in the research area.

In my spare time, I am a quarter of the team WickedCyber, I have had extensive insight into creating cyber policies and strategies through the Cyber 9/12 Challenge, and as a team achieving a Semi-Finalist position and ‘The Most Engaged’ award. Additionally, we have been finalists in the ‘CrowdStrike: Battle of the Uni’s’ competition.

However, most significant achievement of my career is the creation of CyberWomen Groups, which is a new initiative that has come about as a result of the CyberWomen@Warwick initiative, founded by myself in March 2022. This is a Community Interest Company (CIC) that looks to support women in their journeys through university by creating a safe, inclusive environment and encouraging the positive change of diversity within STEM subjects. CyberWomen Groups supports different branches within universities, formed of groups of fantastic women that volunteer their time to put on events, workshops and seminars to inspire more into Cyber Security, and spotlight the incredible women in the industry. Since beginning, we have also begun to move into the academic sector to work with the younger generations and are reaching out to a range of communities to help promote the amazing opportunities a Cyber career can hold for people of all walks of life.

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