Michala Liavaag
About
Michala discovered the joys of information security almost 10 years ago after a career in retail, ICT, and project management. She has since developed information governance and cybersecurity programs in local government, the National Health Service (NHS), and the charity (non-profit) sector.
Although she has some hands-on experience with cybersecurity event analysis and investigation, her primary experience and strengths are as the leader of information security governance, risk, compliance, and incident management activities; developing programs from scratch including the creation and development of information governance and cybersecurity teams with whom she freely shared her knowledge and encouraged a life-long learning approach.
It surprises some that her bachelor’s degree is in classical music; however, she holds several professional certifications including ISACA’s Certified Information Security Manager (CISM), ISC(2)’s HealthCare Information Security and Privacy Practitioner (HCISPP), SABSA Institute’s Chartered Security Architect at foundation level (SCF), PDP’s Data Protection Practitioner (Pc.dp), and IAPP’s Certified Information Privacy Technologist (CIPT).
Follow her on Twitter: @igimp https://twitter.com/IGimp
What mentoring means to me
- Inspiring more people, especially black women, into this field that can provide a rewarding career for those committed to embarking on it;
- Sharing knowledge and lessons that I have learned, and signposting may help smooth a mentee’s career journey – I wish I’d had a mentor to do that for me when I started out;
- Seeing mentees express enthusiasm and passion for the field can lead to interesting discussions and insights that I can learn from them; it also reminds me why I love working in cybersecurity.
Areas of Expertise
Country / Time Zone
United Kingdom, British Time