Reinvention is certainly not a new idea, especially for cybersecurity practitioners who are continuously challenged to adapt to new threats, an expanding attack surface, and emerging business requirements. But, cybersecurity reinvention is increasingly imperative to the success of entire organizations. Today's security practitioners are reinvention and risk advisors to the business, helping organizations observe subtle fault lines and course-correct for long-term transformation strategies. This theme of changing ourselves, our work, and our organizations is at the core of the newest book from JupiterOne Press: Reinventing Cybersecurity.
Reinventing Cybersecurity is a guidebook for the modern cybersecurity practitioner on boardroom presentations, incident response processes, hiring, training, attack surface management, and countless other everyday challenges. It's the first industry book authored by 19 women and non-binary security experts, offering a unique look at cybersecurity that addresses the technical, interpersonal, and strategic aspects of our work. It is a collection of 19 short stories by experts, written through a lens that is both intersectional and hopeful.
It is available on Amazon and for free digital download on the JupiterOne website.
Overview of Reinventing Cybersecurity
The latest JupiterOne Press book is a set of standalone stories organized around three themes, how to reinvent your career, how to refocus your approach to everyday challenges, and how to reimagine the future. Each standalone story is narrative, but also sufficiently prescriptive to serve as a future point-of-reference. Readers are encouraged to find their own journey through the chapters, since it is definitely not mandatory to read the book in order.
Section I: Reinventing Our Future
- Latha Maripuri, CISO: Five Strategic Priorities for the Modern CISO
- Jasmine Henry, Field Security Director: Revolutionary Leadership, Rebellious Opinions, and Knowledge Graphs
- Aubrey Stearn, CTO: Security as CTO
- Carla Sun, Security Engineer: Confronting Inherently Flawed Systems
- Lonye Ford, CEO: For the Love of Frameworks: Creating Relevant, Reusable Patterns for Security
Section II: Reinventing What We Do
- Dr. Meg Layton, Head of Security Architecture and Engineering: Teaching is a Shared Responsibility
- Tracy Bannon, Senior Principal, Software Architect, and DevOps Advisor: Tearing Down and Retraining Muscle Memory
- Breanne Boland, Product Security Engineer: Your Greatest Vuln: A Culture of No
- Alison "Snipe" Gianotto, CEO: Weaponizing Compliance
- Carlota Sage, vCISO Principal: F*ck Security Maturity; Let's Talk About Security Health!
- Lisa Hall, CISO: Repositioning Cybersecurity
- Rin Oliver, Software Engineer: Open Source Lessons on Smashing Barriers to Contribution
Section III: Reinventing Who We Are
- Joyous Huggins, Founder and IT Operations Specialist: Project Overhaul: Creating a More Dynamic, Diverse, and Credentialed Workforce
- Yvie Djieya, Cybersecurity Assurance & IT Risk Analyst: Breaking into Cybersecurity
- Angela Marafino, Program Manager: A Little Less Yasss Queen, a Lot More Action!
- Coleen Shane, Network Security Engineer: Do I Fit?
- Rachel Harpley, Cybersecurity Talent Advisor: Ageism is Your Achilles Heel
The book also features a preface by Amy Devers, Chief of Staff and Executive Director of People at JupiterOne, and an introduction by Senior Marketing Manager Ashleigh Lee.
The Making of Reinventing Cybersecurity
JupiterOne Press released our first set of cybersecurity stories in late 2021, Modern Cybersecurity. I purchased the book and read it back when I was a JupiterOne customer and was immediately hooked by the multi-author format. It is not always easy to present technical information in a way that feels narrative, but it's possible with the right set of expert voices. When I came to work here, I knew I wanted to create another book like Modern Cybersecurity, authored by a group of women and non-binary individuals at the forefront of the cybersecurity field.
From the onset of this project, I was very intentional about making sure Reinventing Cybersecurity included authors with different experiences. Several months prior, Dr. Meg Layton set the course for this project during her talk at PancakesCon, when she stated that individuals new to security have recent, first-hand experience on breaking in, and that folks who hire and write job descriptions can learn from this. It is not an accident that Reinventing Cybersecurity authors come from all stages of career. This book includes stories by CISOs at some of the world's most innovative organizations, but it also includes cybersecurity stories from Directors, CEOs, CTOs, architects, builders, teachers, and an individual at the beginning of a very bright career.
When you are intentional about finding individuals from diverse backgrounds and giving them space to debate and create without getting in the way, the results can change the world. As this project took flight, it became apparent to the author community that Reinventing Cybersecurity is a book about change in the broadest possible sense of the word. It's a set of stories on how real people have navigated the C-Suite, scaled security programs, built business partnerships and dealt with too many cloud alerts, written in a way that can help others succeed in similar circumstances.
Reinventing Cybersecurity is primarily a book about cybersecurity practice, strategy, and talent. It's a book that doesn't ignore identity or focus on it to the exclusion of technical topics. In fact, this book acknowledges that our work and career paths are informed by identity and experience. Many authors have overcome significant adversity and systemic bias to reach their current positions as executives and experts, and this book provides space to acknowledge how gender, race, and culture have shaped our professional identities. Identity is not the only root of the authors' cybersecurity practices, but an important one root, along with education and experience, that defined us as engineers, analysts, teachers, and leaders.
Praise for Reinventing Cybersecurity
"Women and minorities not only bring diversity of thought to conversations and decisions, we bring our varied experiences, both good and bad, to the table. This provides a more fair and equitable distribution of power and influence in technology, removing the bias that we have seen in the space."
- Mari Galloway, CEO and Founding Board Member at Women's Society of Cyberjutsu (WSC)
"Today's security leaders and next-generation cybersecurity professionals will be inspired by these personal stories of resilience working in challenging environments and driving industry changes to support innovation. These pages are filled with practical guidance on how to succeed in security leadership roles and adapt security management practices as technology rapidly changes."
- Alya Franklin, Co-Founder at Women in Security and Privacy (WISP) and Co-Founder and Partner, Aleada Consulting
"Don't put this book down. You will be taken through both the history and the author's own lives with examples of the issues in the security industry, and how they overcame these issues. You'll learn how you can help increase diversity. Increasing diversity isn't just about being equitable, it's about embracing a breadth of people's different approach problems and what diverse knowledge they have. That combination can make your security team scarily effective."
- Nicole Schwartz, COO and Board Chair at The Diana Initiative
"The cybersecurity industry is three years behind in its skilled workforce demand, and yet women still only comprise a small percentage of the workforce. The unique perspective of women in the cybersecurity community provides key insights to a more modern approach to talent, the industry's number one problem, and how we can change that immediately."
- Didi Dayton, Partner at Wing Venture Capital
"Reinventing Cybersecurity embodies the essential ideals of diversity, equality, inclusion, and openness, which we strongly embrace at JupiterOne. Hiring strategies and teams should include individuals from underrepresented backgrounds, regardless of disability status, mental health, sexual orientation, race, gender identity, neurodiversity, or body size. Embracing a wide range of viewpoints and experiences benefits all businesses."
- Erkang Zheng, Founder and CEO at JupiterOne
Upcoming JupiterOne Press Events
Bsides Seattle
JupiterOne will be sponsoring a book signing at BSides Seattle on May 14th for all attendees, volunteers, and organizers. Two authors will be on-site for this signing - myself (Jasmine Henry) and Angela Marafino.
RSA Conference
At this year's RSA Conference (RSAC) in San Francisco, JupiterOne will host a book signing on June 7 in Booth # 0325 in the Moscone South Expo Hall. Reinventing Cybersecurity will be featured in a DevOpsConnect: DevSecOps Panel during RSAC on June 7 with authors Breanne Boland, Product Security Engineer of Gusto; Coleen Shane, Network Security Engineer of Quick Quack Car Wash; and Tracy Bannon, Senior Principal for the MITRE Corporation.
Cyber Therapy and Webinars
Join Ashleigh Lee on Cyber Therapy on May 3rd at 5pm EDT for a livestream discussion with author Angela Marafino on community, career, and entirely new perspectives on ‘imposter syndrome.'
On May 17th, Ashleigh will go live at 5pm EDT with author Coleen Shane on conferences, community, networking, and possibly even #InfoSecBikini.
Click here to subscribe to JupiterOne's YouTube channel or watch the live episode!
On May 18th at 1pm EDT, Ashleigh Lee will host a webinar with author and DevSecOps expert Tracy Bannon, titled Threat Modeling is a Team Sport - How to Transform Organizational Habits. Click here to save your seat!
These events are just the first of many ways that Reinventing Cybersecurity will make an appearance on podcasts, streaming shows, book clubs, or regional security conferences. We look forward to announcing more book signings, author interviews, and events related to this book in the weeks ahead.
Intentionally Reinventing Our Future
Making Reinventing Cybersecurity was a genuinely transformative experience. The book was only possible with incredible efforts of an author community and the JupiterOne Press team. I hope this book offers value to readers at all stages of their cybersecurity careers, who can use it as a guidebook for their cybersecurity work and efforts toward a more inclusive industry.
Being intentional about learning from others from all different backgrounds can allow us to better understand fault lines in our organizations and address all types of risk - including the technical, interpersonal, and strategic aspects of our work.
Thank you for participating in the launch of the latest book from JupiterOne Press. If you like Reinventing Cybersecurity, please leave a review on Amazon!
