Women in Information Security: Claire Reckless

Last time, I had the opportunity to talk to Toronto’s own Jennifer Fernick. Somehow, she juggles graduate computer science studies with taking care of a bank’s cybersecurity. I couldn’t do that!

This time, I had the honour of speaking with software tester Claire Reckless. Testing an application’s security and functionality is a vital cybersecurity role that people often don’t think about. I learned a lot.

Kim Crawley: Hi Claire! Please tell me about what you do.

Claire Reckless: Hi Kim. I’m a software tester, which is something I’ve done for about eleven years.  I work as part of a development team, all the way through the development cycle testing from the idea stage to production. This can encompass different kinds of testing like functional testing, performance, usability or security testing as well as things like test automation. My last couple of roles have been Test Lead roles, meaning I’m responsible for test strategy and co-ordinating the testing carried out on a product as well as some line management.

KC: So the secure development cycle is a focus of yours?

CR: Yes, obviously it’s important to think about security in any kind of software development. But in my previous role working for a security software company, it was something we placed particular focus on given that was what the business did. We wanted to make sure we were thinking about security all the way through development from when we were discussing and refining user stories to testing the final product.

KC: What did you study first, development or cybersecurity?

CR: I’ve never studied either in terms of formal qualifications, I don’t have a degree at all. I came into software testing from a technical support background and took some of the ISTQB exams. Then anything else I’ve learned since (Read more...)