Women in Information Security: Jennifer Fernick

Last time, I had the privilege of interviewing Fortalice Solutions founder Theresa Payton. Her combination of White House and private sector intelligence and cybersecurity experience gives her a truly one-of-a-kind perspective in this industry.

This time, I got to speak to someone else I’ve met in person in Toronto’s cybersecurity community, Jennifer Fernick. Between her post-graduate studies and keeping a large financial institution secure, she’s got a hell of a lot on her plate!

Kim Crawley: Hey, Jennifer! Please tell me about what you do.

Jennifer Fernick: I’m a Director of Information Security at a large global bank where I run a team that focuses on all aspects of cryptography, as well as building enterprise-wide security platforms and tools, and designing security architectures. I’m also a PhD student in computer science.

KC: How do you juggle your private sector job with your post-graduate studies?

JF: I work basically every waking hour of my days. It can be very intense, but I love the different perspectives that I get by going between theoretical computer science research and the realities of private sector cybersecurity. Nothing in academia can really prepare you to deal with critical incidents on production systems in the middle of the night or on building massive enterprise systems at scale, and yet many of the scientific realities and computational techniques that academic computer scientists consider table stakes in our discipline are actually really innovative, too, and under-utilized by many verticals in the private sector.

KC: How did you start working in financial security?

JF: I met our former CISO at a conference, and we had a really exciting conversation about computer security.

KC: How is doing cybersecurity work in the financial services industry different from other industries?

JF: I will (Read more...)