International Women’s Day Spotlight: Laura Cabrera

This month, we are proud to celebrate International Women’s Day and shine a light on women at Onapsis who are part of a shifting generation. For our second spotlight, we’re sharing Laura Cabrera’s journey from ABAP developer to SAP Security Specialist at Onapsis. Laura joined Onapsis six years ago as a developer and is now the Assess Squad owner on the Product Research Team. She is in charge of organizing the work the team does every sprint and works on defining content for the Onapsis product suite to keep SAP systems secure.

 

Q: How did you get started in tech/cybersecurity?

A: I got my first job as a trainee ABAP developer when I was in university. A couple of years later, I applied to a job position at Onapsis as developer, even though I didn’t fulfill all the requirements. I barely had knowledge about cybersecurity before that so it sounded challenging! After almost three years as ABAP developer, I challenged myself again and asked the Research Director for a position in his team. The team took me in with open arms, and although a lot has changed within the team and my roles and responsibilities, it has been a rewarding experience. 

Q: What does a typical day look like?

A: A typical day as an SAP specialist differs from company to company. My week starts with reviewing and planning the work done by the team of devs and SAP specialists. We write content for the Onapsis product on how SAP systems work and how to keep them secure. I also solve issues reported by our customers, both related to the product or to SAP configurations. Once a month, I participate in the SAP Patch Tuesday process, which consists of analyzing the notes released by SAP and adding them to The Onapsis Platform. The most challenging and interesting part of my role is creating content on the vulnerabilities and research by Onapsis Research Labs.

Q: What advice do you have for women considering a career in tech or cybersecurity?

A: My landing in cybersecurity was quite by chance and a lot of women in my lifetime inspired me to keep doing, asking, fighting, wanting more and pushing harder to get it. I would tell women looking to break into the field to not to don’t be afraid of joining the cybersecurity or tech world in general! This is a great and growing world and there are a lot of opportunities for all of us. I’m still learning and finding my way through it. 

Don’t try to change the way you are, don’t hide or try to mix up with the environment; we are different from each other regardless of gender. In Argentina, there are a lot of communities of women actively working to approach girls to tech and good women to follow in social media as a preview of all that can be done!

Q: Why is this year’s theme “Break the Bias” an important message?

A: We cannot keep trying to put people into boxes. We are all different and we shouldn’t have to change to fit in the society, or to try to accomplish certain social expectations about our lives. There’s no “typical” anymore; there’s not just one path to follow. Despite all the improvements seen in the past years, there’s still a lot to do to achieve real equality for women, salary, positions of power, decision making, human rights and so on. 

Q: Anything else you would like to share?

A: I’d love to keep seeing progress in this fight for women’s equality. I wish we could walk on the streets without being afraid, get back home safe, continue to find allies that understand the situation and help to change it, and be given the same opportunities as men.

More Resources

• Resources to Get Started in Security
• Addressing the Cybersecurity Skills Gap
• Make Security a Priority