2825: Celebrating Women's Influence on International Women's Day With CyberArk

[00:00:00] Have you ever wondered what it's like to break through the glass ceiling in the tech

[00:00:06] industry, especially in the high stakes world of cyber security?

[00:00:11] Well today on International Women's Day we are going to celebrate the achievements and

[00:00:16] resilience of women around the globe, transcending divisions of nationality, ethnicity and culture.

[00:00:22] And during this very special episode of Tech Talks Daily

[00:00:26] is Eduardo Camacho, the trailblazing chief

[00:00:29] operating officer at Cyber Arc,

[00:00:32] which is a global leader in identity security.

[00:00:35] But it's her journey that began by being underestimated

[00:00:39] by so many different factors such as her gender,

[00:00:42] her nationality, a non-engineering background and how despite

[00:00:46] all of those things and constantly being told no, you're never going to succeed. She ascended

[00:00:52] the corporate ladder and is impacting the global tech landscape. It is nothing short of inspiring,

[00:00:58] but more than that, I think it is an important story to share all around the world in 165 countries where I know you're

[00:01:06] all listening today on International Women's Day. But today she's also going to share her

[00:01:10] vision and goals for Cyber Arc, her experiences in a male dominated industry along with her

[00:01:16] insights on the unique challenges that women face in cyber security, including some pretty

[00:01:21] alarming findings from Cyber Arc's latest research on digital identity and security.

[00:01:27] And there are a few surprises in there too.

[00:01:29] But before we get today's guest on, I need to pay the bills.

[00:01:32] We've got a huge podcast hosting fee to pay for when we're releasing 30 episodes a month.

[00:01:38] This month I've partnered with a company called Kiteworks.

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[00:02:46] So buckle up and hold on tight because no matter where you're listening in the world,

[00:02:50] I'm going to beam your ears all the way to Lisbon in Portugal, where today's guest is waiting to

[00:02:55] share her story. So a massive warm welcome to the show. Can you tell I've been listening a little

[00:03:02] bit? Who you are and what you do? Sure. My name is Eduarda Gomash. I'm the Chief Customer Officer at Cyberarch. I've been in

[00:03:09] tech for many years, over two and a half decades outside. I'm Portuguese. I live in the East Coast

[00:03:16] in Boston. Before I joined Cyberarch, I was actually Chief Customer Officer at BMC Software

[00:03:23] and had other roles, all these customer facing,

[00:03:25] all these about really the value that technology can bring

[00:03:29] to enterprise customers.

[00:03:30] Well, I'm really looking forward to talking with you today.

[00:03:33] One of the things I try and do with every single guest every day

[00:03:36] is learn a little bit more about their origin story

[00:03:39] and their background in tech.

[00:03:41] And you've got an inspiration.

[00:03:42] Well, I mean, your journey in tech is both inspiring

[00:03:45] and pioneering but my research on you you were told you wouldn't succeed in tech because of your

[00:03:51] gender nationality and on engineering background to becoming the c o o of cyber arc so how did you

[00:03:58] navigate these challenges and those dreaded stereotypes in a male dominated field and any

[00:04:04] advice that you'd offered a women embarking on a similar path?

[00:04:07] Because again, it feels like such an inspiring backstory here.

[00:04:11] Yeah, so it is true. It's a true story, right?

[00:04:14] You know, I was told all of those things that I could not see because of who I am.

[00:04:20] And I would say the way I've been able to overcome that,

[00:04:25] and it worked in when I was entering tech,

[00:04:27] and it worked throughout my long career in tech,

[00:04:30] is honestly just doubling down exactly on the opposite,

[00:04:33] which is straight through to who you are,

[00:04:36] and I've always tried to to myself.

[00:04:37] And I believe if I would give one advice to anyone

[00:04:40] and a woman entering tech, it would be that, right?

[00:04:43] Get to know yourself very well, ask for help when you need to, but stay true to who you

[00:04:48] are.

[00:04:49] I was also told I wouldn't succeed in Japan because of who I was and because being a Portuguese

[00:04:54] woman and I was told many other things.

[00:04:56] And I believe the opposite has proven true, staying true to my principles, who I am, and just the authentic as much

[00:05:07] as I can every single day with whoever I'm interfacing with, as a matter of where or

[00:05:12] who around the world has proven to be the recipe for success. And I would exactly give

[00:05:19] that advice to who is entering this world and is facing the same type of challenges.

[00:05:26] It's shocking to think of some of those obstacles you came across, but again, so

[00:05:30] inspiring of you to prove everybody wrong. You shouldn't have had to prove them wrong, but you did just that.

[00:05:35] And fast forward to present day, you know, the COO of CyberR.

[00:05:39] Can you play a pivotal role in shaping the company's future?

[00:05:43] So can you share your vision and maybe goals

[00:05:46] for Cyberoark, especially in terms of driving customer value and outcomes and also how you

[00:05:50] plan to foster the adoption of your platform across a wide variety of different industries,

[00:05:56] right? Yes, the very diverse industry, you know, growing pre-fast, both in adoption and

[00:06:06] growing prefossed both in adoption and the spread of identities within our customers, as well as new customer base. I'd say my plans go two ways since I joined here in early January.

[00:06:12] I'd say one way is true belief in this vision of securing goal identities with the right

[00:06:18] to guarantee controls. And that means obviously relentless focus on customer experience adoption across our base.

[00:06:26] We are heavily investing in our customer success teams

[00:06:29] and our customer experience teams,

[00:06:31] working with our partner community

[00:06:33] to make sure that happens.

[00:06:34] And at the same time,

[00:06:36] really starting to design how the disorganization really

[00:06:40] can continue to grow and scale

[00:06:43] and to scale the business as we move forward here in the next

[00:06:47] year too. And that really goes across everything from go-to-market strategies to customer experience,

[00:06:54] journey design, adoption, as I said, really all the spectrum together with our partner community

[00:06:59] to ensure we get here really to fulfill our vision, right? That every every customer,

[00:07:06] every identity secure. That's why we are here for. Fantastic. And before you came

[00:07:11] on the podcast, I was doing a little research on all things cyber Arkham. One

[00:07:15] of the things I came across was that your latest research highlights a

[00:07:18] significant concern among women about the use of AI by cyber criminals. So for

[00:07:23] anybody listening, how do you see AI driving cyber

[00:07:26] attacks this year and how can such attacks be easily prevented? What are you seeing around this?

[00:07:31] I think what we are seeing in every research, our own and others in the industries that for sure

[00:07:45] a big percentage of attacks are going to be AI based.

[00:07:51] You know, AI a little bit has given like a demo criticized if you want to use the word, right?

[00:07:53] That a lot more actors are into play

[00:07:56] in leveraging the power of AI.

[00:07:58] It is a significant concern.

[00:08:01] Interesting enough, it's a concern shared

[00:08:03] a little bit of a different way between genders

[00:08:06] between men and women. I think those concerns are very well are founded. And yes, we see in our

[00:08:14] research what our customers are telling our partners, the industry in general. AI is front and center It's a private center on the attack surface and present in a lot of the new attacks that we see.

[00:08:29] It is a big concern that the research shows both for men and women,

[00:08:35] maybe in slightly different ways where that concern really comes to fruition.

[00:08:41] They're very well founded, as I said.

[00:08:43] It's a significant threat to identity

[00:08:46] security, both in deep fakes and mimicking user digital behaviors. And I think all of

[00:08:56] us are concerned, right? And myself, personally, as a woman, I think that's one of the biggest

[00:09:02] concerns about AI and attackers impersonating us. It's one of the biggest concerns about AI and attackers impersonating

[00:09:07] us.

[00:09:08] It's one of the biggest threats that we are concerned about.

[00:09:11] And look, it's our mission as an industry, as a company, to keep being ahead of the game,

[00:09:17] you know, and invest in AI to be ahead of the game and leverage the benefits of it so

[00:09:22] that we can, you know, we can stay ahead of the curve and help our

[00:09:26] customers with these new attack vectors using AI.

[00:09:32] It's interesting how you said there that the differences between men and women and their

[00:09:36] perception of AI threats, for example, because in your research it also highlights that women

[00:09:42] perceive their digital identity, including

[00:09:45] things like pictures and social media profiles, completely differently to men.

[00:09:50] In your opinion, what underlying factors contribute to these perceptions and the House of Cybersecurity

[00:09:56] strategies may be adapted to these gender-specific concerns, because this is something that

[00:10:00] took me by surprise.

[00:10:01] Yes, it's interesting, right? And that concern around impersonation

[00:10:07] is one of the main concerns, and one of the biggest gaps

[00:10:11] right between women and men when it comes to that concern.

[00:10:15] Really seems to come through this research

[00:10:17] around this long history of actually being exploited online.

[00:10:23] And we all hear the stories in social media

[00:10:28] and we know people that have suffered

[00:10:30] those kinds of exploits.

[00:10:31] So it's not really surprising that that is the main concern.

[00:10:35] I think it's the economists that said like 85%

[00:10:38] of the women around the world have somehow witnessed

[00:10:41] online violence or have against other women or no people,

[00:10:46] inside and outside of the networks.

[00:10:49] 68% of people that have actually reported instances

[00:10:53] of cyber attack for women.

[00:10:55] I think there's a project in Australia

[00:10:57] that there is a study of 4,000 identity theft cases.

[00:11:00] And two thirds had been targeting women. So it's clearly that that is a very well-fundamented

[00:11:09] concern. And I think again, as I say, the work of the tech industry and others and governments

[00:11:18] is really to make sure we are leveraging the power of AI and FTA and of all of our joint communities to be able to address

[00:11:32] this threat and turn it into something positive. And I'm curious, with AI's growing role in cyber

[00:11:38] security too, how do you at Cyber Arc and visit the evolution of digital scams, particularly in those that might be targeting women through impersonation, etc.

[00:11:49] Are there any proactive measures that anybody listening can or even an organization

[00:11:54] could take to help mitigate these risks?

[00:11:56] Again, you know, our studies show, you know, nine out of 10 attacks are expected to be AI driven.

[00:12:07] So if we know that, I think there's two aspects here.

[00:12:11] I mean, one is responsible consumers of technology and others.

[00:12:16] So obviously to continue to always take the, take the conservative route or

[00:12:21] take the route of being always attentive, right, to how we share our data and our information.

[00:12:28] From an enterprise and from a technology point of view,

[00:12:34] you know, we are a cyber act, but really the whole industry like that investment in assuring that every new attack method gets actually anticipated and mitigated

[00:12:51] by the investment in additional technology and methodologies and protecting all environments,

[00:12:57] protecting all identities, protecting really the attackers at the interest stage is what we can do as a cyber community here.

[00:13:12] I think just to end, I think it's all of our jobs and everyone else and all the audience here

[00:13:20] to be skeptical, right? And to doubt and to protect ourselves.

[00:13:26] 100% with you on that. On behalf of any startup founders or business leaders that are listening

[00:13:32] and exploring scaling and growth strategies, preparing for an organization or preparing an

[00:13:38] organization for scaling and growth, obviously it ain't full strategic planning and foresight.

[00:13:43] I'm not sure how much you'll be able to share with me today, but it's only if you can share about some of the challenges

[00:13:48] that you might have faced at cyber or on this journey. Also, how your leadership is addressing

[00:13:54] these to ensure this sustainable growth.

[00:13:57] Yes. Look, again, on the top of my two wonderful months of Cyberarch, the company you for sure

[00:14:08] has, in one of the reasons I joined, right?

[00:14:11] The company has what I would say,

[00:14:15] a really very clear commitment, the leadership team,

[00:14:22] everyone, all the employees to our culture, to our values, to growing but

[00:14:29] never losing sight of our purpose and what we are here for, of our obligations to our

[00:14:37] communities, to sustainability, to really keep the ethics, our employees, and their development.

[00:14:46] So I think as any startup company as you in your journey to grow and scale, there's many

[00:14:54] different facets, everything from your commitment to your employees and their development, their

[00:15:00] growth to your community, to your partnerships, to your customers, to

[00:15:05] the environment, to staying true to who you are, which are all important. And I think

[00:15:11] that's something that's have our husband wonderfully over almost two and a half decades. It will

[00:15:17] be 25 year anniversary here very soon.

[00:15:20] Fantastic. And we start at the podcast today talking about your origin story and how you

[00:15:26] were told no almost every opportunity and somebody obstacles in your way. But you proved

[00:15:32] everyone wrong. But I would imagine looking back inclusion and diversity in cybersecurity

[00:15:36] is a passion that remains incredibly close to your heart. So given your experiences,

[00:15:42] how do you perceive the state of diversity of inclusion within the cybersecurity industry today? Has it improved? Is there still room for improvement?

[00:15:50] And are there any initiatives that you think would be essential in fostering a more inclusive

[00:15:54] environment and bringing more women into the industry? I think we are far from being at that

[00:16:01] ideal point, right? Like a lot of other sectors in the tech industry

[00:16:07] and other industries, we are still far behind

[00:16:09] in terms of biodiversity and not only in gender,

[00:16:12] but in the diversity of thought and diversity of origin.

[00:16:15] And as I said, when I was given all of those objections

[00:16:19] in force for all types of diversity,

[00:16:21] origin of country, of gender, and of training work.

[00:16:26] And I think, you know, the commitment of everyone to everything from talent development early

[00:16:34] on to diversity and inclusion policies to just the support to give to the diverse communities,

[00:16:48] again, not just gender, but all across,

[00:16:51] though all of those are going to continue to be important

[00:16:54] because again, both the attack threads as well

[00:17:02] the diversity that exists across all of our common customer base and

[00:17:10] partner base needs to be matched with the same diversity of thought from the people creating

[00:17:18] the methods to prevent those attacks to be effective.

[00:17:23] I think I'm a big believer in it

[00:17:25] and we'll continue to do what I can

[00:17:27] to foster that diversity of thought and background.

[00:17:31] Yeah, I echo everything you just said,

[00:17:33] there's such an important message.

[00:17:34] And if I was to ask you to look back one more time,

[00:17:37] of course, none of us are able to achieve any degree

[00:17:39] of success without a little help along the way.

[00:17:42] And sometimes that can be someone

[00:17:43] that you'll see something in this invests a little time or or something like that

[00:17:47] I mean if I was to ask you is that a particular person that you're grateful towards who maybe helped you get you where you are

[00:17:54] Or help push you forward anyone that you can share we could give a little shout out to today. Yes

[00:18:00] I'll actually leave you

[00:18:04] Yes, I'll actually leave you two. I would say the first one for sure,

[00:18:06] the person that's been my role model always,

[00:18:09] and I think got me to be a little bit like I am

[00:18:11] in terms of self-confidence and being ready to all,

[00:18:16] you know, to counter all of those objections,

[00:18:18] which has been my mother.

[00:18:19] The second person has actually been my sponsor

[00:18:24] for the last two decades in technology and

[00:18:27] has always believed in me and, you know, give me that extra nudge or opportunities when

[00:18:33] others said, you know, that I didn't qualify. And that person is actually the CEO of CyberArt,

[00:18:39] Matt Comen, who I've known and been my sponsor for 20 years.

[00:18:42] Wow, that's absolutely incredible.

[00:18:45] One of the reasons I always ask that question is,

[00:18:47] I think there's so many people that do help us

[00:18:49] that see something in this,

[00:18:50] and they're often blissfully unaware

[00:18:52] just how much we appreciate everything

[00:18:53] that they've done for us

[00:18:54] and they get such an important message.

[00:18:56] So thank you so much for sharing that with us today.

[00:18:59] I hope both of them are listening.

[00:19:02] But before I let you go for anyone listening,

[00:19:04] wanting to find out more information about cyber-oC. Is there any way you'd like to point everyone?

[00:19:08] Well, obviously we mentioned that latest research on the report, etc. Where do you like to point

[00:19:13] everyone listening? Cyberarch has great, you know,

[00:19:17] tunnels, blogs and really all the latest information in the YouTube channels, in the Cyberarc page and in so many other

[00:19:26] places. And I'm sure for anyone that is looking to get the latest, understand all the latest

[00:19:31] research blogs, you know, you can find us there for sure.

[00:19:35] Well, as I've said a few times today, you know, especially as we're on the run up to

[00:19:41] International Women's Day, from being told as a woman and an engineer,

[00:19:45] you're not going to be a success in your first tech job

[00:19:47] to climbing your world, the corporate ladder,

[00:19:49] working all around the world, sharing your advice.

[00:19:52] Absolutely priceless.

[00:19:53] And I cannot thank you enough

[00:19:55] for not only sharing your story,

[00:19:56] but for hopefully inspiring a lot of other people

[00:19:59] around the world.

[00:19:59] And that could be women,

[00:20:01] that could be people from a variety

[00:20:02] of different technical backgrounds

[00:20:04] and geographic locations.

[00:20:05] But thank you for sharing that story with me today.

[00:20:08] Thank you, Neil.

[00:20:09] Thank you, everyone.

[00:20:10] For me personally, that was both an enlightening

[00:20:12] and inspiring conversation in equal measure.

[00:20:16] I think it's so important that Eduardo

[00:20:18] shared that incredible journey in tech,

[00:20:20] but also delved into some of the pressing issues

[00:20:23] of cybersecurity, AI, and the importance of

[00:20:25] diversity and inclusion right across the tech industry. And for me, I think Eduardo's story

[00:20:32] is a testament to the power of authenticity, resilience, and the critical role of women

[00:20:38] in shaping the future of technology and cybersecurity. But as I reflect on today's discussion, I ask you now to consider

[00:20:46] what steps you can take that we can all take both individually and collectively to foster

[00:20:52] a more inclusive and secure digital world. What actions will you take to contribute to

[00:20:58] this change?

[00:21:00] Please share your thoughts with me today, join the conversation in Honoring International

[00:21:05] Women's Day by emailing me techblogwriteroutlook.com, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, just at Neil

[00:21:11] Seahues.

[00:21:12] I'm nice and easy to find.

[00:21:13] Send me a quick DM as long as it's not a sales pitch and you've got something you want

[00:21:17] to say or a question you'd like to ask or a pitch to come on the show, whatever it is,

[00:21:22] I will get straight back to you.

[00:21:24] But remember, every step towards inclusion and diversity is a step towards a stronger

[00:21:29] and more resilient tech community.

[00:21:31] And while we all ponder on that comment, I will bid you farewell and see you bright

[00:21:36] and early tomorrow morning for another inspiring story like this one. Thanks for watching!