Layale Hachem, the Solutions Engineer at BeyondTrust, says that while technology was her first choice, cybersecurity was a great discovery along the way

Tell us about yourself and your current job role.
I was born and raised in Lebanon, and throughout my childhood, I was always curious about technology in general and electronics in particular. I spent my early days breaking and fixing any electronic device I could find (and was allowed to break).

This interest led me to pursue a degree in engineering, so I majored in telecommunications and networks engineering. Right after my graduation, I was offered an opportunity to work with a technology distributor operating in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

This role introduced me to different cybersecurity technologies, from endpoint security to backup, network, and cloud protection. It also gave me the chance to gain pre-sales experience in different markets across the region.

In my current role, I handle the pre-sales activities for BeyondTrust, the leader in Privileged Access Management solutions, across Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Egypt, and North Africa. The part I enjoy most about my job is discussing with our clients their security strategies and helping them meet part of their security and compliance requirements.

Tell us about your journey into the security industry. Was the security industry your first choice?
Technology was my first choice, but cybersecurity was a great discovery along the way. Back when I was in college, I was blind to the opportunities that are presented to individuals in this field, and I am lucky that my path led to where I am today.

During your tenure in the security industry have you experienced major changes the industry has gone through?
What’s great about this industry is that it always adapts itself to new technologies and new threat actors/vectors. Changes in the technology world are rapid and very frequent, and cybersecurity technology providers need to keep up. One good example of a major change is the move to the cloud that we have witnessed over the last few years.

This transition brings a lot of benefits to organizations, but it also comes with new attack opportunities. This new type of infrastructure forced all security companies to adopt cloud-specific security solutions and accompany their customers in their journey to the cloud.

Other major changes include the rise of attacks in IoT and OT environments, changes in the market defence strategy such as the application of the zero-trust model, adoption of multi-cloud protection solutions, the identification of new vulnerable attack targets such as remote workers, and much more.

Are there any challenges you face on a day-to-day basis working in this industry?
Possibly the greatest challenge is to stay up to date with all the new trends and innovations in the market. Cybersecurity is an exciting, but equally challenging, career path and constant technology learning is a big part of it. The challenge becomes finding the right balance between satisfying the business need and focusing on personal development and growth.

What sort of future do you foresee for the security industry as a whole?
This industry is only going to get bigger, and it will keep creating a lot of work opportunities for individuals. Statistics show that cybercrime is expected to cost the world $10.5 trillion by 2025 while the cybersecurity skills gap will remain an issue.

As a result, machine learning, data analytics, and artificial intelligence have started to and will continue to contribute to cyber defence strategies by providing the needed threat identification that can be acted upon by cybersecurity professionals. Meanwhile, cybersecurity vendors will keep releasing solutions to the market that take into consideration the security challenges associated with modern dynamics such as hybrid architectures, distributed data, cloud applications, and remote workforce.

What more needs to be done to welcome more and more women into the security industry?
I think the world is ready for more women in cybersecurity. In fact, we have done a good job of earning our places in the field and proving that women can excel in a male-dominated industry. I truly believe we are starting to witness a change and the proof is that we hear about a lot of female success stories in the field.

Companies are doing a great job promoting gender equality, but we also need to reach out to the younger generation in schools and universities. This can be achieved by extending cybersecurity community memberships to young girls, promoting cybersecurity events such as educational camps and coding marathons, and most importantly sharing with them success stories about accomplished women in the field.