Carole B
I loved mathematics and therefore chose to go to a rather general engineering school (UTT). During my first two years, I discovered algorithms during the foundation courses and I decided to specialise in IT.
After three years of specialisation, with my degree in Information Systems engineering in hand, I went on to complete it with a Master’s degree in Information Systems Security.
After my studies, I chose to focus my early career on professions that would allow me to apply what I had learned in practice.
During my engineering studies, I was awarded the prize for female scientific vocation, which honours women in scientific circles (<30% women). Gender diversity is very low in higher education scientific fields. I completed my course in an amphitheatre of about 50 students, where only two of us were women.
After working at RSA (Dell) on the installation and configuration of the SIEM NetWitness solution (collection and correlation of logs), I joined Crédit Agricole and today I’m a network security engineer in the CA-GIP Security Operating Centre (SOC) which operates this solution every day.
In my previous job, in particular when we went to work in datacenters, it was not uncommon to see surprise on the faces of my contacts, for whom I did not represent a stereotypical datacenter technician.
In the CA-GIP SOC, I am, in particular, part of the Detection Continuous Improvement team which devises and implements new solutions for detecting more threats. There are four women in the team of 31 (internal + AT). Gender diversity has not changed since my studies. However, I feel that I am fully accepted and recognised.
How would you describe the position of “job title”?
In concrete terms, in the SOC, we collect and correlate events so we can identify threats to our information system in real time.
As for me, I’m a network security engineer and my expertise comes into play in the solution that we use to collect and aggregate events with one another. I also work on the study and testing of different solutions for improving detection.
I chose this profession because it was right for me. So I didn’t have to adapt to it.
What are the peak periods of your job during the year?
As I only joined the SOC in July, I haven’t yet worked a full year in the position. However, the projects undertaken by the team don’t seem to follow any particular seasonality. We have two main types of projects:
Otherwise, the work of the team, and more particularly the Level 3 support group, is punctuated by incidents detected.
In the continuous improvement unit, we work on improving our service.
Since cybersecurity is a major challenge, we receive many requests and we have to know how to qualify and then prioritise the requests.
In my opinion, the key to striking a good work-life balance is to know how to work efficiently by agreeing to reorganise one’s daily work according to priorities. It is also essential to inform the team in advance of the various constraints that we will be facing so that all people working on the same project have the same level of information.
Can you describe your typical day?
Each day in the SOC is different.
I usually start the day by reading my emails and reviewing the tasks to do that I listed the day before.
Next, I juggle between technical activities aimed at improving detection (deployment of solutions, functionality tests, etc.) and project-oriented technical actions (collection of new sources, implementation of specific use cases to comply with current regulations, participation in audit feedback to define areas of improvement) according to priorities.
The day is punctuated by discussions and conversations with the entire team. Although we each work on specific areas (improving detection, level 3 for incident review, projects, admin, SOC as a service for the integration of new clients), we all have a common objective: to be efficient in our detection and satisfy our clients while complying with the various applicable regulations.
What career path is required to reach your position and what are the possibilities for development?
There are various courses that can lead to work in IT security: technical secondary-school diploma, two-year vocational diploma, engineering school or a science degree.
While each path is different, I think that what is important in this profession is your interest in it and the desire to learn. You need to be curious to develop in a field that changes so quickly.
It’s an exciting field where there is a lot to learn. There is not just one IT security profession, just as there is no standard profile for working in this field.
How do you see the company’s progress in terms of diversity?
Sometimes I see gender diversity measures that do not necessarily make sense. In a previous job, the idea was to have 50% of women in the company’s top management. For me, if women don’t make up 50% of our workforce, I don’t see how this measure can be applied.
We still need to change mentalities by encouraging women to take up scientific careers. It all begins with education and, of course, with what each individual wants to do.