How Bridging the Digital Security Gap will Save Us All
Critical Stats
LinkedIn: Check out her profile!
Started their cybersecurity journey in: 2004
Most passionate about (in cybersecurity): The nuance, constant evolution, and sophistication of attacks
Favorite zero-day: I admire the challenge, not the exploit. I have mad respect for every vulnerability that keeps us sharp.
Favorite song: “Hold On To Me” by Lauren Daigle
Introduction
Erin is challenging how workplaces operate, how leadership is shaped, and how professionals like you show up, without compromising who they are. She is a force for good! Oh… and she is a cybersecurity badass!
Erin is a mover and shaker!
We selected Erin because she's a mover and shaker! She was our clear choice because of her unparalleled experience. Erin spent almost two decades embedded in Silicon Valley, where she excelled at leading teams, surpassing quotas, and advising executives on critical global initiatives in cybersecurity, customer experience, and change management. Through her work, she recognized how conventional career structures often fail to empower high achievers, leaving them feeling constrained or undervalued.
Crucially, Erin is acutely aware of how environments with high discontent become security vulnerabilities. She understands that when organizations are preoccupied with deep foundational issues that absorb all their focus, security can easily become an afterthought, leading to critical gaps.
Without further ado, we asked Erin our standard set of 5 questions to rule them all, and here are her responses:
Five questions to rule them all!
1. What is the biggest problem we are dealing with in cybersecurity?
It’s the gap in basic cybersecurity education. If I hadn’t spent most of my 20-year career in the industry, I wouldn’t know half the stuff I take for granted—like how to spot phishing, what spoofing is, or why your password shouldn’t be the same for everything. This might feel like Cybersecurity 101 to us, but for the average person? It’s not. And that’s how a lot of innocent people (like our parents, for example) end up getting scammed or compromised.
2. How can we close the gap in basic cybersecurity education?
We fix it by making cybersecurity make sense to regular people, not just in training videos nobody watches, but in everyday language that connects. We need to treat cybersecurity like digital hygiene; something everyone should know, not just the folks in IT. And honestly, that starts with meeting people where they are, not where we wish they were.
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3. What are three actions a CEO can take to protect their company from cyberattacks?
Normalize not knowing everything. Create a culture where it's okay (even expected) for professionals, including managers, to admit they’re still learning. Too often, people stay quiet out of fear of looking incompetent (or treated as such), especially in high-stakes roles. Make continuous learning in cybersecurity a metric, not a mark of weakness, because you can’t protect what you don’t understand.
Don’t rush the tech or the team. Security isn’t just about buying the right tools, it’s about setting them up right. That takes time, diligence, and sometimes external expertise. Give your security team the breathing room and budget to configure solutions properly instead of chasing quick wins that leave gaps wide open.
Lead with prevention, not panic. Waiting for a breach to get serious about cybersecurity is like buying car insurance after the crash. Work with your security leads to build a long-term prevention strategy. It doesn’t have to happen overnight, but it should move the company from “we hope we’re protected” to “we know we’re prepared.”
4. What are the three best resources for learning more about cybersecurity?
I can’t say I have a “top three” to be completely honest. What I value are conversations, especially the ones around AI. They're layered, full of nuance, and bring out all kinds of perspectives on trust, fear, risk, support, and innovation. Underneath all that? It's a security conversation. Some folks get excited about new tech, others are cautious because they don’t fully understand it or just don’t trust it yet, and that’s valid. Tuning into these discussions helps me stay grounded in the human side of cybersecurity: understanding what makes people feel safe, skeptical, or seen.
5. What is one piece of advice for those wanting to pursue a cybersecurity career?
Do it! The world’s going to need cybersecurity pros with varying backgrounds, upbringings, you name it, more than ever. It’s a rare field that’s always evolving, touches every industry, and honestly? It’s fascinating—that’s what pulled me in, anyway. If you have the desire or conviction but worry you don’t have the ‘right’ credentials or pedigree, apply anyway. You’ll learn a ton on the job, especially in roles like sales (Account Executive, Sales Engineering, etc.) and product management, where you’re basically paid to develop a deep comprehension of why this technology matters and why and what people need to understand about your company’s version of it.
May the Force be with you and those who you share this interview with!
