ESET Australia has announced the winner of the ESET Women in Cybersecurity Scholarship. The scholarship is part of ESET’s global Women in Cybersecurity Scholarship program and awards $5000 to a woman currently enrolled in a graduate or undergraduate program majoring in a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) field.
This is the first year the annual scholarship has been awarded in Australia. The winner of the scholarship is Alaina Lawson, who is studying for a Bachelor of IT majoring in cybersecurity at the Australian National University.
Alaina got her start in cybersecurity when she started a week’s work experience with cybersecurity firm Ionize as a year 12 student. She was asked to come and work for them once she finished high school, which led to a job as an analyst on Ionize’s offensive security team. From there she moved to the Red Team, working as a penetration tester. Next came a shift to her dream job as a Cloud Security Engineer at Tracer Cloud alongside her full-time studies.
Along the way she’s already picked up recognition for her skills and dedication, including the 2020 Lake Giniderra IT Award Recipient (awarded to the student with the highest IT grades in the school), the 2020 WIC (Woman in ICT) Student Encouragement Award, being a nominee for the 2021 Australian Woman in Security Best Security Student and a top 10 finalist in the 2021 FAST (Female Advancing in Security and Technology) Awards.
Alaina says that working in an industry that requires continuous learning is what excites her the most about cybersecurity. “It is amazing to be involved in the delivery of cloud migration and cyber security services to clients, conduct incident responses, run penetration tests, analyse alerts, and apply what I am learning at university to the real world. This scholarship is helping me make an impact on the industry, not in three years when I finish my degree, but right now in my job. The core value of cybersecurity is to help and protect people, which perfectly aligns with my values.”
ESET Australia Country Manager Kelly Johnson says she’s honoured to present Alaina with her scholarship. “Alaina represents exactly the type of young woman the cybersecurity industry needs. She’s curious, smart and unafraid of change. At 19 she has already accomplished a great deal, and we hope that this scholarship will help her continue to further her dreams, and show both the industry and other young women that cybersecurity is a career that needs their contribution.”
