Sylvia Schlaphof, head of Engineering and member of the executive board at Boll Engineering AG will deliver a keynote at the WiCyS conference, March 16 to 18 in Denver, Colorado.
30 years ago, Schlaphof witnessed a cyber-attack on one of the workstations she managed as she used to work as a system administrator. This triggered her to switch to cybersecurity. In 2003, she joined the IT distributor Boll Engineering AG as a security systems engineer. Seven years later, she assumed responsibility as Head of Engineering. 2020 she joined the Executive Board of the company, which to this day has 66 employees and nearly half of whom are women.
During her 20 years at Boll Engineering AG, she has always made it a point to share her knowledge by training other cybersecurity professionals at the company’s training center. Schlaphof is the first woman to achieve Fortinet Network Security Expert Level 8 (NSE8) certification and was named Fortinet Trainer of the Year for EMEA in 2022.
Born and raised in Germany, Schlaphof lives and works in Switzerland, where she skydives in her free time. She has participated in international competitions in four-way formation skydiving as a member of the German female national team for three years and is an instructor and coach.
Her keynote will cover the reality for women in cybersecurity. She will explore why there are still few women in the field and how to change that to help more women progress in their careers.
“Cybersecurity is a huge, multidisciplinary field. Therefore, it makes sense that people who work in this industry are just as multifaceted. Women absolutely belong on the playing field,” Schlaphof said.
The WiCyS conference will bring together over 2,000 students, professionals, educators, government, industry, military, and research organizations to encourage, educate, recruit, and help advance women in cybersecurity careers.
Journalists are invited to attend and should email [email protected] to request a media pass. For more information on WiCyS or the conference, visit http://www.wicys.org
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