International Women in Cyber Day (IWCD) is celebrated every September 1 – it's a day to highlight the incredible achievements of women in the cybersecurity space.
It’s also a day to recognize that more needs to be done to achieve gender equity in the cybersecurity industry, especially when the number of women working in cybersecurity is less than 25%.
As part of our commitment to lifting the voices of female cyber trailblazers, we sat down with LastPass Cyber Threat Intelligence Analyst Stephanie Schneider to talk her current role, her career trajectory, and advice for women looking to pursue a career in cybersecurity.
Q: Tell us about your role at LastPass and the work of the TIME team.
A: The Threat Intelligence, Mitigation, and Escalation (TIME) team is focused on protecting our community by monitoring, analyzing, and mitigating threats targeting our customers, our company, and our industry.
Our goal is to provide timely and actionable intelligence to stakeholders that enable security teams to protect our customers, their data, and our company.
This gives LastPass a comprehensive view of the threat landscape and helps the enterprise stay ahead of potential threats. Our work enhances LastPass customers’ security and helps our leadership make informed decisions to defend against cyber threats.
My work as a cyber threat intelligence analyst focuses on educating others about cybersecurity challenges by translating complex concepts into accessible content that’s actionable and easy to understand.
I create content for our blog, social media, external podcasts, and webinars that explore intelligence concepts, emerging threats, and significant events and engage with teams across the enterprise and the broader cybersecurity community.
I also regularly conduct research and analysis on the latest trends in the threat landscape and analyze indicators of compromise (IOCs) to identify potential threats. Helping to create a more secure digital world is rewarding.
I love that every day is different and that I’m constantly learning.
Q: What initially inspired you to pursue a career in cybersecurity?
A: I transitioned from international affairs and realized I wanted a career in cybersecurity after I took a course during my master’s program on cyber policy, which was just the beginning.
During a consulting project for US policymakers, I dove deeper into the intersection of geopolitical threats and cybersecurity.
My research on Russian hybrid warfare threats—which blends conventional and non-conventional elements of war, including cyber—took me to Tbilisi, Georgia where I interviewed government officials, former diplomats, and security researchers.
After one year of conducting research, I presented policy recommendations for the US government’s consideration to counter Russian hybrid threats.
That experience led me to the field of cyber threat intelligence, specifically strategic threat intelligence, which puts cyber threat activity in geopolitical context to better understand threat actor capability and intent. Understanding the “why” behind cyber campaigns and threat actors allows enterprises to anticipate and prepare against threat activity.
This niche was the perfect blend of my background in international affairs with my strong research, writing, and briefing skills.
I started as a Russia analyst and then led the nation-state team, tracking adversaries and emerging threats. From there, I’ve continued to expand my knowledge and skillset and monitor activity across the broader threat landscape.
Q: What do you believe is the biggest hurdle that needs to be overcome for more women to enter the industry?
A: Women currently make up only about a quarter of jobs in cybersecurity. I want to help change that by encouraging more women to enter the field, regardless of educational and professional background.
In fact, promoting all types of diversity (gender, race, neurodivergence, education, etc.) will only make our world more secure, bringing together different perspectives to innovate and solve today’s problems.
These efforts must start from the ground up, or rather from the hiring process up to the leadership level and enterprise culture.
First, embracing diversity in the hiring process broadens the talent pool and can bring unique value to the team. The hiring manager for my first cybersecurity position recognized that my skillset was well suited for an analyst role and hired me—knowing I had limited cyber experience but confident I could quickly learn it on the job.
I needed that first door to open so that I could take it and run with it! I strive to promote that same inclusivity and openness on my teams.
Creating inclusive environments and representation at all levels matters. A lack thereof perpetuates the classic chicken or the egg dilemma: women don’t see other women in those roles and are quicker to deselect themselves from applying to roles in the first place, or assume an organization doesn’t value or promote women and the cycle continues.
Q: If you could give women interested in pursuing a career in cybersecurity one piece of advice, what would it be?
A: Seek out colleagues who are willing to mentor you and promote your work. The saying, “surround yourself with people who would speak your name in rooms full of opportunity” is truer than I realized.
Having advocates who fire you up and speak highly of you to others in leadership roles is incredibly valuable since oftentimes you may not have a chance to interact with those folks directly.
Conversely, be wary of those who want to take credit for your hard work or want to dim your light and distance yourself from them as much as possible.
Along the networking vein, take advantage of scholarships and organizations that support and connect women in the field. These can provide valuable networking opportunities to learn from others who have been in your shoes and are willing to give advice.
I became involved with organizations that promote women and diversity. These are wonderful places to build professional relationships, share advice, and learn together. These groups are often open to men as well, which allow for constructive dialogue.
In my view, we need everyone to recognize that women succeeding in the workplace is a people issue that impacts our broader societies.
Q: If you could give your younger self one piece of career advice, what would it be?
A: Don’t fixate on where you’ll ultimately end up—instead, focus on the aspects of your current job that you enjoy and take note of what you don’t like to avoid those things in your next job. The right career moves will fall into place if you keep putting one foot in front of the other and follow your passions.
Looking back, my career moves seem logical, but it didn’t feel as prescient in the moment. I just knew the general direction I wanted to go (something dealing with complex international issues) and figured it out along the way.
When I graduated college, I couldn’t help but compare myself to people who had pre-dictated career paths that appeared to be a straightforward shot to success (like doctors, lawyers, and the like). Those career paths seemingly allowed individuals to skip the uncertainty I felt trying to figure out exactly what I wanted “to do” with my international affairs degree.
No one has everything figured out, and there is no final or perfect end state—we’re all constantly growing and changing.
Once I realized that, I started to focus more on exploring different career options and talking to people about their own paths. If anything, the summation of your experience will make you a more thoughtful and knowledgeable person at work and in life.
One final word of advice: try not to stress so much and enjoy the ride!
