bio

Caroline Wong is the Chief Strategy Officer at Cobalt.io. Caroline’s close and practical information security knowledge stems from broad experience as a Cigital consultant, a Symantec product manager, and day-to-day leadership roles at eBay and Zynga. She holds advisory roles for ISC2 and RSA Conference and is a member of the Forbes Technology Council.

Caroline was named 2019 Cyber Educator of the Year in the 6th Annual Cyberjutsu Awards. She authored the popular textbook Security Metrics: A Beginner’s Guide, published by McGraw-Hill. Caroline graduated from U.C. Berkeley with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences and holds a certificate in Finance and Accounting from Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Why did you get into cybersecurity?

Actually, I never set out to work in cybersecurity. In college, I studied electrical engineering and computer sciences at UC Berkeley. Between my junior and senior year, I worked an internship at eBay in their IT department as a project manager. When I graduated in 2005, I reached out to my internship manager, hoping to work for the team full time. There was a hiring freeze in IT, so he couldn’t hire me. But, he told me about an entry level position on the information security team - something I didn’t know anything about. The night before my interview, I memorized the Wikipedia page on “information security,” and I got the job.

Why have I stayed in the field? I love cybersecurity because I get to meet all sorts of interesting people and I get to solve complex problems. I love applying my skills to help people and create a better digital future. 

More about Caroline's work.

I currently run People, Security, and Strategy at Cobalt.io, a pentest as a service company. I recently wrote The State of Pentesting 2019 and gave a keynote talk at Global AppSec DC.

Caroline's Cybersecurity Tip

Update your software, apply patches, and use 2FA.