I've just been awarded one of the Most Inspiring Women in Cyber 2026

Out of over 200 nominees, I've been named one of the Top 20 Most Inspiring Women in Cyber 2026, sponsored by Eskenzi PR and Marketing, BT Group, Bridewell, Plexal, and Fidelity International - held at BT Tower last night (26.2.26) I'm still processing this, but I'll try to put it into words.

Why this one means something different

I work at an intersection that doesn't always have a neat label. Cyber Trauma. Safety. Technology. Child online safety. Online harms. Cybersecurity. These things don't often appear in the same sentence, let alone the same job description. But for me, they've always been inseparable.

The digital world is not a neutral space for children. The risks they face online are not just technical they are emotional, psychological, and often invisible to the adults around them. I've spent my career trying to build the language, the frameworks, and the professional understanding to address that. So to be recognised within the cybersecurity community specifically feels significant. It tells me the conversation is shifting.

Why child online safety belongs in the cybersecurity conversation

In some corners of the cybersecurity world there is still a tendency to treat child safety as a separate or secondary concern. My career has been a quiet but persistent argument against that view. The same systems that protect enterprises from attack are the systems children navigate every day often without the vocabulary, the support, or the lived experience to recognise when something has gone wrong.

Bringing a trauma lens to cybersecurity means asking harder questions: not just "was the system breached?" but "what happened to the person on the other side of that breach?" For children, those questions have particular urgency. And I've spent my career ensuring they are asked.

Looking forward

As the cybersecurity sector continues to grapple with increasingly complex challenges, the need for diverse perspectives has never been clearer. Those of us who bring depth, specialism, and humanity to this work are not just inspiring within the field we are helping to define what that field can become.

Standing in a room of 200 incredible women in cyber nominees, I felt the weight of how much talent and dedication exists in this space. What this recognition tells me is that the conversation around children, trauma, and online safety is one the cybersecurity community is ready to have. That gives me so much hope.

This award belongs to everyone

This award belongs to everyone working quietly behind the scenes to make the online world safer for children - the researchers, the educators, the practitioners, the advocates. The people who rarely make headlines but whose work underpins everything we do.

Thank you to those that nominated me, the judges, people supporting this work, and who continue to show up for children in the digital world. There is still so much to do, and I couldn't be more motivated and recognised to keep going.

Most Inspiring Women in Cyber Awards 2026

#MIWIC26 WomenInCyber