Lidia has been in the Information Security field for over 20+ years. Currently she is a Security Advisor / Architect in the financial sector and has experience in telecommunication and retail in a variety of defensive roles. She enjoys working on business initiatives, getting into the weeds and finding ways to solve complex security problems. She has an interest in Cloud Security, Security Design, Defensive Security, Vulnerability Management and Malware Defense. She is a review board member for Black Hat Asia, DevSecCon, the Diana Initiative, an organiser of BSides Melbourne, volunteer mentor for AWSN, spoken at many conferences internationally and nationally, a speaker coach/mentor for many global conferences and actively involved in the information security community.

In this episode, LP, LV and Lidia discuss Lidia's career journey, her path to speaking at Blackhat USA and how she managed, when she was thrown a last minute curveball on the eve of her talk! Lidia also talks about what inspired her to start BSides in Melbourne, how they have successfully made it 'Rookie' friendly and also shares some helpful tips on how to approach Call for Papers for conferences, as well as how to plan that path to becoming a keynote speaker.