Calm, cool and compassionate: Zoë Rose keeps cybersecurity in vogue

Forgive us for the unconventional introduction to Zoë Rose, our Security Operations Manager for EMEA, but there is something we must address from the very beginning. She is rockstar-level cool. The younger among us might even say that “she slays”. And they’d be right. But to be clear, this is not because she is a woman. It’s because she makes cybersecurity cool. Yes, you read that right: cybersecurity.

You want proof? Well, will a Vogue interview do?

“It makes me sound cooler than I am,” she says. “It's just about the kinds of things I did at a previous role.” Her omission of the very chic photoshoot that went with it aside, she refers to an international reputation and privacy consultancy, where she was a consultant, protecting high profile and ultra-high net worth individuals and celebrities, as well as making sure that the devices of top lawyers were protected to a degree that most of us will never require. “These were extremely high-risk scenarios,” she adds, in her naturally understated fashion. “Most people, typically, don't deal with nation state threat actors. But it was fun – it almost felt like a spy movie sometimes.”

You might expect, given her exceptional skillset, that Zoë had set her heart on this career from a very young age, but her origin story was far from the usual school, university, graduate training pipeline. She herself fell victim to a malicious person and was targeted for cybercrime. So, became determined to learn how to prevent it – and wanted to help others too. “I started looking into what police officers told me was so complex, how the internet works and how things are connected,” she explains. “Why we do things the way we do and where I can improve, not just personally, but from a professional perspective.”

In her early twenties, Zoë joined the Cisco Dream Team, a kind of internship programme, where she supported the company on their annual conference, configuring and maintaining the network for more than 25,000 attendees. It was here that she discovered just how huge, influential and supportive her new technical community is. She learnt from industry experts, took their advice, networked and, before she knew it, was on a plane to the UK – heading into a world of bug-sweeping offices and teaching high-risk individuals how to stay safe. “I even had to paint the bottoms of laptops with nail polish so that if anybody unscrewed the screws, they would see it,” she smiles.

It was through this community that she first connected with our Senior Director of Information Security, Product Security and Global Response, Quentyn Taylor, who encouraged her to apply for a role with Canon. “When I joined, I was eight months pregnant,” she says. “And when I applied for my current role, I was pregnant with my second child. There were on-call requirements for the job, but my manager was accepting and supportive throughout.”

The shift of focus from the security of a single person or group of people to that of a pan-EMEA organisation like Canon might sound like the most intimidating switch-up imaginable, but not for Zoë, who takes the position that preparation is everything. “I plan for failure because I’m a realist,” she explains. “I look at where something can go wrong and think about how we can protect against it. It’s not negativity, it’s just being conscious that these scenarios exist.” Her plans evolve daily – hourly even – as the threats do, so she and her team must be in a state of near constant preparedness, ready to spring into action.

Groundwork makes responding to incidents far easier, so Zoë spends a great deal of time making sure their day-to-day tools, services and projects are operating as they should, as well as building essential relationships across the business and, of course, keeping an ever-watchful eye on the threat landscape. “I need a constant awareness of what can be used against us, particularly as things like AI grow and mature. A good example is phishing. It’s still such a common way to exploit an organisation and AI makes it easier,” she explains. “Because cybercriminals don’t need to put in much effort to craft targeted emails, which are written in normal everyday language. It gives them more options in creating campaigns.” Such developments are all in a day’s work for Zoë, who, as a single mother to two small children, knows a thing or two about staying cool under pressure and selecting where to direct her energy wisely.

“If you prepare by having a strong foundation, you know you have layered control. You're secure by design, by default, in your infrastructure. If one user clicks a phishing link, we have other things in place to mitigate it.” But, she adds, “It’s also really important to know that when we fail, we feel safe to say so. When someone comes to me saying they’ve clicked on a phishing link, they should know that they are a victim and that my team will support them. They won’t be in trouble.”

She knows what it feels likes to fall foul of a criminal and how vulnerable and ashamed it can make a person feel. And this is the single thing that makes Zoë Rose a truly remarkable person. Beyond the Vogue photoshoot or her status as an industry expert and inspiration for young women in tech. And it’s not her podcast or even her multimillion online views as spokesperson for the Nationwide’s ‘Oversharing’ campaign that makes her cool. It’s her heart.

Because Zoë knows that the skills she learnt to keep herself safe can change the lives of others. So, as well as her role with Canon and raising two small children, she volunteers with Operation Safe Escape, working with survivors of domestic violence, stalking and harassment. “Abusers often use technology against their targets, and I want to create a world where people know how to take back control and protect themselves.”

Find out more about careers at Canon.