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Our speaker last week was Rotarian Shakera Rolle. Shakera is an Information Technology Security and Compliance Manager. She is also a mom and an avid volleyball player and plays in the night league. She is a member of The Rotary Club of Southeast Nassau.
Shakera holds an MBA from Georgia Southern University and a BA in Computer Information Systems from Savannah State University. She is one of the top compliance and information security professionals in the Bahamas and holds numerous cybersecurity and compliance certifications including the CISA, CRISC, CISM and the prestigious CISSP. She has to undergo training regularly to keep her skills up to date on new threats and how to defend against them. Continuing education and training is also a requirement to maintain her credentials and certifications.
Shakera detailed her job responsibilities and stated that she never gets bored in her role. She ensures that the cyberseurity program of the organization maintains confidentiality, integrity and availability and follows set standards. She also ensures that the security program follows proper laws and regulations. She devises policies and procedures to decrease risk and allow for business continuity and disaster recovery. Companies have a duty to follow international and local regulations as well as abide by data protection acts and freedom of information acts. Companies have to ensure that they have a function that focuses on cybersecurity as well as securing themselves from reputational damages. Her job is important because she helps to enable this function.
Shakera decided to enter the field because she has a passion for what she does. The field is a male dominated one which can be challenging at times because women can be overlooked just because they are women, but she has excelled.
Rotarian Sharkera's advice for anyone interested in joining the Information Technology field is to find out what is available and learn about the different disciplines, then select one that interests you and train in that discipline. There is a wealth of information available on cybersecurity and the opportunities in the field are vast. She also urges interested persons to network and meet persons in the field and get guidance from them.
