DATE: Aug 4th, 2021 / 11-12 PM PST
DURATION: 60 min
TOPIC: Women in Security and Privacy (WISP) Meet and Greet!
FORMAT: Virtual
Come join Elena Elkina WISP Board Member and Co-founder for an informal meet and greet with other BH participants on August 4th at 11-12 pm PST. Here we will network, share short stories and just enjoy the presence of others in the infosec field. Women lead, but all are welcome and encouraged to join!
Moderator/ Host: Elena Elkina
Elena Elkina, co-founder and board member of Women in Security and Privacy (WISP) and a Partner at Aleada Consulting, where she advises clients on privacy, data protection, and information security issues.
Elena is known for her entrepreneurial approach to driving business performance while protecting information and serving as a trusted adviser for her clients. During her 20-year legal career, she has worked with financial and healthcare institutions, software and internet companies, major law firms, and the government sector on both international and domestic levels.
Elena’s own career path in privacy and data protection was long and winding, though her ultimate interest in privacy and data protection now seems obvious in some respects. She grew up in Arzamas-16, a Soviet secret city instrumental in nuclear research. From a young age, she understood the ability of powerful institutions and governments to intrude into our lives, and learning about privacy and security gave her the perspective and tools to address that imbalance.
After graduating from a law school in 2000 and practicing law for some time, Elena found the legal profession more reactive than her desire to build and innovate. She found her niche – privacy and data protection – where she is uniquely positioned to use her skills and desire to engineer solutions from a proactive approach.
Over the past decade, Elena has been focusing on creating global privacy and data protection programs, including developing and implementing regulatory frameworks, risk/gap assessments, maturity models, long-term roadmaps, and data protection policies; designing and employing de-identification and Privacy by Design data handling processes; and building privacy and security training and awareness programs. She has been working closely with development and business teams to build cloud, web, and mobile consumer and business products across the globe. Elena also served as a subject matter expert for companies that were subject to privacy-related regulatory enforcement actions, including consent decrees and cease and desist orders.
Before 3 partners founded Aleada, 3 partners, along with 4 other women, co-founded Women in Security and Privacy (WISP), a non-profit organization that aims to advance women and minorities in the privacy and security fields. Sharing knowledge and perspective, and lifting up women and people of color, has been one of Elena’s biggest priorities, and this was a guiding motivation for establishing WISP. After building a non-profit organization together and working together on complex privacy and data protection issues in the industries, they saw an opportunity to do privacy differently. Forming Aleada promised not only an exciting new challenge but also an opportunity to put her stamp on how the privacy and security profession might develop. This is why they built Aleada Consulting where they collected exceptional talents to build privacy and data protection solutions that meet their clients’ unique challenges.
Elena received her law degree from the University of Russian Academy of Education in Moscow, Russia. She received her LL.M. degree from Berkeley Law School, where she studied privacy, technology transactions, and international law. Elena is a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/US, CIPP/E, CIPP/IT, CIPM).