#0196: (WIS) From Desktop to Defense: Brenda Albeno's 15-Year Security Journey on SheSecures Podcast

Brenda Albeno, GRC Manager at Loeb & Loeb, joined host Heather Morrow for the She Secures podcast to share her journey from IT operations into cybersecurity.

Her entry into the field began with an unexpected project: building a physical asset inventory from scratch after the firm had none. What she assumed would be a quick task turned into weeks of detective work, uncovering laptops stashed under beds, cribs, and even in bathrooms. The director of security was so impressed with both the outcome and her approach that he invited her to join the security team. Fifteen years later, she's still in the field.

Brenda is candid about the steep learning curve she faced, crediting late nights of self-study, her Security Plus certification, and the mentorship of her director, Mark Ewing Chao, as the pillars that carried her through. She describes him as someone who believed in her before she fully believed in herself.

Today, Brenda's passion is governance, risk, and compliance. Her days are a constant juggle of vendor assessments, client security questionnaires, policy reviews, and cross-functional collaboration with IT, legal, and leadership. She sees herself as a translator between technical teams and legal stakeholders, focused on building programs that people will actually follow, not just policies that look good on paper.

She closes with a message for women in and around the industry: she wishes more people, especially women, were exposed to cybersecurity earlier in their careers, so they could see just how many different paths the field has to offer.