Her Story
About Nidhi
Nidhi Srivastava is a cybersecurity professional with a background that began as an engineer fresh out of college, focusing initially on networking and infrastructure. She pursued a master's degree in cybersecurity to pivot into security roles, including governance, risk, and compliance as well as auditing. Her career has featured horizontal growth, leading to vice president and assistant vice president positions across various fields. After a personal incident involving her son being cyberbullied online, she founded an EdTech platform to teach digital resilience, password safety, and critical thinking skills to children in grades three through eight through adaptive, story-based learning. She has written books such as Growing Safe Digital Minds and The Boy Who Got Cyber Bullied, and she conducts podcasts, webinars, TEDx talks, and IEEE presentations to raise awareness. She also serves as a security consultant for one of the largest banks while emphasizing ethics, dedication, and patience in her work.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Nidhi
01What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
My manager told me that if you want to grow up in your career, you really need to have that patience with you. Sometimes you might encounter escalations, and if you react impatiently, you will blow everything out of proportion. Think, have patience. I still carry this after 14-15 years. I move emails to drafts, do something else, then come back and read and react. Same principle with my EdTech platform: stop, pause, think, and act.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Anybody can be part of the cybersecurity world. Go with the flow, don't overthink. Understand what part suits you best, whether technical or techno-managerial. Understand your likes and dislikes. Follow your instinct, be patient, keep yourself up-to-date in technology. Do certifications, start doing the basics. Be dedicated, keep showing up, be there to be seen, be there to be heard, and you will rise in your career.
03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenge is the lack of awareness. Parents are either less worried or do not know what can go wrong online with a kid. They rely too much on tools, but tools can be bypassed. If a kid knows how to critically think before sharing information, or understands basics like passwords and privacy, incidents can be prevented. We need to patch the human layer through education. Once that is patched, 70% of the problem is gone. I try to overcome this through podcasts, webinars, TEDx and IEEE talks.
04What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
In my work, ethics and dedication. If I'm talking about security, my platform must be secure too. In personal life, stay calm with my kids, be passionate about what I'm doing.
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