Dr. Christine Izuakor is making it easier for people in technology to forge meaningful connections.
The Houston, TX, native is a cybersecurity professional with over a decade of experience leading cybersecurity functions at Fortune 100 companies. Her career journey could have looked very different had she pursued the medical field, a path favored by her Nigerian parents. However, she “failed miserably” in her attempt to become an eye doctor. Her pivot came after taking a course on encryption, which sparked her interest in cybersecurity.
“I immediately switched my major and went on to earn a Ph.D. in security engineering. From there, I spent about 10 years leading different security functions at United Airlines, was a graduate cybersecurity professor, and so that’s what really kind of got me into this space and then allowed me to grow,” she told AFROTECH™ in an interview.
Cyber Pop-up
Today, Izuakor works part-time as an adjunct professor in cybersecurity at various schools and universities. She is also the co-founder and CEO of Cyber Pop-up, a marketplace that has raised $2.8 million through venture capital and pitch competitions. The platform was born from her observations while advancing her career toward becoming a chief information security officer. One of her responsibilities involved cybersecurity talent and ensuring there were adequate resources and qualified individuals to defend against cyberattacks. However, she found it challenging to fill these roles. She also realized that small businesses lacked the budgets of Fortune 100 companies, making it increasingly difficult for them to hire cybersecurity experts.
“I’m thinking about how I can solve this problem. They need access to cybersecurity experts,” Izuakor explained. “There are experts out here who are willing to help these businesses, and there’s an opportunity to also build cybersecurity experts from underserved communities of different backgrounds to be able to get them to help these small businesses.”
Cyber Pop-up, a marketplace founded in 2020, connects small businesses to top-of-the-line cybersecurity experts at a lower cost. These experts are vetted and have completed cybersecurity certifications. Once onboarded they will provide aid to small businesses in areas that include email security gateway, encryption, multi-factor authentication, remote access management, network firewall security, internet security, cloud security, and more, which are listed under network security, its website mentions. Experts can also handle device security and governance risk and compliance.
“We cover those things because for a small business, they don’t have the bandwidth and the resources to go out and hire a 10 person, 20 person, 100 person team to manage all of those different areas,” Izuakor mentioned. “They have to be much more efficient. And so the way that Cyber Pop-up is set up, they pay a subscription fee and they get access to experts on demand across all of those areas whenever you need them.”
Small business can also receive additional support through Cyber Pop-up’s Ask AI-Poppy solution, which provides advice on protecting personal data, identifying phishing scams, best practices for password management, and setting up secure networks, its website notes.
TechTable
Izuakor has also taken her efforts a step further by fostering community among small business owners through TechTable. It is a dinner experience featuring six professionals selected by Cyber Pop-up’s AI algorithm. Participants complete a vibe quiz to be matched with others, and then they will be assigned a reservation at a restaurant.
TechTable has done dinners at cities including Houston, TX; Miami, FL; Chicago, IL; and as far as Dubai, UAE.
“I think it’s important to celebrate the multifaceted nature of technology professionals and people in general,” Izuakor expressed. “And so I think that with TechTable especially, that’s another element of just being able to create spaces where people can truly feel OK bringing their authentic selves to the table. When I pop into some of them every now and then… it’s cool to be a fly on the wall, be a part of the very candid and raw conversations that happen, and the fact that some of it does focus around cybersecurity and technology.”
She continued, “But it really does transcend all of that to include everything from life to the day-to-day struggles of working in corporate America, to different global challenges. And so it really has become a place where a lot of different authentic conversations happen, and that’s really important.”
