What happens when two titans of cybersecurity (Rebecca Taylor, Threat Intelligence Knowledge Manager and Researcher at Secureworks, a Sophos company, and Amelia Hewitt, Founder of CybAid and Managing Director at Hewitt Partnerships) join forces to write a book? Securely Yours: An Agony Aunt’s Guide to Surviving Cyber!
Securely Yours is a practical Agony Aunt-style guide for women navigating a career in cybersecurity. Drawing on lived experience and answering questions posed by their own mentees and peers, Securely Yours covers a range of pressing topics including active allyship, burnout in cybersecurity and how to build a personal brand. Its confessional tone reveals that no topic is too taboo to be covered.
We sat down with Rebecca and Amelia ahead of the book’s release, on the 1st May 2025, to find our more about the writing process, navigating a career in cybersecurity and why breaking taboos in cyber is important.
Where did the idea come from for the book? How did it come about? Why now?
There’s two sides to this story -one which tells you that this was perhaps a joke that went a little too far, and one a bit deeper. The idea for the book came from our shared realisation that the Cyber field still had a significant gap when it came to nurturing and mentoring women throughout their careers. As friends, we’ve frequently exchanged stories from our careers and mentored women facing challenges with owning their voices and platforms in cyber. We recognised a common need for a practical, yet candid resource tailored specifically for women navigating this industry.
The idea evolved from the agony aunt style magazines of our own upbringings, into something we’re immensely proud of. The plan with the book is that it’s something you can ‘go back to’ when you need it, whether a particular chapter is resonating, or you’re facing a challenge surrounding a particular question we answer – It’s a portable mentor, confidant and guide with you throughout your cyber career.
With the industry undergoing both technological and social transformation, and with more dialogue than ever about diversity and inclusion, we saw an opportunity to create a resource that could empower women across all stages of their careers. We feel we have done that and we couldn’t be happier! That said…it did start as a ‘wouldn’t it be funny’…and now we’re here!
The book covers a lot of ground! How did you know which areas to focus on?
The areas we chose to focus on, came to light in a very authentic way. We started by reconciling what we covered most frequently with our mentees- what were their main concerns? What questions did we get asked a lot? What were the gaps that people needed that bit of guidance on? Together we have mentored hundreds of individuals and so there were lots of threads and themes we could pull at.
By starting with the reconciliation, we had a rough outline of what we wanted to talk to, and then started to design questions to ensure we could cover these topics in a clear and effective way. In some cases, we asked mentees or trusted advisors to share questions they had, just to ensure we could be the ‘agony aunts’ we were striving to be.
We wanted the text to be enjoyable to read from start to finish, but also be a text you could pick up as and when, flick to the chapter or question you needed, learn, and then pop it back on the bookshelf. As we built out the chapters, we made sure each one related to very distinct topic so it could be used in such a way.
We know as writers, but as women in industry, that the book would be an opportunity for us to shine. But we didn’t want to keep that all to ourselves. We knew on one hand, we wanted to give other women in cyber the opportunity to share their insights and build on their personal brands. We knew on the other hand, we also wanted an allyship section, with the perspective that the book was not purely a resource for women, but also a resource for anyone to support the cyber women around them. With that in mind, we had two chapters set in stone from the very beginning – One on role models, and one on allies in the cyber industry.
This all sounds like a lot, but in reality, we had conquered this within a week or so. Then we put pen to metaphorical paper and begun to write. We popped out our questions to our selected roles models and allies, and the rest is history!
What was the most unexpected challenge you encountered while writing the book?
While we anticipated the challenges inherent in any ambitious project, one of the most unexpected hurdles was reconciling our distinct voices into a unified narrative. We have different professional backgrounds and personal perspectives, so merging these into a cohesive tone required fair amount of back and forth.
As you’d expect, coordinating our schedules amid demanding careers and personal commitments meant that the book often had to adapt to delays. To try and manage this we lived within an excel spreadsheet where we tracked our activities – we used the excel to add notes, highlight who was responsible for what elements of writing and ultimately to keep pushing us forward. There is nothing better than seeing a tracker shift from ‘red’ to ‘green’ as you complete your writing tasks, trust us!
Beyond logistics, there was also the emotional challenge of reliving difficult experiences, especially when discussing the darker moments of our careers. We really did have to take those sections slow and steady, and more than ever just be there for each other. We hope but sharing these moments, that we enabled an authentic dynamic throughout the book.
Writing a book is no small feat, especially alongside busy lives. How did you balance the book writing process with life?
We set aside dedicated blocks of time when we could write without interruption. Embracing the idea of ‘quality over quantity’ helped us focus on impactful content rather than obsessing over volume, which can be an easy trap to fall into.
Also, as we said, a good tracker which we committed to keeping up to date, really did support us with the project management aspects of writing remotely and in separate locations.
However, the key enabling factors were communication and mutual accountability. You need to trust the person you’re going into a process like this with. There are times when you need to admit that you’re struggling on a particular section, whether that be because of the topic or because your home life has been busy. There are times when you need to be able to give each other a gentle nudge to crack on and get something done. Being able to communicate effectively and be both responsible and accountable to the commitment you have made, is critical.
The co-authoring aspect is really interesting. How do you think impacted the writing process, if at all?
Co-authoring turned out to be one of the most enriching parts of the writing process. Collaborating brought together both of our perspectives, that neither of us could have achieved alone. Each chapter benefited from our combined experiences which not only improved the quality of the content but also ensured that the narrative resonated with a broader audience. It’s also important to note, that we have also had differing lived experiences, and so in several cases, one of us was more ‘qualified’ to provide advice than the other. If we had produced the book as an individual rather than together, certain topics just wouldn’t have had the depth of experience we have been able to bring, by working on it together.
Of course, collaboration also meant there were moments when reconciling differing opinions was hard, and we certainly haven’t always agreed on everything. There were no huge disagreements, but at points we did have to talk things through. But as we’ve said above, you need to trust each other’s expertise and perspective for this kind of relationship to work. You need to be open to each other’s ideas, concepts and even edits, which fortunately we have both been.
The book does a really good job of taking traditionally ‘taboo’ subjects and placing them into a workplace context. Why do you think this is important?
That was a key mission with this book- to leave no stone unturned. Particularly as women we can find it hard to hit some of those taboo topics head on. Think pay, adversity, promotions, even misconduct. We ran at those topics and gave the most candid, honest and actionable advice we could.
It felt important on so many levels. First and foremost, we don’t want anyone to be feeling alone or like they are the only one facing any particular given issue. By highlighting the topic and talking to it, we hoped to remove the anxiety around the topic itself, but also just highlight to the reader that there is ‘someone else who gets it’.
We were conscious that some of the topics in the book would be upsetting and even triggering to our readers, so as we wrote we ensured we also called out support mechanisms including helplines and mental health services. We knew that the topics should be spoken to, but we wanted to create a loop for those that were living the issue itself.
Another reason we chose to face taboo subjects head on, was in essence to lead by example. As we have said already, we have had many mentees, and we also maintain our own personal brands in the cybersecurity community. We had taken the opportunity to write and put our own thought leadership out there, and that meant not shying away from topics or some of the harder questions and adversities we have faced. We wanted to show if we could talk to the topic, show how we had overcome challenges, then our readers could do the same.
Has the book writing process taught you anything about cybersecurity?
With the topics we cover, most of the discussions are transferable to really any woman in a male-dominated industry. We started off thinking we were targeting ‘cybersecurity’ connected issues, but we have learnt along the way that what we talk to, can really affect any woman striving to ‘survive their career’ in a space where they are the minority.
More than ever, we can see how much love and support there is out there in the industry. We have had to work with individuals for our role model and allyship sections, find reviewers, folks to provide quotes, had to gain feedback on edits – everyone has had on heart been phenomenal. We knew cybersecurity was special, but this writing experience has connected us more than ever with the fabulous team members, advocates and community members around us.
We have come a long way as an industry, when we consider diversity, inclusion and representation, but the book really highlights that we have still a long way to go. We hope the book highlights how all of us as members of cyber or even tech can make a difference in helping the women around us shine and own their platforms, voices and opportunities.
What do you want people to know about the book?
This book is a heartfelt endeavour by two female cybersecurity professionals, where we don our agony aunt hats to tackle head-on the pressing questions and challenges women face in their careers. Drawing from our rich experiences in the cyber field, the advice we offer transcends industry boundaries, providing valuable insights especially for those in male-dominated areas. We’re incredibly proud of this work and are thrilled to share not only practical and actionable advice but also our personal journeys and victories.
To ensure everyone can benefit from our guidance, we’ve extended our support beyond the book with a series of podcasts. These are designed to assist those who might find audio content more accessible than written texts.
We’re here for it all-the challenges, the triumphs, and the ongoing journey-and can’t wait for you to join us in navigating the complex terrain of professional growth. Get ready to meet your new paperback mentors, confidants, and cheerleaders. We’re excited for you to dive in and start forging your path to success!
Who should read the book?
Whilst our target audience is women forging and owning careers in Cyber and IT, there is practical advice for anyone looking to improve their careers or support the women in their lives.
Securely Yours: An Agony Aunt’s Guide to Surviving Cyber is released on 1st May 2025. To find out more information, visit: Cyber Agony Aunts
