Operating eight cruise lines comprising over 90 vessels, Carnival Corporation & plc is a force to be reckoned with in the at-sea holiday space.
Its global footprint, the depth of its portfolio, expansive internal headcount, reams of customer data and countless technological touchpoints make for a complex cybersecurity environment. With such a vast remit, the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) holds one of the most fascinating and challenging seats among Carnival Corporation’s C-suite.
Currently heading up its global cybersecurity operations is Carnival Corporation’s CISO, Margarita Rivera. With two decades’ experience in the cybersecurity space, she has witnessed immense change. Both in the fabric of the industry and in its growing importance in increasingly complex and risk-prone digital environments.
Rivera has a wealth of multi-industry experience and deeply transferable qualifications. And she’s had a front-row seat to the profound changes in cybersecurity over the past 20 years making her ideal to lead the ongoing process of securing the company’s digital and data environments.
Cybersecurity’s Dramatic Evolution Through the 21st century
For Rivera, one of the most significant shifts in the space is in women’s representation which has developed significantly since she first joined the industry.
“When I first started, there weren’t a lot of women in the tech and cybersecurity space,” she says. “I was one of the first. I remember going to conferences and being the only woman in the room. Now, thankfully there’s been a lot of change.
“I recently met with a partner that’s helping us with a project here, and I looked around the room to see it’s probably sixty-forty, with the sixty in favour of having more women-representative engineers and founders. That’s quite exciting. I think there’s a special skillset that women possess that they bring to the table in terms of creativity and collaboration.”
Today, women heavily populate the space. Also, attitudes to women in tech have course-corrected away from gendered suppositions about their interest and acumen. Nevertheless, the male-dominated space of yesteryear is still very much within the recent past.
“Very early on I realised I was going to have to work twice as hard to demonstrate my technical and business acumen,” Rivera says of her experience as a trailblazing woman in the space. “I was very fortunate to have allies that helped me to handle and manoeuvre through different interactions with grace, challenge ways of thinking, and confront different scenarios throughout my career.