LIBERTY MUDZAMBA
MY JOURNEY: FROM ACCOUNTANCY TO CYBERSECURITY by Liberty Mudzamba, Senior Consultant in Cybersecurity at EY Liberty Mudzamba is a senior consultant in
simulations to understand their business needs
cybersecurity at EY. One aspect of his role represents
and ensure solutions meet the requirements from a
the achievement of a long-held goal, the other does not.
security, business and technical perspective.
“I always wanted to work for one of the Big Four,” he
In this role, he says problem solving, communication
says. However, cybersecurity was not on his radar
skills, collaboration/teaming skills and stakeholder
initially: he gained a bachelor’s degree in accounting
management are of paramount importance.
and finance from Curtin University and then worked in accounting before landing a role as a security
CURIOSITY AND CONTINUOUS LEARNING
analyst with a not-for-profit organisation. This was
It is a long way from his early roles in accountancy,
followed by various other roles before he joined EY
but he says those roles helped him develop these
in 2019, after gaining a Postgraduate Diploma in
skills. “These were some of the transferrable skills
Cyber Security from a reputable university in Western
and knowledge I found to be relevant in cybersecurity
Australia, where he faced considerable challenges as
from my early roles,” and taught him some valuable
one of few students without a technical background.
lessons. “In hindsight, I realise that my initial fear of not transitioning into cybersecurity because I
“The course was delivered in technical jargon, and this
wasn’t techy enough were exaggerated. I am glad I
required me to study twice as hard to stay on top of
managed to fight the imposter syndrome and step
my grades,” he says. “I doubted my ability to survive in
out of my comfort zone. I also redirected my fear
this industry several times, but I remained focused on
towards growth, reading books and watching as many
the bigger picture, to help simplify the cybersecurity
podcasts as I could to accelerate my learning. The
technical language into simple, consumable language
process imparted an important lesson: that we all can
by non-technical decision makers.”
restart our careers as long as we carry enough drive and curiosity.”
Today, he works with EY’s client organisations
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undertaking cybersecurity maturity assessments,
And Mudzamba has certainly learnt continuously.
assurance, transformation programs and crisis
In addition to his Postgraduate Diploma in Cyber
W O M E N I N S E C U R I T Y M A G A Z I N E
N O V E M B E R • D E C E M B E R 2022