About Kate
Kate Pearce's photograph, she is smiling in a basic headshot. Wearing a ponamu necklace and a green patterned t-shirt.

About Kate

I am a security person who comes at security from alI perspectives. In my professional career, I’ve been on both the defender/builder and attacker/assessor sides of the fence, and I use my experiences from each to inform my approach to the other.

Overall, my passion is providing evidence-driven approaches. This manifests as research driven approaches, where i use knowledge of past, present, and future security issues to drive my advice. Presently, my focus is enabling, supporting, and assessing both the design and construction of secure solutions.

Having spent time in all three of business, academic, and assessment context has enabled me to communicate the balance between what’s good in theory, what works in practice and what’s good business. You can’t often have all three, but I can assist you in making an informed decision that fits your own unique priorities.

Quick Summary

Secvalve is the handle of Catherine (Kate) Pearce. Having previously completed a BSc (Computer Science), a Postgraduate Diploma in Computer Security and Forensics, and a MSc (Computer Science), and lived/worked in the USA as a Security Consultant for Neohapsis, she is now based in Wellington, New Zealand working as Head of Security at Trade Me, where she leads the security team protecting the data of millions of New Zealanders.

Things I am passionate about

Research:

  • Medium-term technology research (5-15 year window of impact).
  • In particular understanding the impact of emerging technologies and technology shifts.
  • Interdisciplinary research
  • Combining knowledge areas to find analagous problems, solutions, or approaches.

Providing Customer Solutions:

  • Strategic but realistic solutions
  • solve the problem in the long term, while providing incremental benefit.
  • Holistic solutions that don’t start with technology.

People and mentoring:

  • Mentoring
    • Helping people do what they are afraid the believe they can do.
    • Especially women and minorities in related industries.

Publications and Presentations

Details on the Publications page

Professional Experience

Head of Security at Trade Me (2017-present)

  • Lead security team protecting data of millions of New Zealanders
  • Led cloud migration security strategy (NZ data centers to Google Cloud Australia)
  • Implemented Next-Gen WAF and DDoS protection using Fastly/Signal Sciences
  • Developed ScamHammer initiative (finalist for 2024 iSANZ Awards)

Previous Roles:

  • Cisco Systems (2015-2017) - Senior Security Consultant & Threat Assessment Practice Lead
  • Neohapsis (pre-2015) - Security Consultant, Chicago, USA

Leadership & Governance

Board & Council Positions:

  • InternetNZ Councillor (2017-present) - Elected member, re-elected 2020, 2023
    • Chair of .nz Policy Committee
    • Member of Risk and Compliance Committee
  • VUW ECS Industry Advisory Board (2017-present) - Victoria University of Wellington School of Engineering and Computer Science
  • Aotearoa Tech Union Co-Leader (2018-2022) - Founding member and co-leader of NZ’s first tech worker union
  • NZITF Board Member (2018-2022) - New Zealand Internet Task Force

Conference Organization:

  • BSides Wellington Co-Founder & Organizer (2017-present) - New Zealand’s first BSides security conference

Industry Roles:

  • iSANZ Awards Judge (2021-present) - Judging panel for NZ information security awards

Professional Development

  • Institute of Directors Governance Residential Course (January 2023)
  • Ongoing governance and leadership development

Education

  • Bachelor of Science(BSc) - University of Canterbury
  • PostGraduate Diploma in Science (PgDisSci) (Computer Security and Forensics) - University of Canterbury
  • Master of Science (Computer Computer Science) - University of Canterbury

Kate’s Master’s research was concerned with the mitigation of so called Drive by Download Attacks (unauthorized installation of software by web content without user intervention) through developing a fully open source secure web gateway using existing tools. Not content with using an untested and unverifiable system she extensively tested the performance and effectiveness of it.

Contact me

You may also find her photos on 500px at Secvalve. You may also find her other places under similar aliases…