Catriona Nunn Kicking off our new ‘Careers In…’ series, Alumni Voices brings together three York alumni whose careers show just how varied and meaningful the cybersecurity sector can be. From threat intelligence and cyber analysis to AI safety research, each of them reflects on the skills, experiences and York opportunities that helped shape their path into work with real-world impact.
Cybersecurity might sound like a world of code and technical defences but for these York alumni it is also about people and impact. From counter-terrorism to AI safety and cyber analysis, their work is driven by a shared sense of purpose: using their skills to make the online world safer.
Cat Cadenhead, now a Threat Intelligence Analyst, says her role is all about “understanding how terrorists exploit the internet and guiding the development of tools to prevent this misuse.” For her, the path began at York, where she studied history and was drawn in by the breadth of modules available, especially those focused on “secret history, secret policing, and intelligence and the history of intelligence.” That academic curiosity, she explains, helped shape her interest in geopolitics and “understanding why people do things,” which ultimately led her into the field.
Suzy Beanland’s route into cybersecurity began with physics, but her career has taken her far beyond the laboratory. She is now Director of Analysis at Darktrace, where she oversees “40 fantastic analysts who are looking at cyber threats that are happening across the landscape and translating them into meaningful insights for our customers.”
What stands out most to Cat is the wider purpose of the work. “I think the most impactful part of my role is knowing that I’m taking part in preventing harm,” she says. “Looking at the bigger picture and understanding that you’re contributing to a safer online ecosystem” is what keeps the work meaningful. Her advice to graduates is simple: “keep an open mind because there’s loads of different roles within counter terrorism and your skills are needed.”
For Suzy, the value of cybersecurity lies in its reach. “Our customer base really spreads across every single industry. Cybersecurity has so much importance in society. Our customer base really spreads across every single industry. That can be very important, for example, with critical national infrastructure. If that went down, we’d all struggle quite a lot.”
She is also clear that cybersecurity is far broader than many people assume: “Cybersecurity, people might think, is a very technical field to be in and that’s a common misconception.” Her own career has included cyber analysis, customer training, education specialism, curriculum development and even “creative things,” showing just how varied the sector can be.
Her York experience also played an important role in building confidence. She recalls a module called “professional skills,” which helped her learn “how to present and be comfortable in front of a room of people.” Those skills, she says, have been “so transferrable” into corporate life. Her advice to graduates is to “have an open mind. Even if you don’t think you’re quite right for cybersecurity, it’s actually a very open field. There’s a lot of different avenues within that, and you can’t be an expert in every single one of them. So if you’re able to do a little bit of self reflection on what you want to do and the kind of impacts you want to make, that can be really helpful in identifying roles. Don’t be afraid to try again or pivot and try something different. There’s a whole world out there, you’ve just got to go for it!”
Tom O’Neill has taken his York background in computer science and cybersecurity into a PhD focused on AI safety. He is studying “how we’re using increasingly autonomous systems” so that the benefits of AI can be used “in a way that is safe and not going to cause everything to go really badly wrong.” His research looks closely at safety-critical settings such as “healthcare and air traffic,” where the stakes are especially high.
The most rewarding part of Tom’s work, he says, is the chance to work closely with industry partners. He spends time “thinking about if it is the ethical way of doing it, if it is the safe way of doing it, if this is going to be the right approach moving forward.” He is also interested in the everyday variety of the role, which can move from policy discussions to public speaking to reading about the latest developments in AI.
Tom credits York’s Cybersecurity Society with helping him grow in confidence. Standing up to talk to rooms of people about cybersecurity meant he had to “learn it well enough that I can convince a room of people that I know what I’m talking about,” and that experience helped him become more comfortable explaining complex ideas. His advice for graduates is to “keep up with the news, especially as governments begin to regulate AI more closely, and to look for opportunities in that fast-changing space.”
Across their different paths, these York alumni show that cybersecurity is not one fixed career but a field with space for analysts, researchers, educators and leaders alike. What connects them is not only technical knowledge but curiosity, adaptability and a clear sense that their work matters.
