NOMINATION HIGHLIGHTS

From the inception of a dedicated information security function at Accenture in 2011, Urszula has led the charge to embrace training for and bring awareness to the important human element of cybersecurity risks. Urszula’s passion and creativity to deliver just-in-time training to Accenture’s 800,000+ workforce continues to keep Accenture’s security posture best in class. She has directed and delivered against each year’s most challenging and troubling threats – including evolving social engineering training to include not just traditional phishing threats but also threats over teams and text messages as well as deepfakes. She has also worked in tandem with an all-women analytics team to create and deliver a secure behavior score tool which uses actual employee performance data to deliver a singular, individual, and tailored score to each Accenture employee. The score identifies information security gaps and provides personalized guidance to further drive accountability and change behaviors via nudge theory.

In addition to these project deliverables, Urszula is also very active in bringing awareness to the importance of everyday information security best practices and has spearheaded a campaign called Sidewalk Security which includes Cybersecurity training for teens, aging adults and other vulnerable populations. On top of all of this she is the refugee ERG lead and a mentor to the most senior leaders at Accenture to help them understand how they can improve their information security posture.

Collectively, these efforts earned Urszula’s team a top maturity level in the SANS benchmark with a score of 4.8 out of 5. This rating is a true testament to Urszula’s ability to maximize her established Accenture network to drive adoption of information security best practices across the global organization.

Whether this year or during her 25-year tenure at Accenture, Urszula’s success is because she’s never been afraid to roll up her sleeves and dive into the details needed to drive adoption of secure practices. She has a reputation for contributing at any table she finds herself seated. Her team draws inspiration from this and her unwavering pursuit to break stereotypical women in technology boundaries. Her user-first mindset and eye for out of the box training opportunities push far beyond traditional training and ensures security training is engaging, while providing necessary security education. A great example of this is her support in deploying “RedFlags” a software that delivers in the moment nudges to help employees make right decisions the time of impact.