Cybersecurity Today She Hacks Purple: An Interview With Cybersecurity Expert Tanya Janca
Jan 17, 2026
In this enlightening chat, Tanya Janca, a Canadian application security expert and advocate known as She Hacks Purple, shares her odyssey from software development to penetration testing. She addresses the critical need for secure coding education in academia and highlights her initiatives, WOsec and We Hack Purple, aimed at empowering women in cybersecurity. Tanya dives into the role of AI in enhancing secure code, the economics of open-source security, and the importance of integrating security practices throughout the software development lifecycle.
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From Musician To Security Advocate
- Tanya Janca described shifting from being a performing musician to becoming a pen tester and security advocate.
- She began speaking at conferences to get training and was later recruited by Microsoft as a security advocate.
Building Inclusive Security Communities
- Tanya told how she started WOSec and We Hack Purple to create safe spaces and scholarships for underrepresented people.
- The scholarships placed about 98% of graduates into application security or other IT security roles.
Teaching Fixes, Not Just Exploits
- Tanya observed the industry lacked training on how to fix software after learning to break it as a pen tester.
- She wrote Alice and Bob to teach how to build an application security program and fill that gap.
