After losing the woman she built her life with, cybersecurity architect Kate Scarcella found herself applying the same principles she used to restore compromised systems. In this deeply personal talk, she explores how grief, loss, and life-changing disruption require something surprisingly similar to system recovery: discovering what still works, what remains true, and what can respond.
Kate Scarcella has spent more than 25 years helping organizations recover from some of their most challenging technology failures. A cybersecurity architect, advisor, and speaker, she has worked with Fortune 50 enterprises, served on IBM’s Security Board of Advisors, and chairs the CI/CD Cybersecurity SIG at the Continuous Delivery Foundation. After the loss of her partner Jill following more than 35 years together, Kate discovered that the principles she used to restore compromised systems offered an unexpected framework for navigating grief and profound change. Her work explores what technology can teach us about trust, restoration, and rebuilding when life can no longer be returned to a previous version.
