By Sunny Nwankwo

In an era where cyberattacks cost businesses billions annually and data breaches make headlines weekly, one cybersecurity professional is taking an unconventional approach to strengthening America’s digital defenses: bringing people together.
When the second annual IEEE Baltimore Technical Colloquium opens its doors on November 15, at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, hundreds of engineers, researchers, and public officials from across the Mid-Atlantic region will gather under the theme “Innovation and Leadership in Emerging Technologies.” The conference, which will feature keynote addresses from Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab’s Chief 5G Strategist, NIST senior scientists, Northrop Grumman executives, and IEEE Region 2 leadership, has grown significantly since its 2024 debut.
Among the key organisers is Modupe Temidayo, serving as Local Organizing Chair after leading the technology track at last year’s inaugural event, a Nigerian professional whose journey to cybersecurity leadership took a path few would have predicted.
Modupe Temidayo, Local Organizing Chair of the IEEE Baltimore Technical Colloquium and a graduate student in Information Assurance at Bowie State University, believes that the future of cybersecurity depends not just on technology, but on the communities we build around it. Temidayo explains from her office in Baltimore. “But the most critical component is often overlooked: the human element. Technology is only as strong as the people who implement it, understand it, and champion it.”
Temidayo’s journey into cybersecurity leadership began in Nigeria, where she spent seven years at Globacom Telecommunications detecting fraud and mitigating security risks in recharge card systems. It was there, managing customer disputes and analyzing cyber threats, that she first recognized a pattern that would shape her career philosophy.
“I noticed that most security breaches weren’t purely technical failures,” she recalls. “They happened because of gaps in communication, lack of awareness, or insufficient collaboration between different teams and departments. The technology existed to prevent these incidents, but the human infrastructure wasn’t there.”That realization led Temidayo to pursue advanced studies in information assurance in the United States and to become increasingly involved in professional organizations that bridge technical expertise with community engagement. As a member of IEEE and chapter President of Women in Cybersecurity (WiCyS), she has positioned herself at the intersection of technology and professional development.
Her role as Technical Track lead for the inaugural IEEE Baltimore Technical Colloquium in November 2024 represented the culmination of this philosophy. The event brought together industry experts, researchers, and professionals across multiple technical tracks, that created essential knowledge-sharing ecosystems.Technical colloquia serve a unique and increasingly vital role in the cybersecurity landscape. Unlike traditional conferences focused solely on presenting research or vendor exhibitions centered on product sales, colloquia create intimate environments where practitioners share real-world challenges, emerging threats, and innovative solutions.
This collaborative approach directly addresses what Temidayo identifies as one of cybersecurity’s most pressing challenges: the rapid evolution of threats outpacing the dissemination of defensive knowledge. Ransomware variants emerge weekly, social engineering techniques grow more sophisticated daily, and artificial intelligence is creating entirely new attack vectors that few organizations understand.
Temidayo’s work extends beyond organizing events. Her published articles in Nigeria’s Vanguard and The Sun newspapers tackle practical cybersecurity challenges that affect everyday citizens, from phishing scams to data protection as a shared responsibility. This focus on public education reflects another core belief: cybersecurity cannot be the exclusive domain of technical experts.
“I’ve written about phishing scams not because they’re technologically sophisticated; they’re actually quite simple,” Temidayo says. “I write about them because they’re devastatingly effective. The Nigerian prince email scams of the 2000s have evolved into highly targeted spear-phishing campaigns that trick even security-conscious individuals. The weakest link in any security system is an uninformed user.”
Her emphasis on user education stems from her telecommunications background, where she saw firsthand how customer awareness directly impacted security outcomes. During her time at Globacom, she reduced fraud incidents by 40% through a combination of technical controls and user engagement strategies that increased brand loyalty and improved client interactions.
“Technology can detect anomalies and block suspicious activities, but it can’t recognize every sophisticated attack,” she explains. “We need users who understand basic security hygiene, who question unexpected requests for credentials, who verify before they click. That requires ongoing education, and it requires making security accessible rather than intimidating.”
Temidayo’s influence extends into policy advocacy, where she has leveraged her platform to address systemic challenges in the cybersecurity field. As a Congressional Visit Day Advocate in April 2024 and 2025, she engaged directly with congressional representatives on three critical issues: federal funding for science and technology agencies, the CREATE AI Act supporting U.S. leadership in artificial intelligence security, and the bipartisan Keep STEM Talent Act addressing cybersecurity workforce shortages.
As a chapter leader of Women in Cybersecurity, Temidayo confronts another critical workforce challenge: the gender gap in information security. Women comprise only about 25% of the cybersecurity workforce, a disparity that Temidayo considers both an equity issue and a security risk.Through WiCyS, Temidayo mentors women entering the cybersecurity field, helping them navigate challenges ranging from technical skill development to workplace dynamics. She also works to make the field more welcoming by highlighting successful women in security roles and creating networking opportunities through events like the Baltimore Colloquium.”Representation matters tremendously,” Temidayo notes. “When young women see other women leading security teams, organizing technical conferences, and speaking authoritatively about complex security topics, it makes the field feel accessible.
Looking ahead, Temidayo envisions a cybersecurity landscape where community-driven collaboration becomes as fundamental as technical controls. She points to emerging threats from artificial intelligence, quantum computing’s potential to break current encryption standards, and the expanding attack surface created by Internet of Things devices as challenges that no single organization can address alone.
“Every major cybersecurity challenge we face has both a technical component and a human component,” Temidayo reflects. “The human component; education, collaboration, policy, diversity, and community is very crucial. Not because technology doesn’t matter, but because we already have brilliant people working on technology. We need equally brilliant people working on the human infrastructure that makes that technology effective.”
For Temidayo, being the organizing Chair for the IEEE Baltimore Technical Colloquium represented more than coordinating speakers and managing logistics. It was about demonstrating that building strong cybersecurity defences requires building strong professional communities and spaces where knowledge flows freely, diverse perspectives are welcomed, and collective defence becomes not just a strategy but a culture.
In an increasingly connected world where a breach in one organization can cascade across entire industries, Temidayo’s emphasis on community-driven security may be exactly what digital defense needs. Technology will continue to evolve, threats will continue to emerge, but the communities we build today will determine how effectively we respond tomorrow.