In a male-dominated world of online security, Liu Hui spends 10 hours a day testing and debugging computer systems and programs, analyzing their security flaws.
Liu is a 25-year-old online security analyst with a PhD from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. The young analyst admitted that she is vey fond of solving security risks and every problem solved and loophole closed gives her a sense of achievement.
A native of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Liu always surprisespeople with her expertise as people are not quite used to the idea of a woman doing a man's job.
Liu said that whenever she tries to explain to people the necessary precautions before connecting to a public Wi-Fi, the people are mostly amused that a woman knows so much technical knowledge. Liu further stated that most of her lab colleagues are men.
A report released by Qihoo 360, a security software provider, stated that 99 percent of people who work in online security are men. The report also showed that some women are also interested in computing but only a handful show interests on further studies.
Liu revealed that curiosity on the workings of program loopholes pushed her to study information security when she was a postgraduate. Initially frustrated with the complicated world of programming, she immediately caught on with the subject and this further increased her enthusiasm.
Working in WooYun online security platform, Liu said she truly enjoys her job and hopes to someday achieve a mastery status on cryptanalysis, basically the analysis of systems to find weaknesses.
Liu plans to continue her studies in the next four years.