Wendy Goucher

Wendy Goucher spent many years lecturing in management in further and higher education before leaping (not elegantly - it was more of a series of hops with scrambling and skinned knees) into the Information Security profession as a management facing and translating person. After years of finding an area where her skills and experience made the best contribution she is now a Cybersecurity and Risk Consultant, specialising in cyber risk and assurance. She is also a Chartered Fellow of the British Computer Society and a Chartered Professional under the UK Cyber Security Council - but don't think that makes her amazingly in tune with computing. She still finds learning new passwords and then putting all the right letters and numbers into the keyboard in the right order stressful.

After a few years working in security while simultaneously writing two other books—an advanced technique not recommended by her nail technician, Wendy finally has the opportunity to use storytelling to bring small children together with their parents, grandparents, and carers in building an understanding about the safe use of the internet together.

The Adventures of Nettie and Webby is a passion project for Wendy, but make sure you’re armed with a hot drink and a cake before asking her to tell you the story.

So far there are 3 books in this series, which has given her the chance to visit some primary schools to chat about cyber safety with children, teachers and parents.

On request from a couple of those primary school teachers, Wendy has also created a new series for children in the upper half of the school. These feature a new character called Eesha, who in the first story - Eesha and the Mud Monster Mystery- is bullied by text when trying to settle into her new school. Using detective skills, and with the assistance of her virtual assistant, Daxa, a very proud red panda, she not only learns how to stop the bullies but also how to protect herself in future.

Wendy has also written a series of short stories for seniors - Canon Doyle's Cyber Safety Stories for Seniors - that help folk protect themselves against cyber risk and social engineering. Audio recordings of these will appear as they are produced

In short, Wendy seems to spend a lot of her time communicating through story, but then a lot of communication, even in a work environment uses stories of events and experiences, so she is not alone.