​​Ask the Expert ft. Cat Easdon

​​Synopsis:

​Observability tooling is indispensable in complex software systems to provide real-time logs, metrics, and traces for performance monitoring and troubleshooting. It's very possible to use observability tooling in a privacy-preserving way, but as the name suggests, it's also easy to mistakenly collect sensitive data in your "observation" of a system. In this session, Cat will share her insights from building features to enable customers to tackle this challenge at scale at Dynatrace, one of the leading SaaS observability providers.

​​Problem Statement:

​What is observability tooling used for and which privacy challenges are associated with it? How can we effectively detect personal data to prevent it from leaking into observability tooling or other systems?

​​Related Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs):

• ​Sensitive data detection

• ​Data masking

• ​Pseudonymization

​Pre-Discussion Recources:

• ​See Cat's slides from her keynote at the Hagenberg Security Forum for examples of sensitive data leakage into logs and technical mitigations: https://www.cattius.com/images/security-forum-2026.pdf.

​​Guest Expert: Cat Easdon

​Cat is an engineer and researcher working at the intersection of privacy, security, and policy. Currently, she translates law and policy into code at Dynatrace, where she built up their privacy engineering team as the founding engineer, product owner, and then people lead. Previously, she hacked CPUs for a living, investigating hardware backdoors and software-exploitable side channels at Graz University of Technology. Outside of work, she serves on org and program committees in the research community (USENIX PEPR, IWPE, Annual Privacy Forum, previously ACM CCS for hardware security) and engages on technology policy issues.

​​Moderator: Ralph O'Brien

​After two and a half decades of work at the forefront of the privacy sector, I have built my career around making the intricacies of Privacy & Security risk management understandable. I enjoy passing on my passion for privacy by translating often complicated legal concepts, into sustainable business processes taking a design approach that add value, rather than compliance costs.

​You’ll receive the services of an experienced consultant, speaker, trainer, auditor, negotiator and project manager. I use my knowledge of data protection laws and information governance standards to help businesses develop and grow, engage their stakeholders, and to deliver real value to my clients, that can also protect individual rights.