Closing the Gender Gap: Women in Cybersecurity
March 8 was International Women’s Day. A lot of folks will say, “why do we need a special day for women? Women have equality now – don’t they?” To an extent, this is true. Compared to the 1950s, women in many Western countries have better access to education and the workplace. However, in the world of technology and, specifically in cybersecurity, there still seems to be a wide chasm to cross to achieve parity of the sexes.
The tech world, in general, still seems to be a man’s domain. Statistics from some of the world’s largest tech companies show that women are still in the minority in holding tech jobs. Uber has a female workforce of only 15% with Apple slightly better at 23% (1).
In cybersecurity, the situation is even worse. A 2017 (ISC)2 report showed that women made up only 11% of the global security workforce. (2)
You may be saying to yourself at this point, “So what – women obviously don’t like cybersecurity and aren’t interested in technology.” But, we have to start looking more deeply at the whys of this, because study after study warns of the imminent workforce shortfalls in cybersecurity. One such study, by (ISC)2 and Booz Allen Hamilton, indicated that there will be a shortfall of at least 1.8 million workers by 2022. (3)
Cybersecurity, perhaps more than other areas of technology, requires a multidisciplinary approach to problems. In cybersecurity, problem-solving skills and a holistic view of a challenge is key to resolving an issue. Having a team made up of diverse individuals can only work to improve the outcome of that team.
Encouraging women to look to a career in cybersecurity is one way in which we can plug the gap between workforce needs and the (Read more...)
*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from InfoSec Resources authored by Chris Sienko. Read the original post at: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/infosecResources/~3/bnM1IPiNNFo/
