Every year, Security magazine takes a moment to spotlight the incredible women making waves in the physical and cybersecurity world through our Women in Security program. These professionals are more than just leaders — they’re innovators, change makers, and a driving force behind some of the most critical security strategies today. Be sure to check out this year’s honorees.

Recently, I had the opportunity to speak with Lynn Dohm, Executive Director of nonprofit organization Women in Cybersecurity (WiCyS), which has more than 11,000 members with representation in 103 countries about the organization and its mission to recruit, retain and advance women in cybersecurity to build a robust and diverse cybersecurity workforce.

“We continue to grow that ecosystem, but we make sure that we understand our members’ priorities align with our programming efforts to help overcome and bridge those gaps and challenges that we're seeing in the workforce,” Dohm says.

Recent studies have reported that about 4 million cybersecurity workers are needed to ensure assets are secured effectively. In addition to the critical workforce shortage, Dohm highlights the high attrition rate in cybersecurity which is 8% higher than other IT roles. And, according to reports, it takes 21% longer to fill a cybersecurity role than regular IT roles.

“Being a partner of WiCyS helps fill that really critical professional development piece for them, for individuals in their career, so that they're not leaving the workforce, so they're not leaving their company, so they're staying, you know, tuned in to where the employer is investing in them.”

In 2020, WiCys developed its Security Training Scholarship, a signature program designed to find the hidden talent, Dohm says.

“We were determined to find people with the proper aptitude, grit, and determination to invest in them,” she says. “To give our community members ability the opportunity to elevate into cybersecurity, to be able to have the financial freedom to be able to support themselves and support their families and to be able to navigate through their career with career advancement opportunities.”

When asked about the role that organizational culture and leadership play in fostering a diverse and inclusive workforce, Dohm says she’s seeing high level of intentional actions from leadership in organizations.

“They're recognizing that leadership means retaining the talent,” she says. “The amount of work and the amount of cost that it takes when you're losing talented individuals, it's really important to make the investment in the individuals on your team.”

As Executive Director at WiCys, Dohm says part of her role is listening to people and being able to provide accessibility to the opportunities.

“We're filling the workforce shortage and we're also filling the needs of individuals to find a career that they could thrive in, that they could be passionate in, that they could wake up every day and be excited about,” she says. “They want to go down the rabbit hole and get lost, and there's so many individuals that love that, and cybersecurity is for them.

“The technical stuff could be taught but the actual determination and the drive to want to do it, that's just inherently natural,” she continues. “It's so many people within our population, we just have to find them.”