Although minority representation in cybersecurity is higher than the overall U.S. workforce (26 percent vs. 21 percent), these professionals are disproportionately in non-management roles.
Security professionals are tasked with addressing reputational risk as well as physical risk, but are our own departments and industry doing enough to avoid being a risk to the enterprise as a whole? It’s time to take a good, hard look at your workplace and ask if it is inclusive, supportive and fair.
The Security Industry Association (SIA) announced on March 8 that it was establishing a Women in Security Forum to support the participation of women in the security industry. According to SIA, “through programs, professional development and networking events, the committee will engage members, both men and women, who share this goal.”
It’s not working, but it can. Despite government and private sector efforts to retain more women in the global cybersecurity profession, women are sorely underrepresented in the industry.
What image flashes in your mind when you hear the word cybersecurity? Is it a room filled with happy, diverse, productive people making a difference in the world around them? Sadly no. More than likely, it’s a guy hunched over his computer wearing a dark hoodie with some ones and zeros floating above his head.
Over the past few years, women have represented approximately 10 percent of the information security workforce, but analysis from two recent (ISC) information security workforce surveys shows that women are quickly converging on men in terms of academic focus, computer science and engineering, and, as a gender, have a higher concentration of advanced degrees.
