I am new to the Cybersecurity industry, joining my old eGroup colleague, Graeme Speak almost a year ago. After watching his UWA Graduation ceremony on his innovative BankVault Cybersecurity solution. The technology is sound, offering remote isolation or “virtual machine” for secure transactions such as Banking. I was attracted by its simplicity and innovative approach to a big problem – end point security.
In unpacking the gender issue in Cybersecurity I’d like to explore a couple of personal observations and propose they are causing the gender diversity gap.
Firstly, let me clarify how big is the gender issue? The “2017 Global Information Security Workforce Study: Women in Cybersecurity,” reports the Cybersecurity industry is composed of only 11 percent women globally.
To my mind, the problem is bigger than gender diversity, but relates to lack of diversity of skills within the industry. The cybersecurity industry places too much importance on the narrow technical/forensic skills. It is this bias which is directly effecting true diversity within the industry – not only women, but also across men.
I propose we need to attract a broad array of skills for a healthy ecosystem. By doing so we will help to normalise the culture and ultimately provide a more attractive career path for non-male workers – technical and non-technical.
Before I continue, I am not stereotyping that women can’t do tech – of course they can. I’m just saying that the focus and elevated importance of “tech” skills – will not bode well for the effectiveness or level of innovation within the industry.
At a recent WITWA forum, I was delighted to hear that efforts to recruit beyond “skills” have proven successful. Adrianna Skok-Muir, Principal Mining Engineer with Iluka Resources, representing Women In Mining spoke to how they have achieved diversity. In a male dominated industry, tackling similar low female participation rates, at only 12.9%. Diversity recruitment policies have delivered successful outcomes when looking beyond “skills” and actively recruiting for “attitude and aptitude”…Click HERE to read full article.
