Cover Feature Cyber Security
Seeking diversity in cybersecurity
I By Jackie Shervington
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
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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”. At the same forum Diana Adorno, an Experience Designer with Thoughtworks, Global Winner of #TechDiversity Awards 2016, shared similar positive outcomes with recruiting beyond the “tech” resume. Both speakers stressed the importance of support mentoring and education for these strategies to mitigate the “imposter syndrome”. An opportune segue to share my personal story and my Cybersecurity experience. In my 30-year marketing career across banking and technology I have always straddled the Fintech realm. Think of me as a “marketing geek” but I’m no techy. My background is strong and proven and yet I often feel like an imposter in this industry? I’m grateful