In the realm of cybersecurity, women are significantly underrepresented. In 2017, women made up 14% of the cybersecurity workforce in the United States, compared to 48% in the broader workforce.

Outside of the United States, the problem is more serious. In 2018, women made up ten percent of the cybersecurity workforce in Asia-Pacific, nine percent in Africa, eight percent in Latin America, seven percent in Europe, and five percent in the Middle East.

Women are considerably less well-represented in security leadership at the highest levels. Senior executive positions are held by only 1% of female internet security workers.

I research the concerns of internet crime and security that consumers, businesses, and governments face. In my investigation, I discovered that internet security necessitates more than just technical solutions. Women’s representation is crucial because women often have different opinions and perspectives than men, and these underrepresented viewpoints are critical in addressing cyber dangers.

Perception, awareness, and bias are all factors to consider.

Women’s underrepresentation in internet security is tied to a larger issue of women’s underrepresentation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. In the United States, women make up only 30% of scientists and engineers.

Although there is nothing inherent in gender that predisposes males to be more interested in or effective at cybersecurity, the cultural attitude is that it is a job that men perform. Furthermore, the sector misleads potential employees into believing that only technical skills are important in cybersecurity, giving women the impression that the field is highly complex or even dull.

Women are also rarely given opportunities in the sector of information technology. According to a survey of women pursuing jobs outside of IT, the top reason they didn’t explore chances in IT was that they were ignorant of them.

Attempts to recruit women to work in cybersecurity are frequently unsuccessful. Only nearly half of respondents believed their firms were doing enough to recruit women into cybersecurity roles, according to a poll done by IT security firm Tessian.

Women are discouraged from applying for jobs because of gender bias in job advertisements. Gender-neutral wording is frequently absent from online cybersecurity job postings.

Solid business and good security

It makes security and financial sense to increase women’s participation in information security. In this field, female leaders tend to prioritize critical areas that male leaders sometimes ignore. This is due in part to their respective backgrounds. In the sector of information security, 44% of women hold degrees in business and social sciences, compared to 30% of men.

Internal training and education in security and risk management are more important to female internet security specialists. Online training, which is a flexible and low-cost approach to boosting employees’ understanding of security risks, is also more popular among women.

Female internet security experts are also skilled at partnering with companies to produce secure products. Women are more concerned with the qualifications and staff of partner organizations, as well as their capacity to meet contractual responsibilities. Partners who are prepared to conduct independent security tests are also preferred.

It is both a business and a gender issue to increase women’s engagement in cybersecurity. According to a report by Ernst & Young, by 2028, women would control 75% of global discretionary consumer purchasing. Consumers’ purchasing decisions are increasingly influenced by security factors such as encryption, fraud detection, and biometrics. Product design necessitates a compromise between security and usability. Female cybersecurity professionals are better equipped to make informed decisions about such trade-offs for goods aimed at female customers.

Getting more women interested in cybersecurity

Governments, charity groups, professional and trade organizations, and the corporate sector must collaborate to attract more women to cybersecurity. Projects involving public-private partnerships may be able to help tackle the problem in the long run.

Israel’s Shift community, formerly known as the CyberGirlz initiative, is one such example, with funding from the Defense Ministry, the Rashi Foundation, and Start-Up Nation Central. It finds and supports high school girls who have the talent, motivation, and natural curiosity to learn IT.

Female mentors provide advice, direction, and support to the girls while they participate in hackathons and training programs. Some of the mentors are from the country’s military’s elite technical groups. Hacking skills, network analysis, and the Python programming language are among the topics covered by the participants. They also rehearse mimicking cyber-attacks to identify potential flaws. Around 2,000 girls had joined the CyberGirlz Club and the CyberGirlz Community by 2018.

Palo Alto Networks, a cybersecurity business, collaborated with the Girl Scouts of the United States to create cybersecurity badges in 2017. The purpose is to increase cybersecurity awareness and interest in the field. The course covers the fundamentals of computer networks, cyberattacks, and internet security.

Professional associations can also assist women to obtain appropriate expertise and cultivate an interest in cybersecurity. Women in Cybersecurity of Spain, for example, has launched a mentoring program to help female cybersecurity experts get started in their careers.

Some trade associations have teamed together with major corporations. The CyberShikshaa initiative was created in 2018 by Microsoft India and the Data Security Council of India to create a pool of skilled female cybersecurity specialists.

Some technology firms have launched initiatives to increase women’s interest in and confidence in jobs in internet security. IBM Security’s Women in Security Excelling program, which began in 2015, is one example.

Increasing the number of women in the cybersecurity industry necessitates a variety of measures. Female cybersecurity specialists should be encouraged to apply for jobs in the field. Academic institutions with a high female enrollment should be targeted for recruitment. Female employees should perceive cybersecurity as a viable alternative for internal career moves, according to companies. Governments should also collaborate with the commercial sector and academic institutions to encourage young women to pursue careers in cybersecurity.

Increasing women’s engagement in cybersecurity is beneficial to women, businesses, and society as a whole.