CS Nov-Dec 2020

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gender inequality equates to - and is limited to - someone in a hoodie bent over a keyboard in a dark room. That's not the case at all. If we don't expand beyond that, then we'll lose out on even more people in the industry." And she adds: "The future of cybersecurity needs diversity. 2019 was the worst year on record for data breaches, with 61% of organisations reporting a breach as a result of human error or malicious activity. With data breaches rising year on year, and with cyber threats continually evolving, we need different ideas and approaches to solving security problems, if we are going to keep people and data safe." WOMEN IN CYBER For its part, Cisco's commitment to the gender equality cause can be seen in its 'Women in Cyber' initiative, which aims to bring diversity of thinking to a team and to a problem - what the company's Gregory Neal Akers describes as "unique perspectives that we would otherwise not have, because of the biases we bring from our own backgrounds". Akers, senior vice president of Advanced Security Initiatives and chief technology officer within the Global Governments Solutions Group at Cisco, says he can see that the gender gap in security is, unfortunately, real. "We have the problem of not having enough females in STEM in general and that yields a gap in security. I'm especially concerned about female undergrads and high school students in STEM, because they tend to gravitate to other domains like natural sciences or biology - rather advanced mathematics that is important to things like encryption and quantum computing. "Even within the research environment, I see senior-level female colleagues at other institutions lacking more women on their research teams - not because of bias, but because there simply isn't a talent pool of qualified women to draw from." He believes this situation is rooted in the primary and secondary education system, where we're not sufficiently encouraging girls and women into the field. "For example, in cryptography, which is my area of specialty, the required deep level math is not being taught to enough women. Yet these skills will be increasingly important for the ongoing critical development of Machine Learning. While some women will be drawn to this work, others may be reluctant; we need to actively demonstrate that cyber talent needs extend well beyond deep maths to a breadth of roles that demand all available talent. The imperative is urgent." So what can be done about this? "We must incentivise women to get involved in the cyber field; it offers satisfying experience and great intellectual stimulation," says Akers. "I believe in mentoring; for me, as a leader, it's very gratifying and I always get back more than I give. I insist on diversity in staffing activities: diverse interview teams to assess job candidates; diverse hiring professionals in HR; and having people with diverse perspectives make decisions on rewards and promotions. This can at times be difficult to do, given the pool of incumbents available to engage in the process. But, if you don't have multiple perspectives on a decision-making advisory group, you end up with biases and limitations in the ways to think about things. Leaders have to be dogmatic about this and make sure it's being done." Of course, the cyber talent shortage requires skilled women and men to fill much-needed jobs, he points out. "We need to balance encouraging and incentivising women to enter the field with cultivating skills of their male counterparts. And he concludes: "I firmly believe that, if the opportunity is presented, over time there will be a natural tendency for the balance to come." 34 computing security Nov/Dec 2020 @CSMagAndAwards www.computingsecurity.co.uk
FULLSTACK VULNERABILITY MANAGEMENT CONTINUOUS VULNERABILITY INTELLIGENCE Accurately identifies vulnerabilities and exposures across the full stack. All threats are verified by cybersecurity experts, providing exploitable risk and remediation guidance. “The expertise and delivery of this service has been outstanding...” SECURITY AND RISK MANAGEMENT, MEDIA INDUSTRY, 30B+ US 2020
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CS Nov-Dec 2020

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