Despite a growing global demand for cybersecurity expertise, with 97 people falling victim to cybercrimes every minute globally, women are still significantly underrepresented in the cybersecurity field.
There is a huge demand for employees: over 800,000 new trained cybersecurity professionals are needed in Europe alone and there is a global shortage of nearly five million cybersecurity workers. Women will need to play a bigger role in this sector as life increasingly moves online and the real-world consequences of cybercrime become graver.
Currently, women occupy a slim share of the workforce in this emerging field, both in Europe and internationally. In the EU, 56% of organisations reported that none of their cybersecurity employees were women. According to the latest statistics, just 22% of the global cybersecurity workforce is made up of women.
Recognising this disparity, which is increasingly pressing against the backdrop of companies' growing hiring needs and a shortage of cybersecurity talent, the Belgian branch of Women4Cyber is working to change perceptions about cybersecurity. The global foundation aims to promote the inclusion of women in the field and attract people from different backgrounds to the industry.
Not just men in hoodies in basements
In an interview with The Brussels Times, Kayle Giroud, director of Common Good Initiative at the Global Cyber Alliance and Iva Tasheva, co-founder and cybersecurity lead at CyEn, both board members of Women4Cyber in Belgium, spoke about the importance of inclusion in this increasingly critical industry.
"Often young professionals think cybersecurity is just men in hoodies in basements, but that's not really it," Giroud said. "We need all kinds of people in cyber."
The cybersecurity professional, who works in policy to help underserved communities with their cybersecurity needs, is an example of the many different career paths that lead Belgians to the cybersecurity sector. Giroud originally studied political science and cooperation, before later joining the cybersecurity sector.
The organisation is keen to stress that not every cybersecurity position is hands-on, code-heavy and fast-paced. Hollywood has romanticised much of cybersecurity work, and while tasks such as ethical hacking and pen-testing are important, they are just small parts of an otherwise diverse sector.
"It's a whole universe. It's like medicine or economics. Behind the computers, there are always people developing, cracking, presenting. Someone needs to know how to manage all that. In cybersecurity there are very few pure IT-cyber profiles," explained cybersecurity start-up creator Tasheva.
Underrepresented
With women increasingly entering into STEM roles, and now achieving higher levels of formal education and training than their male counterparts, there is an array of opportunities in the field. Yet the two cybersecurity professionals acknowledged that there will still be significant societal barriers preventing women from joining the industry or considering it as an option.
"It starts with perception... You won't try it if you don't see other people like you thriving in it, so why would they join us?" Tasheva theorised. Giroud believes that the field is rarely presented to graduates, especially women. "Cybersecurity is not easy and not as glamorous as other professions," she warned.
Founded in 2019 by a board of both women and men, Women4Cyber aims to increase the visibility of the sector and help women with their professional development in cybersecurity skills. Notably, it offers mentorships and networking opportunities to help women coming from any sector or educational background to eventually find a cybersecurity position, or at least acquire new skills.
Women4Cyber Belgium works to raise awareness about the diverse roles available in cybersecurity, from technical positions to policy and strategy roles. By showcasing the various pathways into the field, Women4Cyber Belgium hopes to attract a broader range of talent. "We need people from political science, social science, psychologists… all types of profiles can make it within the field of cybersecurity," Giroud beamed.
Cybersecurity positions exist across the workforce. While most jobs exist in the banking sector, government, and public companies, other fields like NGOs and firms trying to use cybersecurity skills for social causes, such as Giroud's Global Cyber Alliance, are also looking to take on an array of bright and promising candidates.
"We see cybersecurity roles in banking, government sector, consultancies, and solution providers, but it's disproportionate. Cybersecurity follows our state of society; as we digitalise, we need to protect everything," Tasheva explained. "Cybersecurity needs to be embedded in professional career paths."
Thinking of a career in cybersecurity?
Women4Cyber Belgium is actively looking for interested candidates, such as recent graduates, those looking to retrain, or even people mildly interested in getting to know the sector, to join its regular events.
"We organise virtual coffees on Friday mornings, presentations, career advice, and experiences working in cybersecurity," Giroud said. "We organise conferences around diversity in the field, bringing policymakers and experts together. This year, we even brought in a space engineer specialised in cybersecurity," echoed Tasheva.
The cybersecurity specialists are proud of the results they have achieved through their small but expanding chapter. "Getting young professionals out of unpaid internships is my primary mission," said Giroud. Both she and Tasheva act as role models for the organisation's mentees, who take part in training and networking and who sometimes land job interviews at top companies.
"We just had 26 mentor-mentee pairs finish our mentorship programme. One person from my team participated in a hackathon on which we partnered with the European Commission. She was on the winning team. It just goes to show that diverse teams hack better," Tasheva said.
To get involved with the events, and benefit from mentorship, career networking and specialised opportunities for women looking to enter the industry, the Women4Cyber board members suggest that interested parties sign up for membership, which is just €10 annually for students. For more information, interested participants can follow the Women4Cyber Belgium LinkedIn page or visit Women4Cyber's website.
brusselstimes.com
My first year professor in electronics started his first lecture "yeah so forget everything you've learned about electricity because it's wrong" - then gave out an infinite matrix of resistors and made us cry.