NEW YORK CITY. The message at the “Women in Cybersecurity” panel here at the Carbon Black “Connect” conference was simple: “There are just not enough of us,” and in a setting where over a million cyber jobs are going unfilled, that’s an unacceptable state.
The panel included Tracey Pretorius, director of global partner business strategy at Microsoft; Liz Fraumann, the former executive director of Securing Our eCity Foundation; and Shira Rubinoff, cybersecurity executive and president at SecureMySocial.
Pretorius noted her own “women in security” program and Microsoft’s corporate efforts on issues like unconscious bias, while she and the other panelists pointed out that careers in cyber can be based on many factors other than technical expertise and credentials.
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'The Editor Reports' is a new feature from Inside Cybersecurity intended to identify themes emerging from our news coverage and pose questions about the direction of evolving cybersecurity policies. Email comments to cmitchell@iwpnews.com.
Pretorius “had to be dragged into cybersecurity,” she said, and took a job “no one else wanted” on managing communications around security issues.
Fraumann said her background was in marketing and communication -- “but cyber is all about awareness, it is communication.” This career path needs to be encouraged at an early age, she said, citing efforts by the Girl Scouts, for example, to spur interest in cyber and tech.
Rubinoff’s specialty was in industrial organization and psychology. “I started out on streamlining organizations and got interested in technology,” she said. “You don’t have to wear a hoodie and sit in a dark basement. There’s so much out there in cyber, it’s not just coding.”
She said, “Don’t fear that you don’t fit the mold, focus on what’s going to drive digital change.”
In analyzing cyber threats, Fraumann said, “It’s all about behavior -- the weakest link in cybersecurity is human and there is no gender bias either way.”
And as a cyber manager, she said, “You want the right person who has passion to learn and passion to jump in and do.”
Rubinoff said that in such a complex, fast-moving world as cybersecurity, workforce diversity isn’t a nice idea or something done to meet a checklist. “If you have people with the same backgrounds and experiences, you end up with the same thoughts. You need diverse ideas.”
Pretorius urged women to “be specific” in their requests for help in breaking in and moving up the corporate ladder, and not to be shy about “owning your space, taking up room at the table. These are little things that you have to practice.”
Rubinoff agreed on being specific in “asks” and said “don’t be held back by negative connotations of women speaking out.”
Fraumann also urged women and men alike “to reach out and mentor -- don’t just say ‘I made it.’” She strongly recommended internship and apprenticeship programs.
“Confidence is a big thing,” Pretorius stressed. “There are many male Microsoft engineers who never leave the campus, it works both ways.”
The panelists’ parting recommendations were rooted in good cyber practice. Rubinoff urged listeners to practice proper cyber hygiene, employ a zero-trust model and to keep security up-to-date.
Fraumann cited commitment “to staff, to self and to cyber hygiene.”
And Pretorius reminded the audience to build relationships, saying, “It’s relationships, relationships, relationships.” Originally from South Africa, she quoted Nelson Mandela in saying, “The future isn’t something we’re going to, it’s something we create. That applies to cyber.”
She told Inside Cybersecurity after the panel that growing the cyber workforce -- and driving up the number of women in the field -- is going to take government-industry partnership and a change in how security jobs are seen by men and women alike.
Necessity -- see those million-plus job openings -- as well as common sense should propel that long overdue change. -- Charlie Mitchell, editor, Inside Cybersecurity