BDT Director Doreen Bogdan-Martin delivered the keynote address to the “Empowering Women in Cybersecurity" webinar, a session of the ITU 2020 Global CyberDrill.
Panellists addressed challenges women face in the field of cybersecurity as well as changes that need to be made in order to support retention and inclusivity. Discussing current initiatives, future plans, and areas for growth across all sectors and entities, they discussed how mentorships, inclusive cultures, and building strong networks contribute to success.
Ms Bogdan-Martin highlighted that within the digital divide, whereby 3.6 billion people remain offline, we are also battling a gender divide, as a disproportionate percentage of those left offline are women and girls.
She noted, “there's the digital opportunities gap in women's ability to access the technology that could change their lives. There's a gender leadership gap in the tech sector. And of course there's the well-documented digital skills gap between the number of young men and young women entering the tech sector as engineers and developers."
In North America, women represent a mere 14% of the total cybersecurity workforce; in Europe, that figure dwindles to 7%, and in the Middle East, it shrinks further to just 5%. Ms Bogdan-Martin explained how this is particularly alarming for the cybersecurity sector, as it exacerbates an already chronic worldwide shortage of cybersecurity professionals.
She emphasized the importance of encouraging more women to join the cybersecurity sector in order to tap into a huge pool of talent and potential, and to bring new ideas and innovation to the field. “It is estimated that if the number of female professionals working in cybersecurity were to equal that of men, the economic size of the cybersecurity industry could increase by over US$30 billion in the US, and GB£12 billion in the UK alone," she said.
Ms Bogdan-Martin mentioned ITU's mentoring programme in partnership with the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST). This programme aims to connect professional women working in Computer Incident Response Teams (CIRTs) across the developed and developing worlds. She shared her view that in addition to nurturing great partnerships, the initiative will help “highlight inspirational female role models who will encourage many other women and girls to follow in their footsteps and join this rapidly growing field."
