{"id":39907,"date":"2021-03-08T18:00:43","date_gmt":"2021-03-08T18:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/security\/blog\/?p=93063"},"modified":"2021-03-08T18:00:43","modified_gmt":"2021-03-08T18:00:43","slug":"international-womens-day-how-to-support-and-grow-women-in-cybersecurity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/international-womens-day-how-to-support-and-grow-women-in-cybersecurity\/","title":{"rendered":"International Women\u2019s Day: How to support and grow women in cybersecurity"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Today, March 8, we are proud to celebrate International Women\u2019s Day. The United Nations<\/a> announced this year\u2019s theme as \u201cWomen in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world.\u201d As a woman, a mother, a daughter, a sister, a friend, and a leader at Microsoft, this is an important time to acknowledge and celebrate the strength and resiliency women have shown during this pandemic. Women fill many frontline positions, caring for us in health facilities, keeping us fed by staffing grocery stores, and delivering our packages. They teach our children remotely while caring for their own children. They are information workers, cybersecurity professionals, and leaders all around.<\/p>\n

The impact of this crisis makes it more important than ever to prioritize the education, careers, well-being, and growth of women at work. We are proud to be a part of a company and security team at Microsoft that makes it a priority to invest in programs and initiatives that will help support the role of women in the workforce today and in the future so they can bring their best selves to work every single day.<\/p>\n

That is why as a collective group of security women, we feel it is important to share a bit about these efforts, as well as some thoughts from fellow leaders across our security teams on how we can work together to recognize and build on women\u2019s achievements in cybersecurity.<\/p>\n

New cybersecurity threats require diverse security perspectives<\/h2>\n

In addition to the personal impact it has had on so many, the pandemic has also threatened our cybersecurity community. With companies sending most of their employees home to work, cybercriminals have been eager to take advantage of new endpoints in their attempts to assess company systems. As well, phishing schemes have targeted people by mimicking pandemic healthcare alerts or unemployment information.<\/p>\n

This increase in cybersecurity threats compounds the strain already placed on existing cyber defenders. With the cyber talent gap widening, we need more diverse cybersecurity professionals than ever to thwart them. Women make up just 24 percent of the cybersecurity workforce, according to the 2019 (ISC)\u00b2 report, Cybersecurity Workforce Study: Women in Cybersecurity<\/a>. That imbalance is a big problem and during an online discussion called \u201cFuture Proofing Against Bias in Tech,\u201d participating women Microsoft leaders shared why. For one, gender-diverse teams make better business decisions 73 percent of the time, according to a Cleverpop study<\/a> mentioned during the discussion.<\/p>\n

It also is critical to catch cyber threats because limiting your hiring to only certain types of cybersecurity professionals can lead to biases and missed threat protection opportunities. And if there\u2019s one thing we know about cybercriminals, it\u2019s that they\u2019re very good at exploiting our biases.<\/p>\n

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Joy Chik, who is Microsoft Corporate Vice President for the Identity division shares, \u201cBuilding diverse cyber teams provides a strategic advantage. Diversity drives innovation and devalues group think. This helps to give us an edge in how we build our products, design our security programs, and respond to threats\u2014ultimately giving us an upper hand against cybercriminals who exploit our biases.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

What\u2019s Microsoft Security doing to help?<\/h2>\n

Cybersecurity represents an exciting career opportunity for women, especially now with cyber threats on the rise against a backdrop of women disproportionately affected by job loss due to the pandemic. It raises the importance of opening up more opportunities for women into higher-skilled professions, including technology<\/a>. In response to the pandemic\u2019s severe impact on parts of the labor market, Microsoft launched its Global Skills Initiative to help 25 million people worldwide acquire digital skills and certifications to find new jobs. With our mission of Security for all<\/strong>, Microsoft Security is making it possible through our sponsorships and programs to making cybersecurity available to everyone\u2014as a professional option and as business protection against cyber threats.<\/p>\n

Microsoft is partnering on several programs aimed at encouraging girls and women to consider careers in cybersecurity and expanding career opportunities for women. These programs include:<\/p>\n