As women , from a young age , being technically savvy or interested in maths , science , or business wasn ’ t celebrated . You were ‘ cool ’ and ‘ popular ’ if you had great hair or nice jeans , not if you wanted to code software . If the tech industry could go back in time , would it celebrate more complex subjects like we do now with the ‘ STEM ’ movement ? Yes , of course – but that ’ s not going to fill industry gaps in the fight on cybercrime .

According to an ( ISC )² study , women make up roughly a quarter of the overall cybersecurity workforce . We ’ ve come a long way over the last decade ( women made up about 10 % of cybersecurity jobs in 2013 ), but we know the industry needs to work towards greater diversity .

Addressing the gender gap starts with sparking interest at a young age . We can also get creative with our most passionate and loyal current employees and realise not every cybersecurity role is a ‘ special snowflake ’. There are many open roles that call for in-depth skills that have been honed and developed over time . What about all the roles that don ’ t ?

Here ’ s the secret : not everyone who works in cybersecurity needs to be a cybersecurity expert . At least not straight away . Cybersecurity expertise can be taught or learned . So , one way to get closer to bridging the talent gap is to reskill talent in other professions .

Here are three reasons why women should consider reskilling to work in cybersecurity :

1 . Cybersecurity professionals are in high demand

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by Gartner , a growing number of enterprises feel the availability of talent is the biggest challenge to emerging technology adoption .

Cybercriminals are relentless and putting every organisation at risk . It ’ s not a matter of if you ’ ll be attacked , but when . Hackers are more sophisticated in their attacks and hacks are happening with more frequency and severity . State actors will be more brazen by attacking critical infrastructure – such as our pipelines , food supply chain , IT infrastructure , healthcare systems , water and energy grids . State actors and corporations are collaborating and even outsourcing their espionage tactics to ‘ hack-for-hire ’ companies .

No industry is more secure than others when it comes to cyberattacks . Cybercriminals are going after organisations in every sector – no matter how big or small – and many of these companies are unprepared and short-handed .

It ’ s no surprise data-focused and security-related positions are among the most in-demand jobs and knowing your role is critical to a company ’ s success can come with a great sense of pride .

Christine Gadsby , VP Product Security Operations , BlackBerry

There are millions of unfilled cybersecurity positions around the world and simply not enough cybersecurity experts on the global market to effectively do the work that needs to be done to manage growing cyber-risks . An ( ISC )² study says there ’ s a global cybersecurity workforce of 4.7 million , but the gap is almost as big as 3.4 million ; and according to research

2 . You don ’ t have to go back to school

I got a degree in Information Technology and Business Management and ended up being exposed to cybersecurity ‘ by accident ’ while working in a different role in IT . I fell in love with cybersecurity and have never looked back . Now I can ’ t imagine doing anything else . www . intelligentciso . com

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