Cultivating Talent In Cyber: How Industry Leaders Can Push For A More Diverse Environment

Innovation Cultivating Talent In Cyber: How Industry Leaders Can Push For A More Diverse Environment Faisal Bhutto Forbes Councils Member Forbes Technology Council COUNCIL POST Expertise from Forbes Councils members, operated under license. Opinions expressed are those of the author. | Membership (fee-based) Nov 4, 2022, 07:15am EDT | Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Faisal Bhutto is the SVP of Cloud & Cybersecurity at Calian IT & Cyber Solutions .

getty Every October since 2004, the U. S. Government commemorates Cybersecurity Awareness Month.

Intended to raise cyber awareness and safety through the collaborative effort of public and private entities, this year’s theme is to “See Yourself in Cyber. ” This theme is intended to highlight the role of the everyman in cybersecurity—how every person has to do their part to maintain the security of our digital lives and assets. While this sentiment is important to spread, in a more literal sense, the cybersecurity industry only allows certain demographics to see themselves in cyber.

With over 600,000 empty positions in the cybersecurity industry—and no signs of the staffing shortage abating soon—there is clearly an immediate need to improve the recruitment and retention efforts of security solutions providers. Traditional attack methods are constantly being updated by criminals to exploit emerging technologies with vishing, SMShing and Hack Now, Decrypt Later schemes. The ever-evolving nature of cyber threats is one of the reasons it’s incredibly difficult to find professionals with the necessary credentials.

Companies must embrace a wide network of workers from diverse ethnic, social and cultural backgrounds. Fostering an inclusive culture requires work from the outside in. If there is any hope of building a stable pipeline of cybersecurity professionals, the industry must pivot to more accurately reflect the experiences of the diverse population of users.

Support Diverse Populations In Internal Initiatives Companies need to offer targeted professional development and training opportunities to underrepresented populations. Women only hold 34% of entry-level engineering positions at IT firms and only 26% of first-level manager positions. The failure of many organizations to offer support to these women early on in their careers is the main cause for the dismal level of representation of women in senior IT roles.

This problem is amplified and ripples through almost all of the minority populations in the technology industry. MORE FOR YOU Why The Rock’s Social Media Muscle Made Him Hollywood’s Highest-Paid Actor Film And TV Firms Work Towards A More Sustainable Future With New Initiatives Digital Product Basics: Three Questions To Ask Before Creating A Digital Product To rectify this, the industry must take a collaborative approach to develop internal and external programs that directly address these communities. Internally, evaluate how you engage with female employees or employees of color.

If you find that there tends to be a glass ceiling—a point where diversity seems to drop off significantly—figure out what is causing it by encouraging an open dialogue with your employees. Develop actionable plans to support and elevate them to ensure that they feel valued by the organization with new projects and opportunities for cross-functional skills development. Strategically, a visibly diverse internal population is a powerful recruiting tool.

Potential employees increasingly rank a diverse workforce as a deciding factor when choosing where to work. This creates a self-sustaining ecosystem of talent that is always bringing fresh ideas, unique perspectives and hands-on experience to solve an ever-evolving battery of problems. Plus, research consistently shows diverse organizations financially outperforming their less diverse peers by 48% —so it’s good for the bottom line as well.

Companies can also create opportunities for diverse populations to learn from and network with diverse leaders in the industry. Ask diverse technology leaders from your team, customer and partner ecosystem to serve on an event panel, then invite students and entry-to-mid-level professionals to the event to meet and learn from the diverse leaders’ careers. This ensures aspiring diverse tech professionals—internally and externally—really do see themselves in cyber.

Engage With The Local Community Our brand has a strong presence across the United States, and we take pride in our efforts to be active members of our community. One of the ways we serve our community is through our work with HBCUs to evaluate and refresh their cybersecurity postures and provide their students with career opportunities. The goal of our engagement is twofold.

First, we are intent on providing NIST Cybersecurity framework assessments and implementations to ensure that they reach the minimum requirements to continue to receive Title 4 funding. Second, we actively work to create a pipeline of experienced future diverse cybersecurity professionals in higher education—through Network Academy and InternX. We’ve already implemented this program at two schools in the Texas area, with plans to continue to do so over the next three to four years.

Cultivating this community connection is about laying a foundation for success for the next generation of cybersecurity professionals. Every organization can engage with a local high school or university to offer all students apprenticeships, internships, learning opportunities, or other pathways to professional interest in cybersecurity. Expanding the playing field for who we give opportunities beyond our direct professional networks to those from non-traditional backgrounds significantly broadens the industry’s scope.

Partnering with community colleges, digital educational institutions (think Google’s Certificate Coursera program), and vocational schools to develop a pathway into the industry is the key to creating a welcoming environment for everyone who is not white, male, and straight. At this point, our attackers are as diverse as the threats we face. It’s a failure of due diligence for cybersecurity to remain lackadaisical in its efforts to diversify the talent pool.

It won’t happen overnight but broadening industry attitudes to internal and external diversity is the key to making the change. Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify? Follow me on LinkedIn .

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