Representation Of Women In The Cybersecurity Workforce Is Recalculated To 20 Percent

SAUSALITO, Calif., Mar. 29, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Cybersecurity Ventures predicts that women will represent more than 20 percent of the global cybersecurity workforce by the end of 2019.

Cybersecurity Ventures joins other research firms noticing an uptick of women in cybersecurity. Forrester Research analyst Stephanie Balaouras, who co-authored a recent report with fellow analyst Claire O'Malley, told DarkReading that she believes women now represent somewhere between 15-20 percent of the industry if you include security and risk, privacy, and compliance and audit functions.

Forrester also predicts that the number of women CISOs at Fortune 500 companies will rise to 20 percent in 2019, compared with 13 percent in 2017. This is consistent with new research from Boardroom Insiders which states that 20 percent of Fortune 500 global chief information officers (CIOs) are now women — the largest percentage ever.

BeecherMadden, a leading, award-winning U.K. and U.S. cybersecurity recruitment business, conducted research which showed that the U.K. cybersecurity industry is now 18 percent female. "Given that increasing the number of women in cybersecurity is a goal that many companies hold, we should all be pleased that we have started making progress," states Karla Reffold, COO and founder of BeecherMadden. "18 percent still doesn't go far enough, and while 50 percent may seem far away, there are some companies at this level already."

"I am seeing more women attending conferences now than ever before," says Theresa Payton, CEO at Fortalice Solutions, and the former White House CIO. "And I don't mean all women conferences where the events were based around discussing ways to fight the unfair balance of men and women in the cybersecurity space. I see a lot more women at the big cyber conferences. There are a lot more women involved than ever before."

The RSA Conference USA 2019 held recently in San Francisco — which is the world's largest cybersecurity event with more than 40,000 people and 740 speakers — is another measuring stick for representation of women in our field. "At this year's Conference 46 percent of all keynote speakers were women," according to Sandra Toms, VP and curator, RSA Conference, in a blog she posted on the last day of this year's event. "While RSAC keynotes saw near gender parity this year, women made up 32 percent of our overall speakers," noted Toms.

"When I first started hosting cybersecurity conferences (more than a decade ago) it was very rare, maybe out of the audience you'd have 2 or 3 women; now I'd say sometimes almost half the audience, maybe not quite half, but almost," says Kim Hakim, a U.S. Navy veteran and founder of FutureCon, which produces events in 24 North American cities this year. "It's great to see all the women that are now in the industry and it's a great career for all of our daughters. The limits are endless. I mean, you can go very far in this industry."

The new data from Cybersecurity Ventures was announced today at WiCyS 2019, the premier cybersecurity conference bringing together industry, students, educators, government and research.

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Cybersecurity Ventures is the world's leading researcher and publisher covering the global cyber economy, and a trusted source for cybersecurity facts, figures, and statistics.

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