Women make up 24% of cybersecurity workforce, new study says

The gender problem in cybersecurity just might be getting a little better.

Globally, women make up just 11 percent of the workforce; 14 percent in North America, according a 2017 report by the Center for Cyber Safety and Education. Those numbers have been relatively stable since 2013.

But a new report by (ISC)² finds women comprise 24 percent of the global workforce.

David Shearer, CEO of (ISC)² the nonprofit research firm that issued the report, said the data confirms what industry leaders are seeing.

“More women are coming into the field of cybersecurity with post-graduate degrees and not only working in the trenches but also in the C-suite,” Shearer said in a statement.

Women in high-level cyber security positions foster inclusion and inspire the next generation to join the industry.

Shearer added, “Diversity only makes us stronger.”

The new benchmark follows on the heels of the Women in CyberSecurity Conference, or WiCyS, held in Pittsburgh last week.

“The skill gap in cyber security is enormous,” Ambareen Siraj, a Tennessee Tech University computer science professor and founder of WiCyS, told the Tribune-Review.

WiCyS was created in 2013 with a grant to draw more women into the field. Today the organization has nearly 4,000 members and 52 student chapters.

The cyber security industry already suffers from a talent gap.

Nationally, there are 313,735 cyber security job openings, according to Cyber Seek, a project funded by the U.S. Department of Commerce that seeks to provide data about supply and demand in the job market. In Pennsylvania, the industry has more than 8,400 job openings, nearly 2,000 in Pittsburgh alone.

The (ISC)² report arrived at its estimate by including IT professionals who spend at least a quarter of their time on cyber security.

Among the report’s findings:

• More women surveyed have a post graduate degree, 52 percent compared to 44 percent of their male counterparts.
• Despite the gender gap in cyber security, females are advancing with 28 percent of women, compared to 19 percent, attaining an executive position.
• Pay lags behind that of men, though, with 17 percent of women cyber security professionals earning between $50,000 and $90,000 compared to 29 percent fo their male counterparts.

(ISC)² is an international nonprofit focused on cybersecurity with more than 140,000 members.

To read a copy of the full report, click here.