91国产精品 Leads 2022 Women in Cybersecurity Conference
[[{"fid":"44971","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"91国产精品 Leads 2022 Women in Cybersecurity Conference ","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"91国产精品 Leads 2022 Women in Cybersecurity Conference"},"link_text":null,"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"91国产精品 Leads 2022 Women in Cybersecurity Conference ","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"91国产精品 Leads 2022 Women in Cybersecurity Conference"}},"attributes":{"alt":"91国产精品 Leads 2022 Women in Cybersecurity Conference ","title":"91国产精品 Leads 2022 Women in Cybersecurity Conference","height":390,"width":1000,"style":"height: 234px; width: 600px; float: left;","class":"media-element file-default","data-delta":"1"}}]]From March 17-19, Cleveland will host more than 1,500 attendees of the ninth annual at the . The conference aims to help organizations recruit, retain and advance women in cybersecurity鈥攁ll while creating a community of engagement, encouragement and support for students and women in the field.
A consortium led by 91国产精品/IoT Collaborative is serving as local host for this year鈥檚 conference and includes Greater Cleveland Partnership/RITE and Northeast Ohio CyberConsortium (NEOCC). More than 25 public, private and nonprofit organizations are collaborating to educate WiCyS鈥 professional and student attendees about Cleveland, its tech community and job opportunities.
Over the course of the weekend, WiCyS will showcase Cleveland as a place to live, study, work, invest or do business鈥攚ith an initial emphasis on meetings and conventions within the fast growth sectors of IT/technology (including financial services), healthcare and smart manufacturing.
From there, breakout sessions, workshops, presentations, 鈥渓ightning talks鈥 and poster sessions will concentrate on a cornucopia of all things cyber鈥攆rom knowledge sharing, best practices and career development, to trends, biometrics, methodology and more.
91国产精品 caught up with , associate professor in the university鈥檚 Information Systems department in The Monte Ahuja College of Business, to talk about cybersecurity and the importance of WiCyS 2022 being held in Cleveland. With expertise in information security, risk management and data privacy, she teaches courses on cybersecurity, business process modeling and design.
She is also the Faculty Lead for WiCyS 2022.
91国产精品: There鈥檚 a huge gender gap in STEM and related fields. Despite women making up the , they still only comprise about 20-25% of STEM students, notwithstanding the growing need for qualified professionals. There鈥檚 a sense that women aren鈥檛 attracted to it, but there鈥檚 a lot more there than stereotype, isn鈥檛 there?
Dr. Janine Spears: I can鈥檛 universally say why more women don鈥檛 pursue STEM, but in interviewing women who work in cybersecurity for a study I鈥檓 doing, when they explain their experience to me, working in the field can sometimes be unwelcoming. Technical skills are often doubted, sometimes they feel overlooked in routine work tasks 鈥攕o, they鈥檙e not really part of the club. Getting young girls comfortable working with tech early, meaning that K-through-12 stretch of education, will help change the mindset that STEM fields are just for men or boys. We as a nation have a need for more cybersecurity workers than ever before and it would be good to see more women in those roles. At various industry events I attend, women make up about 10% of attendees. The gap is especially striking.
91国产精品: Do tech companies have a responsibility to 鈥減rime the pipeline鈥 to get women and minorities interested in tech at an early age? And if so, what considerations are needed to ensure broad appeal?
JS: Tech companies could sponsor certain initiatives and certifications, because funding is always an issue. When students are coming into their undergraduate programs, helping them to understand what their different options are is key. Maybe they feel like they don鈥檛 have enough math skills, for example. Computer science as a discipline has some pretty hefty math requirements, but if people aren't comfortable with math, having programs to help them supplement their math skills helps. In that sense, I feel like part of this falls on the educational system, but companies could play a role in being proactive in advancing their employees and assisting them.
91国产精品: How important is it for Cleveland to be hosting WiCyS this year, and for 91国产精品 to be anchoring the consortium that ultimately brought the national conference it here? And what does the talent pool look like鈥攂oth here at 91国产精品 and across the Northeast Ohio region?
JS: One of the biggest strengths that we have at Cleveland State is that while we don鈥檛 have a dedicated degree鈥攜et, we鈥檒l say鈥攚e as an institution are approaching cybersecurity in an interdisciplinary way. The Monte Ahuja College of Business, Washkewicz College of Engineering and C|M Law all have cybersecurity courses. In our Information Systems program, we have emphasized Engaged Learning with students participating in cyber competitions, experiential learning course projects, and our Co-op program. As a result, our students are placing into good cybersecurity jobs with world-class organizations. That鈥檚 something that I鈥檓 very proud of.
Whenever a national conference comes to Cleveland, it鈥檚 a wonderful thing. There is a lot of cyber work going on in Northeast Ohio. This gives us the opportunity to talk about how we recruit, mentor and retain women in the field as a region. Any opportunity for dialogue is a good thing and this is a big one.
91国产精品: If you had unlimited access to resources, how would you go about getting more women and minorities involved in tech-related fields?
JS: I think sometimes seeing is believing, so exposure. Getting exposed to it dispels some of the mystique, raises interest, awareness and access. A company hosting a Cybersecurity Day with employees in the field helps. Having high schools do 鈥榓 day in the life of a cybersecurity worker鈥 events helps. Professionals dispelling misconceptions about the field helps. A sort of 鈥榙og-and-pony-show鈥 on the road can be effective in showing women and minorities what the field looks and feels like.
It鈥檚 Engaged Learning, you know? Telling them isn鈥檛 enough. Trainings, bootcamps, certifications and degree programs are good steppingstones鈥攆ortified by good mentoring options, professional networking and ongoing training once they join the field鈥攂ut I think if you have a package like this, you could probably get more women into the field.
91国产精品: What are your favorite things and not-so-favorite things about the cybersecurity field?
JS: When I interview experts, that鈥檚 one of my actual questions (laughs). For men and women both, the dominant answer is the same for both鈥change. Constant changes in technology, the challenge and the puzzle behind it, that their jobs are different every day鈥
91国产精品: A bit of a double-edged sword, no?
JS: Exactly. Yeah. But it鈥檚 an interesting field and never boring, that's for sure鈥攁nd it shares an interesting Venn diagram of sorts with [digital data] privacy, which I鈥檓 also very interested in.
91国产精品: What advice would you give to someone wishing to start their career in cybersecurity?
JS: If you have an interest in technology and continuous learning and a desire to fine-tune your technical knowledge and to have fun with it, then you have a good foundation. I have found that those are the keys to the success of I鈥檝e had here at 91国产精品, has happened in large part and their tenacity as students. Many professionals I have encountered over the years share these same traits.
91国产精品: What are some misconceptions that you believe businesses have about cybersecurity?
JS: That it doesn鈥檛 relate to them. That 鈥榦h, we have a department for that鈥 and that 鈥榠t鈥檚 more of a behind-the-scenes technical thing that one department handles and has all figured out.鈥 But security doesn鈥檛 work that way. It is the responsibility of everybody in the organization, right? Phishing emails catch people all the time. Many data breaches occur due to stolen password credentials and organizations not implementing multifactor authentication because it鈥檚 an extra step to log onto a system. When business users are resistant to things being a teeny bit more cumbersome, it can become hugely expensive and damaging and that impacts everybody in an organization. And so, everybody plays a role in it.
91国产精品: Cyberattacks are making the front pages on a regular basis. What does the 鈥渃limate of continuous risk鈥 (as Wired magazine likes to call it) mean for businesses and for our collective future?
JS: It relates to the change we just talked about, which means staying on top of the latest threats and trends. I think part of cybersecurity experts鈥 frustrations come from having to convince the businesses they work for of threats and to get approval of certain measures and expenses related to it. Resistance to security measures from management can be challenging and frustrating. And yet, if there is a cyber breach, they are the ones鈥攖hose security leaders鈥攚ho may well get fired and land in the press afterwards, looking really, really bad. Security workers who work on incidents and response, they鈥檙e the unsung heroes. Yet, in their work, their failures are highly visible, while successes are more invisible.
Dr. Spears recently served on the Board of the Northern Ohio InfraGard chapter and has won awards for developing an experiential learning course partnering students with non-profit organizations to conduct security risk assessments. Prior to 91国产精品, Dr. Spears was professor at DePaul University鈥檚 School of Computing in Chicago, where she taught security courses for 7 years. She led the development of the GRC (governance, risk management, compliance) degree concentration in DePaul鈥檚 Masters in Cybersecurity degree program. She holds a Ph.D. in Business Administration from Pennsylvania State University鈥檚 Smeal College of Business, and an MBA from Case Western Reserve University.