Security News > 2023 > March > CISA joins forces with Women in CyberSecurity to break up the boy's club

In brief Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency's director Jen Easterly has been outspoken in her drive to bring more women into the security industry, and this year for International Women's Day her agency formalized that pledge by announcing a partnership with nonprofit Women in CyberSecurity.

The US department of Homeland Security agency and WiCyS signed a memorandum of understanding on Wednesday to help raise awareness of job opportunities for women in cybersecurity and build "a pipeline for the next generation of women" able to fill those roles, the agency said.

Easterly, who was chosen by President Biden to head CISA in 2021, said that inspiring women and girls to join the cybersecurity field is one of her top priorities.

Easterly was a keynote speaker at WiCyS' 2022 annual conference, where she called for half of cybersecurity professionals to be women and underrepresented minorities by 2030.

By 2018 the group had grown enough to spin up its own nonprofit organization, and began offering other services to women in the security community, like a job board, professional affiliate opportunities, training assistant programs, apprenticeship placement services and more.

Open to all WiCyS members, the nine-month program groups mentees into cohorts for virtual meetings with cybersecurity industry mentors, of whom CISA employees will presumably now be part.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/03/13/cisa_joins_forces_with_women/