Girl Scout Badges Aim to Reduce the Cybersecurity Skills Gap

Women in cybersecurity are still the exception rather than the rule, but their ranks are growing. The emergence of groups such as Women in Cybersecurity (WiCyS) and similar initiatives are helping to raise awareness.

However, a pipeline problem remains: How can organizations get women involved in security and other STEM fields earlier? One potential solution is cybersecurity badges for Girl Scouts.

Scouting New Talent to Fill the Cybersecurity Skills Gap

Girl Scouts and cybersecurity might not seem like a natural fit, but there’s actually quite a bit of overlap. The goal of Girl Scouts is to empower young women by teaching them valuable skills — everything from camping and sewing to helping others and advocating for themselves.

According to NBC News, the Girl Scouts partnered with Palo Alto Networks to develop an 18-badge program to teach young women the basics of cybersecurity. Demand for the program came from within as girls sought ways to protect their identity online and discover more about the underlying functionality of traditional and mobile devices.

Infusing New Perspectives Into Cybersecurity

Despite a predicted shortfall of 3.5 million cybersecurity professionals by 2021, according to Cybersecurity Ventures’ “2017 Cybersecurity Jobs Report,” women are still in the minority, accounting for just 11 percent of security experts worldwide. As noted by IT-Online, companies struggle to find enough staff to fill vacancies and to zero in on employees with the right skill set. The Girl Scouts’ initiative aims to help bridge the cybersecurity skills gap by giving women the tools and tracks to access STEM options from a young age.

ComputerWeekly likened the efficacy of cybercrime defense to that of a team sport: Effective communication, delegation of tasks and regular practice are all critical to improved outcomes. In addition, teams need a diversity of skills and perspectives. A hockey team with all forwards on the ice or a football team that puts only receivers on the field will succeed some of the time but fail miserably more often than not. Women bring unique perspective and abilities to cybersecurity, making security teams stronger.

As female technology experts look to carve out their own niche and drive STEM interest, efforts such as the Girl Scouts’ badge program can help raise the profile of talented women in security and inspire the next generation of IT professionals.

Douglas Bonderud

Freelance Writer

When ransomware kills: Attacks on healthcare facilities

4 min read - As ransomware attacks continue to escalate, their toll is often measured in data loss and financial strain. But what about the loss of human life? Nowhere is the ransomware threat more acute than in the healthcare sector, where patients’ lives are literally on the line.Since 2015, there has been a staggering increase in ransomware attacks on healthcare facilities. And the impacts are severe: Diverted emergency services, delayed critical treatments and even fatalities. Meanwhile, the pledge some ransomware groups made during…

AI and cloud vulnerabilities aren’t the only threats facing CISOs today

6 min read - With cloud infrastructure and, more recently, artificial intelligence (AI) systems becoming prime targets for attackers, security leaders are laser-focused on defending these high-profile areas. They’re right to do so, too, as cyber criminals turn to new and emerging technologies to launch and scale ever more sophisticated attacks.However, this heightened attention to emerging threats makes it easy to overlook traditional attack vectors, such as human-driven social engineering and vulnerabilities in physical security.As adversaries exploit an ever-wider range of potential entry points…

4 trends in software supply chain security

4 min read - Some of the biggest and most infamous cyberattacks of the past decade were caused by a security breakdown in the software supply chain. SolarWinds was probably the most well-known, but it was not alone. Incidents against companies like Equifax and tools like MOVEit also wreaked havoc for organizations and customers whose sensitive information was compromised.Expect to see more software supply chain attacks moving forward. According to ReversingLabs' The State of Software Supply Chain Security 2024 study, attacks against the software…

Security Intelligence

{{title}}

{{title}}

{{title}}

Topics

Scouting New Talent to Fill the Cybersecurity Skills Gap

Infusing New Perspectives Into Cybersecurity

More from

When ransomware kills: Attacks on healthcare facilities

AI and cloud vulnerabilities aren’t the only threats facing CISOs today

4 trends in software supply chain security

Topic updates