EU Cyber Aware panel: Which Skills for Cyber? (Int'l Women's Day edition)

Was a kind invitation. Dr Ken Ducatel Director of IT Security / DG DIGIT-S, European Commission Acting Head of CERT-EU is arranging a small colloquium. The Cyberwayfinder initiative is proving itself and generating some small awareness in the local ecosystem. Discussions of scaling up with the new cohort in September and Geographical expansion. But with the upcoming International Women's Day there is to be an event, a panel at the EU with some interesting profiles. We are invited to showcase and discuss.

We've Gertrud Ingestad, Director-General of DG Informatics and an address by Commissioner Mariya Gabriel and the new head-guy at Cisco along with a lively panel. CWF has session again this night, a discussion of ethical hacking of a slightly different sort is to take place at Brussels Co-station/LeWagon for this evening. But an opportunity to share the story of our cohort, the women in the program, our hiring managers and our friends like SWIFT and etc (small shameless plug!). And a special shout-out to our mentor and teachers and seminar leaders. The entire Brussels cyber community is out in support of these women undertaking this program, this is the message we are twice pleased to share ...

Is a thought provoking discussion. A lot of the conventional things are said. But awareness is there that the numbers are going in the wrong direction. Inclusion rates are actually dropping in the EU. Ken and the speakers are clear and direct. Am especially excited to be meeting Elly van den Heuvel for the first time. A major force in the Netherlands she has taken the day to come and share her experiences and learnings. The gender inclusiveness aspect (women and men must fix this together, cannot be overstated). Her work is amazing.

Rosanna presents our program directly to address these core issues, you learn and qualify in Cyber by doing it. By working in the industry. With industry and community support. The cohort is strong. The pedagogy is mature. But if the cohort is not actually working at jobs in the industry we are not succeeding in changing the number. Directly. And this seems to be generating a lot of audience participation and questions. And this does not completely address Elly's cogent comments, to paraphrase, we need the men also. Men in organisations and not just championing women cyber entrants in their workplaces. But also more co-gendered groups focusing on new entrants.

This gender inclusion has been much discussed between Rosanna and I. Especially when one of our cohort mentioned, "My son would really like to join us, he is seeing what we are doing, it is really cool, and he really wishes he could do it also!" This is something I really love about CWF's program. Its candidates are adult women. With life stories. With and without advanced degrees. With work experience. And some with adult sons who, upon seeing his mom taking a radical career shift, wants to do it also!

Indeed, this is the future. It must be. The pilot and scale-up focus on a single gender at the moment. With less than 3% women in early stages of cybersecurity careers (Frost and Sullivan report with ISC2), and especially bad inclusion rates in Europe, drastic measures are needed. But there is value in true diversity, we see this in the diversity of our all-women cohort.

Over 13 nations represented in our Brussels cohort. Not that this is unusual in Brussels, we are an amazing polyglot. And Inga, one of the Cybersecurity analysts in the CWF program who is able to join us this day, talks about this as well. Her appreciation of another group during one of our 'secure banking' tabletop exercises having developed some significantly differently focused cyber defenses based upon their personal backgrounds.

Yes, this is serious, but it is is also fun. And very rewarding. Ken is a gracious host. The EU seems genuinely interested in seeing how we can do something quite differently this time. "Education" , this is the word behind Rosanna, but CWF is much more. When she speaks of building a community, this is something different from Education / Teacher / Student / Educator. The CWF program is trying to reach differently ... there is a discussion this day about life-long learning. Slides about growth mindsets ... and yes, we study Kali, OSINT techniques, networking and wifi hacking and how to be 'rude' with Linux, App Sec and Crypto ... but we are also 'studying' mid-career transitions, corporate and personal transformation and innovation ... by engineering it, doing it, living it!

But there is one more important point, bolstering Elly's contention, it is excellently elaborated in the "Madam C.E.O., Get Me a Coffee" discussion. The expectation that inclusion is the 'responsibility' of women leaders doesn't work. Women leaders and staff face a backlash for being seen as helping their in-group, but "When a man offers to help, we shower him with praise and rewards." On this International Women's Day, from one of the EU's office in Brussels, may I make a request? To all male colleagues. Take up the challenge. Directly. Join Rosanna, Inga, and a whole lot more interesting people you will come to meet. Get engaged and make this change happen!