REN-ISAC team members Jen Pacenza and Amy Starzynski Coddens will lead a panel discussion, along with Joanna Grama from the Vantage Technology Consulting Group, at this year’s Women in Cybersecurity Conference (WiCyS 2022) on March 19 at 12 noon.
Their panel topic, “It Takes Many Sailors to Move this Ship: Populating the Cybersecurity Workforce with Talent from Diverse Backgrounds” will explore the power of diversity in creating effective cybersecurity teams.
Panel Abstract:
The term cybersecurity conjures up visions of hoodie-wearing hackers in dark rooms or funky crime lab assistants who magically find the missing piece of evidence with a tap of a few buttons. Securing networks, devices, and data adequately and sufficiently requires much more than a single, mythical hacker. The smart, efficient, and innovative security team is multidimensional and professionally diverse. Creating this kind of team requires more than information technology experts; it requires policy experts, business analysts, communicators, event coordinators, grant writers, and, of course, engineers, system administrators, networkers, and lab assistants with their magical evidence-finding skills.
This session will be led by former lawyers, educators, and writers whose career paths all took the strange yet rewarding turn toward cybersecurity. Through an open conversation, participants will come away with a better understanding of how various backgrounds and professional experiences can benefit a cybersecurity organization. The session will enable attendees to understand the professional diversity needed to create smart, adaptive security teams; fulfill organizational needs and goals, and encourage career satisfaction and employee retention.