Joining Forces to Increase Diversity in Cybersecurity

The Netherlands faces a long way to go when it comes to diversity in the IT sector. The industry is still dominated by men. According to research from 2023, only 19% of IT professionals are women while there is a crying shortage of IT/cyber talent. It has been proven that diversity in teams in terms of gender, background and age, enhances innovation and creativity in teams. To draw attention to this, the Cyber Ladies Meet-up event took place on the eve of International Women's Day at the HSD Campus in The Hague, international city of peace, justice and security.

The event themed ‘Talent Development & Diversity’ provided a platform to engage in dialogue on diversity and the talent shortage, share experiences, and inspire each other for concrete actions to make the sector more inclusive. Both men and women attended, from professionals to students, with the aim of working together to create a more diverse and inclusive cybersecurity community. All the Cyber Ladies and Municipality of The Hague organised the gathering in collaboration with Security Delta (HSD) and Women4Cyber Netherlands.

The programme started with a tour to the Digital Forensics Labs of the Hogeschool Leiden, located at the HSD Campus. Led by Jos Griffioen, we dived into the world of digital traces investigation and how students are educated here.

After the plenary opening by the city of the Hague and HSD, security specialist Sarah Brown from the NATO Cyber Security Centre inspired the audience with a personal story about her career in cybersecurity. She spoke about how she sought and seized opportunities as a young mathematician. Simone Smit, deputy head of the AIVD, elaborated on the importance of diversity within teams, emphasising that the AIVD cyber team consists of 50% women. In addition it was emphasised that cybersecurity is not only technical, but also has legal, administrative and social/behavioural aspects. Making this domain interesting for people with diverse educational backgrounds.

A panel discussion with Emily Jacometti (HackShield), Umay Yavas Yoldar (Prodaft) and Henk van Ee (Cyberbrain and DIVD) focused on equity and talent development. Training and career opportunities were discussed with thought-provoking propositions.

Take-aways:

• Only by joining forces as a community, we can work on the shortage of talent and create more diversity in the IT and cybersecurity field. The role of employers regarding their hiring policies play a crucial role.
• Challenges among SMEs are huge. They still need to make a big move to embed cybersecurity in their organisation. This requires resources. Therefore, the talent shortage is even greater than we observe in vacancies now.
• Our sector cannot afford to be careless with the available talent. As many people as possible should be enabled to contribute and be stimulated in their development. Employers can contribute to this by:
  • Creating uniform job vacancies as a community, based on skills & competencies rather than knowledge and experience. So that more people can have a career in security & career paths become more transparent and clear.
  • Making visible the diversity of positions within the domain, from technical, legal to policy.
  • Better align training with the field, give guest lectures at IT/cyber educations and inspire young people.
  • Begin to inspire the youth at an early age, mentor them and create equal opportunities throughout our society. Become a role model to inspire them!
  • Rearranging functions in a way that certain tasks can also be performed by staff at MBO level. Or add certain cybersecurity tasks to other positions and train employees for this new tasks.
  • Enabling part-time work.

For those who want to know more about career opportunities, the website www.securitytalent.nl  and www.cybersecuritywerkt.nl  are of interest. It offers an overview of education, training, vacancies, internships and a career navigator.

HSD & All the Cyber Ladies Partnership

In addition, HSD and All the Cyber Ladies have signed an alliance partnership agreement for further collaboration concerning diversitiy in the cybersecurity domain. 

HSD's involvement in this Cyber Ladies Event is part of the IT Verband Zuid-Holland programme, which aims to tackle the growing talent shortage, especially for SMEs in South Holland. The ITVZH-programme is a collective effort that also includes WE-IT Zuid-Holland, The Hague University of Applied Sciences, Dutch Innovation Factory, and IT Campus Rotterdam.