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If tech leaders want to get more women into cybersecurity, they may need to pique their interest before they’re halfway through high school. A new study from Kaspersky Lab found that most young women decided against a cybersecurity career before age 16.

About 78 percent of the young women (ages 16-21) surveyed said they never even considered a career in cybersecurity. Those numbers are reflected in the field, where The Global Information Security Workforce Study from (ISC)2 found that only 11 percent of cybersecurity professionals are women.

The same study predicted that the cybersecurity workforce gap will reach 1.8 million by 2022. So, with that kind of demand for cybersecurity talent, why aren’t more women interested?

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Negative Perceptions and Lack of IT Role Models Abound

While the survey found that only 16 percent of women were clear on what a cybersecurity expert does, their perceptions, enforced by stereotypes, were enough to rule out the career path.

The Kaspersky survey found that young women had negative connotations with the terminology (i.e., hacker) around cybersecurity as a whole.

Most women also said a lack of coding experience and lack of interest in computing as a career were the biggest reasons they ruled cybersecurity out.

“Early education plays a critical role in overcoming entry barriers, but there’s also a need to change the industry’s images as a whole and promote the careers within,” said Todd Helmbrecht, senior vice president of marketing of Kaspersky Lab North America, in a news release.

Stuart Madnick, a professor of information technologies and founder of the MIT Interdisciplinary Consortium for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity, said in the release that colleges and industries need to better communicate what a job in cybersecurity really entails.

While tech skills can be important, Madnick indicated that “soft skills” around improving an organization’s culture and policies are a big part of improving cybersecurity.

In addition to these negative perceptions, about 42 percent of the women surveyed indicated that it is important to them to have a gender role model. With women making up such a small percentage of cybersecurity professionals, these role models are few and far in between.

So, how can businesses and universities attract more women into cybersecurity?

Reshape Cybersecurity Career Paths with Women in Mind

Some businesses have taken matters into their own hands by creating partnerships with universities to foster a diverse — and well-prepared —workforce.

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education reported that aerospace and defense firm Northrop Grumman has partnered with two University of Maryland campuses to reach out to minorities and women and make sure they are getting the same educational opportunities as their peers.

Cybersecurity programs have also found success diversifying by exploring the unexpected soft skills needed in the profession.

The Denver-based SecureSet Academy has developed a new cybersecurity path built entirely for people without a technical background, The Denver Post reports. SecureSet’s hunt analyst path will train creative analytical thinkers to work alongside security engineers, and founder Bret Fund expects that women will make up 40 to 50 percent of the enrollees.

“We anticipate that the unique mix of analytical and technical skills required of hunt analysts will create a big, bright doorway into the industry that more women will walk through relative to most other tech fields,” Fund tells the Denver Post.

Recruiting Women Could Mean Big Wins for Cybersecurity

While cybersecurity is considered the fastest growing career, nonprofit IT governance association, ISACA, has indicated that there will be a global shortage of cybersecurity professionals by 2019.

Experts say that reaching out to women might help to close this gap by tapping skilled professionals for new jobs.

“Recruiting more women into information security is a win-win,” writes Michelle Johnson Cobb, VP of worldwide marketing for Skybox Security in an article on Bizwomen. “Women are assured of an exciting, stable and cutting-edge career path, and businesses looking to stay ahead of the security curve get a much-needed source of highly educated talent.”

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This bundle contains instruction on a broad range of cybersecurity topics and points of mastery, starting with the NIST Framework. If you plan on working for the US government or 30% of US companies with a cybersecurity position, then you’ll want to have a strong understanding of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Framework, and that’s what you could get from NIST Cybersecurity & Risk Management Frameworks. This 21.36-hour course taught by an instructor from iCollege could help you gain an understanding of the RMF steps, learn to prepare an organization to manage security and privacy risks, and implement controls.

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The final two courses in this bundle are CompTIA CASP+ (CAS-003) and CompTIA CASP+ (CAS-004), a two-part study on how to analyze business security risks and implement protections along with preparation for the certification to prove you have mastered these core concepts. Like all courses in this bundle, the instruction within these courses is available to you for life, so you can set your own pace for learning and mastering each concept.

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Cyberfraud can lead to significant financial losses, as well as reputational damage.

Stuart Hylton, senior manager, IT compliance and data privacy with Symptai Consulting Limited, and a member of The Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) indicates that data breaches in Caribbean territories continue to occur.

The expert made his presentation on the causes of company vulnerability during the Jamaica Bankers Association and the Jamaica Institute of Financial Services (JIFS) on July 14.

Companies, he indicates, remain vulnerable in the areas of improperly configured devices and systems; ineffective patch management controls; insufficient cryptography; inadequate or improper access controls; lack of data validation and sanitisation; inadequate or improper authentication controls; inadequate or improper auditing and logging controls; poor session management; and vulnerable API and web in addition to poor file and resource management.

Hylton shared that latest breaches in the Caribbean include Mailpac Express in April 2022, Massy stores in April 2022 and companies in Costa Rica in May 2022.

Vulnerabilities in the Caribbean

According to research from IBM and the Ponemon Institute (based on research for 500 data breaches over seven years years of research data), 17 countries and regions among 17 industries, US$4.24m average cost of data breach for companies surveyed. Meanwhile, 287 days is the average time for respondents to identify and contain a breach.

The expert stated that losses often result from increased customer turnover, lost revenue due to system downtime; the increasing cost of acquiring new business due to diminished reputation; reputational damages; regulatory fines; and exposure of highly confidential information.

Companies should understand, the expert advised, the scope of their cyber environment and strategic objectives, benchmarking against recognised frameworks and standards.

Procedures to contain risk should include expert assessment, recommendations to mitigate risks, remediation, verification that remediation activities have been completed as recommended and continuous checking on the effectiveness of controls. Managers should also be always alert for new risks, he stated.

Risk mitigation

Hylton said that measures to buttress risk mitigation include the use of strong passwords which is one with a minimum 10 characters consisting of uppercase, lowercase, numbers a and special characters (such as #, @, &).

The defence system would also include two-factor Authentication; also enabling multi-factor authentication (MFA) to ensure the only person who has access to your account is you.

Managers should also implement access control limitations and granting access to resources only on a need-to-know basis, for critical infrastructure.

Hylton advised that important files must be backed up regularly, encrypted and stored separately from the system being backed up. Meanwhile, it should be company wide practice to avoid opening suspicious e-mails or attachments.

Avoid clicking links in e-mails or text messages not expected or from unknown senders. Managers should also enable security tools; configure anti-malware or antivirus software and disk encryption on laptops and mobile devices; and also keep all devices up to date with the latest system updates and patches.

Also making their presentation at the seminar, PwC representatives warned, "Cybercrime has now become democratised. The rise of cybercrime-as-a-service (CaaS) is seen as a critical evolution in the cybercrime landscape. Analogous to cloud services in legitimate markets, like platform-as-a-service, CaaS enables criminal entrepreneurs to develop and manage their business without the complexity of building and maintaining all required expertise, infrastructure and tools themselves. CaaS providers on dark web and found that custom spyware."

These experts recommended that the approach to containment should include identifying and assessing macro and micros risks and the prioritisation of strategic remediation initiatives.

Presenters on cyber treat intelligence from Hitachi at the JBA/JIFs seminar said that around half of all organisations (52 per cent) have been hit by ransomware attacks in the past three years.

Meanwhile, 39 per cent of those struck paid a ransom, with one in five companies spending US$500,000 or more. It was noted that it takes on average three to four days for businesses to detect attacks following an incident disclosure.

A survey of cybersecurity experts reveals that 87 percent expect mobile payments data breaches will grow over the next 12 months, while 26 percent point to the use of public Wi-Fi as the top vulnerability.

The report, The 2015 Mobile Payment Security Study, comes from global cybersecurity association ISACA and suggests that consumers who use mobile payments are unlikely to be undeterred by security concerns, boding well for the adoption of Apple Pay and other services. The cybersecurity experts also weighed in on the most effective way to make mobile payments more secure, with 66 percent pointing to the use of two ways to authenticate an identity.

“Mobile payment adoption isn’t slowing down and consumers aren’t put off by security fears,” said Eddie Schwartz, international vice president of ISACA. “Ultimately as it seems with most emerging technologies consumers will select ease of use and convenience over security and privacy.

“At 89 percent, cash was deemed the most secure payment method, but only 9 percent prefer to use it,” he said. “If you think about it, it actually costs us money to draw cash out of an ATM now, compared to the ease of mobile payment apps that generally have no fees and provide detailed accountability.

Shmishing a threat
The findings include that only 23 percent of cybersecurity experts believe that mobile payments are secure in keeping personal information safe while 47 percent say mobile payments are not secure and 30 percent are unsure. Additionally, 89 percent said cash is the most secure payment method but only 9 percent prefer to use it.

A key takeaway is that security issues may not slow down adoption, with 43 percent of the same cybersecurity experts who expect mobile payments data breaches to grow also users of this payment method.

Twenty six percent of the survey’s respondents pointed to the use of public Wi-Fi as a major vulnerability associated with mobile payments, 21 percent named lost or stolen devices and 18 percent pointed to phishing or shmishing, which is phishing attacks via text messages.

Additionally, 13 percent named weak passwords as a major vulnerability and 7 percent use errors while only 0.3 percent said they are no security vulnerabilities with mobile payments.

Enhanced authentication
The cybersecurity experts also weighed in on the most effective way to make mobile payments more secure, with 66 percent pointing to the use of two ways to authenticate an identity and 18 percent a short-term authentication code.

Only 9 percent suggesting installing phone-security apps – which puts the onus on the consumer – as the best way to Boost security.

ISACA also notes that there is no generally accepted understanding of which entity is responsible for keeping mobile payments secure – the consumer, the payment provider or the retailer.

“Merchants need to be ensure they follow procedures and guidelines received from their service providers regarding appropriate security features for mobile payments,” Mr. Schwartz said.

Final Take
Chantal Tode is senior editor on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York

New study by Protiviti and ISACA underscores security risks looming large in today's dynamic threat landscape

MENLO PARK, Calif., June 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- A new survey conducted by Protiviti and ISACA found that cybersecurity is the chief risk for IT audit departments, with several related risks such as privacy and data as well as regulatory compliance also ranking as top concerns.

The top risks cited in this year's survey highlight the vital yet sensitive role that data plays in organizations today.

Responses to this year's edition of the annual technology and audit benchmarking survey, titled "IT Audit Perspectives on Today's Top Technology Risks," indicate that IT audit teams are perceiving the current technology risk landscape as much more threatening than in the past. War-related cyberattacks are on the rise, the surge of sophisticated ransomware attacks is ongoing and remote work continues to subject many organizations to new cybersecurity risks. Yet despite heightened concerns, the survey revealed that one in five organizations do not expect their 2022 audit plans to address the risk of cybersecurity breaches.

"Given the increasingly complex and rapidly changing technology risk landscape we're in, it's imperative for IT audit leaders to understand they are responsible for maintaining a holistic view of IT risks impacting the entire organization," said Angelo Poulikakos, a managing director at Protiviti and global leader of the firm's Technology Audit practice. "This requires tech-enablement from an audit standpoint and regular calibration of risk assessments to suit the current environment, rather than 'rinsing and repeating' the work from previous years."

"The elevated cybersecurity concerns evidenced in this year's survey underscore that cyber threats are no longer concentrated within specific industries. This is an industry agnostic concern, and every organization should be mobilizing to protect itself. While IT audit teams may not be on the front lines managing these risks, it's essential that they take a proactive approach to regularly assess the efficacy of these efforts while confirming the proper controls and protections are in place," added Poulikakos.

The Top 10 IT Audit Risks for 2022
The survey asked respondents to rate the significance of 39 technology risk issues. Of those, the top 10 IT audit risks identified were as follows:

1. Cyber breach
2. Manage security incidents
3. Privacy
4. Monitor regulatory compliance
5. Access risk
6. Data integrity
7. Disaster recovery
8. Data governance
9. Third-party risk
10. Monitor/audit IT, legal and regulatory compliance

The top risks cited in this year's survey highlight the vital yet sensitive role that data plays in organizations today, with respondents expressing significant concerns regarding the way in which data is gathered, governed and secured. Respondents also demonstrated that IT audit professionals are acutely aware of the evolving compliance requirements facing their organizations, related to data stewardship, industry standards, and national and regional requirements.

"With a global focus on data regulation, it may be easy to view data solely through a lens of compliance," said Paul Phillips, ISACA director of Event Content Development and Risk Professional Practice lead. "However, consumer concern with how their data are used and stored and other operational matters that can quickly become reputational matters must not be discounted. As IT auditors assess risk and evaluate controls associated with data, the tremendous organizational value (and responsibility) of data and the importance of trust should always be top of mind."

The benchmarking report is based on a survey, fielded in the fourth quarter of 2021, of over 7,500 IT audit leaders and professionals, including chief audit executives (CAEs) and IT audit vice presidents and directors, representing a wide range of industries globally. The survey was conducted in collaboration with ISACA, a global professional association of more than 165,000 digital trust professionals.

Survey Resources Available
"IT Audit Perspectives on Today's Top Technology Risks" is available for complimentary download, along with an infographic and podcast about the survey results, here. On July 28, 2022, at 11:00 a.m. PDT, Protiviti will host a free one-hour webinar to further explore the implications of the survey. Featured speakers will be Poulikakos, Phillips and Maeve Raak, a director in Protiviti's Technology Audit practice. Please register here to attend the webinar.

About Protiviti
Protiviti (www.protiviti.com) is a global consulting firm that delivers deep expertise, objective insights, a tailored approach, and unparalleled collaboration to help leaders confidently face the future. Protiviti and its independent and locally owned Member Firms provide clients with consulting and managed solutions in finance, technology, operations, data, digital, legal, governance, risk and internal audit through its network of more than 85 offices in over 25 countries.

Named to the 2022 Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For^® list, Protiviti has served more than 80 percent of Fortune 100 and nearly 80 percent of Fortune  500 companies. The firm also works with smaller, growing companies, including those looking to go public, as well as with government agencies. Protiviti is a wholly owned subsidiary of Robert Half (NYSE: RHI). Founded in 1948, Robert Half is a member of the S&P 500 index.

About ISACA
ISACA^® (www.isaca.org) is a global community advancing individuals and organizations in their pursuit of digital trust. For more than 50 years, ISACA has equipped individuals and enterprises with the knowledge, credentials, education, training and community to progress their careers, transform their organizations, and build a more trusted and ethical digital world. ISACA is a global professional association and learning organization that leverages the expertise of its more than 165,000 members who work in digital trust fields such as information security, governance, assurance, risk, privacy and quality. It has a presence in 188 countries, including 225 chapters worldwide. Through its foundation One In Tech, ISACA supports IT education and career pathways for under resourced and underrepresented populations.

Protiviti is not licensed or registered as a public accounting firm and does not issue opinions on financial statements or offer attestation services.

Editor's note: photos available upon request.

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SOURCE Protiviti