Despite tech and cybersecurity companies proclaiming to advance new initiatives to advance diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in recent years, not nearly enough progress has been made in the cybersecurity industry, which remains stubbornly white and male. Recent statistics show that only 24 percent of cybersecurity workers identify as women, 9 percent as Black and 4 percent as Hispanic. Women and people of color are less likely to serve in leadership positions in cybersecurity companies, and there are stark cybersecurity salary discrepancies across race and gender. Yet the government and private sector laments a cybersecurity talent gap, as thousands of cybersecurity positions remain unfilled due to a supposed lack of qualified workers.

We must do better. Building a more diverse cybersecurity industry is not only critical to creating a more inclusive America, it will also strengthen our nation’s security by bringing in new perspectives to solve thorny information security challenges and shoring up our workforce.

Over the past year, our organizations led a series of roundtables with cybersecurity practitioners across disciplines to develop a set of concrete, impact-oriented commitments that organizations could take on to improve DEI in their workforce. The attendees worked together to outline a specific set of commitments that organizations could adopt now, and identified gaps in the broader ecosystem that would require additional institutional support from governments or foundations. Ultimately, we hope these recommendations, summarized in a longer report released today, will motivate cybersecurity organizations to sign onto specific commitments that are actionable and will meaningfully make progress in improving DEI.

Read the full article about diversity in the cybersecurity industry by Camille Stewart and Maitreyi Sistla at The Aspen Institute.