Originally posted to J Patrick + Associates by Alysa Wishingrad,

One of the cornerstones of an effective cybersecurity strategy is agility and the ability to think ahead of the curve. In order to defend against, or better yet stave off attacks you need a team with a diverse set of skills and abilities. Research conducted by Catalyst found that diversity is key to an organizations ability to inspire higher levels of performance, productivity and creativity, which in turn lead to better employee satisfaction and retention.

And yet, even though diversity of perspectives is key to devising innovative solutions, InfoSec currently has a big problem with lack of diversity.

To say that InfoSec is a growth industry is to grossly understate the facts. There were over 1 million openings in the Cyber security sector in 2016. More over, demand for well- qualified InfoSec professionals is set to exceed 6 million globally by 2019. What was a $75 billion industry in 2015 is set to rise to over $170 billion in 2020. There is no other sector in IT, or perhaps any other industry, that shows similar growth potential.

And still, women who comprise 51% of the population only make up 11% of info sec workers. And the statistics for minorities are even more daunting. According the US Department of Labor only 5.2% of security analysts are hispanic, 3.2% are Asian-American, and 3% are Black/African-American.

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