Currently the Global Head of Product Security Strategy at Google, Stewart always knew she wanted to do something with law and technology. While Zabierek, Executive Director of the Cyber Project at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center, discovered cyber after serving in the U.S. Air Force and the Intelligence Community. What they both agree on is that we need people from all different backgrounds, skillsets, and expertise in order to succeed as an industry – no matter what your journey to a cyber career looks like.
In the third part of our “Sharing the Mic” series, we spoke with Camille Stewart and Lauren Zabierek about how their different backgrounds and challenges brought them to realize the need for the movement and how everyone can do their part to contribute.
Realizing the need for #ShareTheMicInCyber
Stewart believes that the number one issue to address in the cyber industry today is diversity and inclusion. As she discussed in Sharing the Mic Part 1, the cybersecurity industry is currently facing a shortage of over 3 million qualified candidates. Stewart views this as a miss on the recruiting front that could be addressed by shifting recruiting strategy with the goal of attracting diverse talent. Also, the industry unfortunately faces what Stewart refers to as “artificial roadblocks” – or barriers to entering the field such as certifications that require five years of experience for entry level jobs.
“As an industry, we need to do some introspection, and think about how we build job descriptions, how we recruit talent, how we talk about what we do, and how we think about the impacts of some of our work, in terms of long term outcomes. How does bias change our ability to fully understand how we’ve remediated vulnerabilities? How are we showing up on the world stage when we’re talking about things like cyber norms and cyber diplomacy? There’s a lot of work to be done and having a diverse workforce means teams are aware of those impacts. Also just having an inclusive and aware workforce means that we’re all thinking about, talking about, and constantly course-correcting ourselves as we seek to build a more inclusive industry that is able to tackle any challenge.”
So, she decided to take action.
“On the heels of the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor, the industry seemed to be stagnant, but anxious to be a part of a solution. Everybody wanted to do something, but nobody knew exactly what they could do. And Lauren and I separately saw the #ShareTheMicNow campaign on Instagram, that was between women, white women and black women in entertainment and politics, and thought it was a good idea. So, I sent out a tweet just saying, I would love to see this in cyber security and national security. And Lauren replied. I did one for national security at large, through another organization that I run called NextGen NatSec, and then we did one called #ShareTheMicInCyber. And ShareTheMicInCyber took off because of that desire in the community to really be a part of the solution, and it has grown much bigger than we ever could have ever imagined.”
How #ShareTheMicInCyber Continues to Grow
“In our first campaign back in June of 2020, Camille and I didn’t know what we were really putting together,” said Zabierek. “We came together on Twitter, we started talking, and then we both just pulled together a plan and leveraged our networks and just really started organizing that way. But from that campaign, it was just so clear that it really resonated with people and it was really needed.”
Since the launch of the #ShareTheMicInCyber campaign, the initiative has become a driving force in expanding diversity in the cybersecurity industry and combating systemic racism. Highlighting the experiences of Black practitioners in this field, #ShareTheMicInCyber continues to catalyze critical conversations on race in the industry.The campaign also shines a light on Black practitioners’ accomplishments to showcase them as experts in their fields, all while creating professional opportunities and bringing the cyber community together. Although #ShareTheMicInCyber started as an online conversation on Twitter and LinkedIn, it has quickly expanded into much, much more.
“#ShareTheMicInCyber started a one day campaign where allies share their platforms with black cyber practitioners, but has grown into so much more,” said Stewart. “Through partnership we’ve done much more including launching a scholarship with WISP. We have a fellowship launching in partnership with New America. We are in partnership with RStreet for Cyber Base, which is a database of talent that works in this space and the opportunities are endless. And the need is there because cybersecurity is a human centered challenge. And if we are not bringing to bear the lived experiences and perspectives of all the people who are available to us, to understand how people internalize problems, how malicious actors might take actions, how technology shows up in the lives of user, and how users will respond to those things, then we’re missing the mark on doing the work, right?”
Zabierek also underlined how racism in cybersecurity also plays a huge role in national security issues as well.
“Racism, systemic racism, is a cybersecurity threat, but as we’ve move forward in #ShareTheMicInCyber, we have extrapolated this out in subsequent talks and events, where this is really a national security issue,” said Zabierek. “I mean, look at all the threats that are facing us right now. Do we really think that we can handle and mitigate all of them with the relatively few people in this industry? No, we need all the people who want to be here and to attract more? But to do this, we need to be inclusive. So, to us, it’s all related. Addressing these types of challenges has become a goal for us as well.”
Seeing the impact
Stewart believes that being aware of this systemic racism and taking the opportunity to open the space for others to hear the stories and lived experiences of others is a first step.
“This is a moment where we can pay attention,” Stewart said. “Systemic racism underpins many of the institutions we operate in. So, it may not be that folks are actively doing something wrong or malicious, but they are benefiting from a system that was not built to be inclusive or perpetuating a system that was not built to be inclusive. DEI initiatives may be viewed as good to have for some places, but to us, it’s a national security imperative.”
Zabierek said, “People were really brave to be vulnerable and share their stories. Witnessing them, was extremely impactful. Yes, Camille and I and the rest of the team have been lauded in our efforts, which is so wonderful to have that recognition. But as we’ve told the group, this is awesome, but it would not be anything without the amazing community and people willing to not only share their platforms with each other, but also their stories and their vulnerability. So, the credit really goes to the community itself.”
—
This concludes our Sharing the Mic series, where we explored diversity, equality, and inclusion in cyber and delved into why initiatives like #ShareTheMicInCyber shine a much needed light on some of the biggest challenges in the cybersecurity industry today. Please follow the initiative and find ways to support at www.ShareTheMicInCyber.com
