“A lack of diversity would make the cybersecurity industry a sad place to be.”

While the IT channel has traditionally been male-dominated, the same applies to cybersecurity.

Camilla Currin is channel account manager at Trend Micro. She believes the cybersecurity channel has been making some progress — but there is still have a long way to go.

“When I look back to how things were five years ago, I can say with certainty that we have made some inroads to changing the culture in our industry,” she said.

“I feel that we now have an understanding that having multigender participants in an organization brings different perspectives to solving business challenges. We have hopefully learned over the past few years that diversity of thought is priceless within organizations.”

Currin said the cybersecurity industry (among other industries) still needs to work hard to shift the male-dominated culture. This includes changing the way firms recruit and improving how they talk about the industry.

It also involves improving how the younger generation is educated. Additionally, encouraging female role models “to raise their profiles and talk openly about their work and why they’re passionate about it.” 

“The consequences of having a cybersecurity workforce lacking in diverse perspectives would make the industry a sad place to be. We would be challenged with a lack of broad-minded thinking, a lack of creativity, perspective and really when it comes down to it, a lack of growth. It would weaken the cyber industry and we would miss out on so much potential talent.”

“We need to continue to unearth the talent that’s out there to create a more inclusive environment for all.”