{"id":90757,"date":"2020-03-19T09:00:52","date_gmt":"2020-03-19T16:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/\/?p=90757"},"modified":"2023-05-15T23:12:21","modified_gmt":"2023-05-16T06:12:21","slug":"welcoming-more-women-in-cybersecurity-power-mentorships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/2020\/03\/19\/welcoming-more-women-in-cybersecurity-power-mentorships\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcoming more women into cybersecurity: the power of mentorships"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the way our industry tackles cyber threats, to the language we have developed to describe these attacks, I\u2019ve long been a proponent to challenging traditional schools of thought\u2014traditional cyber-norms\u2014and encouraging our industry to get outside its comfort zones. It\u2019s important to expand our thinking in how we address the evolving threat landscape. That\u2019s why I\u2019m not a big fan of stereotypes; looking at someone and saying they \u201cfit the mold.\u201d Looking at my CV, one would think I wanted to study law, or politics, not become a cybersecurity professional. These biases and unconscious biases shackle our progression. The scale of our industry challenges is too great, and if we don\u2019t push boundaries, we miss out on the insights that differences in race, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, neurology, ability, and degrees can bring.<\/p>\n

As we seek to diversify the talent pool, a key focus needs to be on nurturing female talent. Microsoft has hired many women in security, and we will always focus on keeping a diverse workforce. That\u2019s why as we celebrate Women in Cybersecurity Month and International Women\u2019s Day, the security blog will feature a few women cybersecurity leaders who have been implementing some of their great ideas for how to increase the number of women in this critical field. I\u2019ll kick off the series with some thoughts on how we can build strong mentoring relationships and networks that encourage women to pursue careers in cybersecurity.<\/p>\n

There are many women at Microsoft who lead our security efforts. I\u2019m incredibly proud to be among these women, like Joy Chik, Corporate Vice President of Identity, who is pushing the boundaries on how the tech industry is thinking about going passwordless, and Valecia Maclin, General Manager of Security Engineering, who is challenging us to think outside the box when it comes to our security solutions. On my own team, I think of the many accomplishments of \u00a0Ping Look, who co-founded Black Hat and now leads our Detection and Response Team (DART), Sian John, MBE, who was recently recognized as one of the top 50 influencers in cybersecurity in the U.K., and Diana Kelley, Microsoft CTO, who tirelessly travels to the globe to share how we are empowering our customers through cybersecurity\u2014just to name a few. It\u2019s important we continue to highlight women like these, including our female cybersecurity professionals at Microsoft who made the Top 100 Cybersecurity list in 2019<\/a>. The inspiration from their accomplishments goes far beyond our Microsoft campus. These women represent the many Microsoft women in our talented security team. This month, you\u2019ll also hear from some of them in subsequent blog posts on how to keep the diverse talent you already have employed. And to conclude the month, Theresa Payton, CEO at Fortalice Solutions, LLC., and the host of our CISO Spotlight series<\/a> will share tips from her successful experience recruiting talented women into IT and cybersecurity.<\/p>\n

Our cyber teams must be as diverse as the problems we are trying to solve<\/h3>\n

You\u2019ve heard me say this many times, and I truly believe this: As an industry, we\u2019ve already acknowledged the power of diversity\u2014in artificial intelligence (AI). We have clear evidence that a variety of data across multiple sources and platforms enhances and improves AI and machine learning models. Why wouldn\u2019t we apply that same advantage to our teams? This is one of several reasons why we need to take diversity and inclusion seriously:<\/p>\n