Melissa Wong, a cybersecurity expert at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), was awarded the 2017 Women of Color Award for her accomplishments in systems engineering.
Wong is a former U.S. Air Force Captain who has also worked as a civil servant with NASA and the National Security Agency, and as a contractor with Lockheed Martin.
She earned a Bachelor of Science in computer and systems engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a Master of Science in electrical engineering from Texas Tech University, and a Master of Science in mechanical engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology.
“Ms. Wong is a tremendous example of the power of women and minority professionals in the technology fields,” wrote APL’s Eric Naber in nominating Wong for the honor. “Her technical contributions have enabled tangible operational impacts for our sponsors [and] her leadership has moved teams to accomplish more than they thought possible.”
Although she is the latest in a long line of APL staff members who have been recognized with Women of Color Awards, women in cybersecurity still comprise only 11 percent of the information security workforce.
A new Global Information Security Workforce Study into the composition of the U.S. cybersecurity workforce reveals new workforce challenges focused on gender, age, and tenure, ethnicity, and race.
(ISC)² – the world’s largest nonprofit association of certified cybersecurity professionals – recently published the report Innovation Through Inclusion: The Multicultural Cybersecurity Workforce. The findings are based on survey responses from 9,500 U.S. cybersecurity professionals.
Key insights from the study include:
“While minority representation within the cybersecurity field (26%) is slightly higher than the overall U.S. minority workforce (21%), our study did reveal that racial and ethnic minorities tend to hold non-managerial positions, and pay discrepancies, especially for minority women, is a challenge,” said (ISC)² CEO David Shearer, CISSP.
To foster diversity in the workplace, 49% of minority cybersecurity professionals said mentorship programs are very important.
Women who feel valued in the workplace have also benefited from leadership development in greater numbers, according to the 2017 Women in Cybersecurity report.
The study from the Executive Women’s Forum (EWF) performed a deep dive into the lack of women in the cybersecurity industry to provide a clear understanding of pay scales, skills gaps, training requirements, corporate hiring practices, career progression and corporate attitudes in the industry.
“The under-participation by large segments of our society represents a loss of opportunity for individuals, a loss of talent in the workforce, and a loss of creativity in shaping the future of cybersecurity,” said ICMCP President Aric K. Perminter. “Not only is it a basic equity issue, but it threatens our global economic viability as a nation. This research underscores the importance of our mission. The ICMCP Educational Security Operations Centers (ESOCs) provide innovative, effective and timely solutions to the cybersecurity demands of employers – from cyber ranges and certification training to NICE curriculum and job placement.”
The Center for Cyber Safety and Education partnered with (ISC) ², Booz Allen Hamilton (Presenting sponsor), Alta Associates (Gold sponsor), and Frost & Sullivan to examine the state of the response to these developing risks in the 2017 Global Information Security Workforce Study (GISWS). Questions of race and ethnicity were posed to 9,500 respondents in the United States.
Read the Innovation Through Inclusion: The Multicultural Cybersecurity Workforce report at www.IAmCyberSafe.org/gisws
