SINGAPORE – Bringing extra ladies into the cyber-security trade can alleviate the expertise crunch and scale back groupthink, main to raised tech options in the long run, mentioned panellists on the inaugural Girls in Cyber Symposium on Tuesday (March 22).
They famous that efforts are wanted to counter attitudes and stereotypes that paint the tech trade as a male area.
The panel dialogue featured Minister for Communications and Data, Mrs Josephine Teo, who can be the minister answerable for cyber safety and the Good Nation initiative, Ensign InfoSecurity group chief government Tammie Tham, and Ms Teo Yi-Ling, a senior fellow on the Centre of Excellence for Nationwide Safety of the S. Rajaratnam Faculty of Worldwide Research.
Ms Sherin Lee, who’s vice-president of the Affiliation of Data Safety Professionals (AiSP), moderated the session.
Mrs Teo mentioned cyber safety is crucial not solely to Singapore’s Good Nation ambitions but additionally to its survival.
“It is not simply industrial entities whose methods could be impacted. An entire nation’s essential infrastructure could be targets for cyber assaults,” she mentioned.
“In a navy battle, in case your essential infrastructure is just not properly protected, you’ll be able to properly think about how a lot threat you place your individuals by. The supply of important companies could possibly be susceptible to being disrupted.”
Singapore, like many different nations, is going through a scarcity of tech expertise, mentioned Mrs Teo, including that there are a lot of accessible well-paid jobs requiring new ability units that ladies can take up.
The minister mentioned Singapore fares comparatively properly in relation to illustration of ladies within the tech trade.
She famous that ladies make up about 41 per cent of Singapore’s tech workforce, in distinction with the worldwide common of 28 per cent, in line with a report printed by the Boston Consulting Group and the Infocomm Media Improvement Authority (IMDA) in 2020.
However extra could be executed to additional increase consciousness of the accessible alternatives and assist ladies take up management roles within the trade, Mrs Teo added.
Ms Tham mentioned the trade wants a various pool of expertise given the dynamic nature of cyber threats.
“We want all people. We don’t need what is called groupthink – a gaggle of individuals coming from comparable backgrounds, having gone by comparable life experiences, fixing a cyber-security downside,” she mentioned.
“We like range in approaching cyber-security challenges… to have the ability to assume like an attacker, an offender, and on the similar time having that noble aspiration to wish to do good.”
