Walking The Walk

More than ten years ago, we realized it makes sense to cultivate a company centered on the concepts of Diversity and Inclusion. While the two concepts are related, they require different solutions to develop within a corporate environment. Diversity means bringing together various thoughts, approaches, and perspectives. Inclusion is ensuring everyone has a similar opportunity to join and thrive in our organization.

To that end, we’ve taken many initiatives, including codifying our commitment to Equal Pay, introducing cross-team Lunch and Learn sessions, and developing our own Diversity & Inclusion Committee, SIDIC.

"A top priority for organizations is to advance diversity among the cybersecurity workforce. There is good social, ethical, and business reason to do so. It is proven that diverse teams make better decisions, are nimbler, and fuel more profitable businesses."
Larry Ponemon, Founder, The Ponemon Institute

Diversity & Inclusion in Cybersecurity – Reaping the Rewards

It’s a scientific fact that diverse teams make better decisions, operate more profitably, and are more innovative problem solvers. The cybersecurity talent shortage is a crisis, yet the diversity gap is stark with women and minorities, and we haven’t figured out how to cultivate this talented pool. Find out how it’s done – from experts who have succeeded and have dedicated themselves to the cause.

Watch Now

For over 5 years, Security Innovation has been a strategic training partner to Cyversity.  By offering security certification programs with organizations like Google and Intuit, we help under represented groups build the critical skills needed to enter the cyber security fields.

Diversity & Inclusion Non-Profit + Tech Giant + Training Innovator = Real Progress

Cyversity, Google, Security Innovation partnership

Read the Story

Cyversity website

The Security Innovation Diversity & Inclusion Committee (SIDIC) was formed in 2018, with the goal of building a more inclusive workplace at Security Innovation. While directly sponsored at the Executive level, the SIDIC team is managed independently and features a diverse mix of employees.

  • Empower all members of Security Innovation and remove barriers in their professional careers caused by social injustice and inequality.

  • Recruit, retain, & develop a diverse, high-performing workforce that reflects the communities we serve.

  • Encourage, cultivate and embrace a culture of diversity and inclusion to become a more equitable workforce, empowered to produce the best possible results.

SIDIC Timeline

We’re Committed To Closing The Skills Gap

Our commitment to closing the cybersecurity skills gap means that we are always striving to create meaningful ways to bring new people into cybersecurity. Our event partners are integral to the success of these programs and we are always looking for additional ways to get involved.

24%

Percentage of the cybersecurity workforce comprised of women

26%

Percentage of the cybersecurity workforce comprised of minorities

3.5
million

Cybersecurity jobs unfilled globally by 2025

How We’re Helping

We have run over 500 free hacking and training events at non-profit conferences, educational institutions, and community events to inspire security-minded people ranging from middle school students to seasoned security engineers with 20+ years of experience in the field.

  • Levi Strauss CyberSecurity Conference
  • Homeland Security Week Conference
  • FS-ISAC Annual Security Conference
  • Cyversity National Conference
  • Boston Cybersecurity Beanpot
  • Allstate Cybercon
  • INTERalliance
  • RSA Conference
  • DEFCON
  • Black Hat
  • FutureCon
  • RH-ISAC

The journey into cybersecurity can be an incredibly confusing one. There are countless technologies and titles, and one can become deterred by information overload. Activities like hands-on cyber range events are a great introduction to cybersecurity because they expose people with no prior security experience to the practices and procedures commonly used in application security. This learning, coupled with instruction and collaboration with peers, gives people a good interaction with cybersecurity skills and connects them to a pipeline of resources to further their careers.

Here are some stories of those we’ve met on their journeys.

13-year old enjoys a good challenge while encouraging middle school and high school girls about to learn about security

BiaSciLab's Story

From midnight studies in Ghana to SOC Analyst with the help of the Red Team Training program – a collaboration by Cyversity, Google, and Security Innovation.

Joshua's Story

Lindsey was certain she’d be a baseball pro. Then her journey took a turn through coding and QA, and eventually security.

Lindsey's Story

Kevin’s path to cybersecurity wasn’t typical. What started as a career in the auto industry transformed into a top 5 finisher in our cyber range event.

Kevin's Story

Always driven by engineering with security a natural destination, Elizabeth has become one of the Top 50 Women in Cybersecurity in Africa.

Elizabeth's Story

A former programmer who won our Hack Through the Holidays event, Andre finds web vulnerabilities and teaches others how to fix them.

Andre's Story

Expanding software education in high schools through extracurricular activities, Sarah shares advice on educating yourself and others.

Sarah's Story

An engineer with a minimal security background, Brandon tried his hand at a CTF and became a future security champion.

Brandon's Story

Oluchi’s security interest began at a young age when she wondered if there was a tiny alien inside computers that made them so smart.

Oluchi's Story

Stepping away from academic anthropology, Drew shares his thoughts on making the mid-life career change to cybersecurity.

Drew's Story

Aiming to be a cybersecurity pioneer in Zimbabwe, Thelma enrolled in the Red Team Training program from Cyversity, Google, and Security Innovation.

Thelma's Story

The Undercroft coaches the next generation of security minds and ensures talent doesn’t slip through the cracks. Co-Founder Chris shares their story.

Chris's Story

I came across Cyversity and their opportunity to learn from Google and Security Innovation in their Red Team program. My mentors encouraged me to go for it and it was one of the best decisions ever because I love my career!

Joshua Berkoh, Red Team Training Scholarship recipient, Ghana

It was rewarding to watch approximately 100 women learn the basics of becoming a hacker in a hands-on workshop environment. Personally, I learned a lot and had fun learning how to hack web applications.

Elena V. Elkina, Chief Evangelist at Women in Security & Privacy (WISP)

Playing CMD+CTRL at the WISP meet-up was a great opportunity to meet other women in our field and a lot of fun! We got to be creative, competitive, and a little evil. I learned a lot about web app hacking that will make me better at my job

Marisa Fagan, Sr. Technical Program Manager Salesforce.com

It was in a word AWESOME! We had 45+ women hacking away on Shadow Bank, one of Security Innovation’s command and control cyber ranges. The team was fantastic partners

Janet Levesque, former CISO RSA Security

“I really enjoyed the Hackathon organised by Security Innovation. It was my first Hackathon experience and it turned out to be awesome. It got me very keen and interested to move ahead with more such testing. I had absolute fun! A must recommendation for those interested in assessing their true skills.”

Supraja Ramakrishnan (Sony India Software Center Pvt Ltd)

“Besides just being fun, I found that after I did the cyber range event I approached development differently. Now when I look at a PR or write code, my first thought is, How could I hack this? What if I changed the form input here, would we reject it appropriately?”

Molly Struve, Site Reliability Engineer, DEV Community