In a blog posted on 26 May by editor in chief Kathy Pretz in IEEE Roundup, two experts in cybersecurity discuss ways to boost the number of women engineers. To give some perspective, females comprised only 11% of the 2013 information security work populace. According to the largest organization certifying cyberprofessionals, that percentage has now dropped to 10%. The field of information security desperately needs more specialists, in general, so this modest drop is of concern to the experts.

IEEE Institute reached out to two prominent women leaders in cybersecurity about their perspectives on the importance of female contributions and how to draw in larger numbers to the fold. One of these cyber leaders is DETER’s principal investigator Terry Benzel, who also serves as deputy director of the Internet and Networked Systems Division at the Information Sciences Institute, part of the University of Southern California’s Viterbi School of Engineering. Terry is also an IEEE member who serves on the IEEE Cybersecurity Initiative steering committee.

To read the IEEE Roundup blog please click on the title that follows: “The Number of Women Working in Cybersecurity Is Shrinking, and There Weren’t Many to Begin With”.