There are a lot of things going on right now at BYU. The men’s volleyball team just took the conference championship, and then six players went right on to their graduation ceremonies. Graduation week is huge at BYU, with a whole series of events and thousands of participants and guests.
But a few BYU seniors missed graduation in order to compete in another sort of contest, the NCCDC — or spelled out, the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Championship.
Information Technology in general, and Information Security specifically, see a dearth of women in the field, but of only seven women at this competition (considered the Olympics of cybersecurity), four were from BYU.
The NCCDC is in its 11th year, and in order to qualify for one of the 10 slots, teams must beat out all their area competition in regional events. This is BYU’s first year to enter the competition, and it took second place.
Information Security Professionals and the U.S. Government
The U.S. government has been keen on hiring Mormons for security jobs for many years. According to Fortune Magazine online, “…members of the LDS community—most of whom abstain from the consumption of alcohol, caffeine, and tobacco—make for excellent public servants.”
Recently, both the government and private firms have been actively seeking female applicants, and female and Mormon is a great combination.
A mere 10% of information security professionals are women, according to the International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium.
This dearth of women, problematic in many industries, is actually dangerous when it comes to cyber defense, says Jack Harrington, vice president of cybersecurity and special missions at Raytheon. The industry is currently experiencing a talent crisis: There are now roughly 300,000 unfilled cybersecurity jobs in the U.S., a figure that is estimated to grow to 1.5 million globally within the next five years.
“It’s a national security imperative that we find and train women,” says Harrington. “We’ve got to tap into this talent pool that’s 50% of the population.”
Mormon Women and Cybersecurity
Many Mormon women currently in higher education can seriously consider cybersecurity as a profession. BYU co-eds tend to think in traditional terms when they view their futures. Many major in professions that are traditionally associated with the roles of women, such as nursing or family relations. Most hope they can be stay-at-home moms when their families need them to be.
But cybersecurity is a field wherein a lot of employees are able to work remotely rather than at the office. That means women educated in the field can often work from home.
Sarah Cunha and Laura Wilkinson didn’t make it to BYU graduation this year, because they were competing at the NCCDC. It was worth it. They made a huge impression and took second place. And they both have jobs already lined up.
Read the full article at Fortune.com.
