Recognizing the need to increase and retain the number of people of color and women in cybersecurity professions, the International Consortium of Minority Cybersecurity Professionals (ICMCP) has created a community to support such individuals entering the field.
Launched in 2014, the nonprofit consortium provides mentoring and educational opportunities and scholarship programs. It has partnered with industry, corporations and education institutions such as John Hopkins University, the University of West Florida Center for Cybersecurity, and Heinz College and the Information Networking Institute – both at Carnegie Mellon University – to advance its goals of bringing underrepresented minorities into the information security field.
Explaining the premise for ICMCP, executive director David Elcock pointed to research studies and observations of cybersecurity markets that demonstrate that women and minorities are not attracted to cybersecurity professions — or retained — at the same rate as White men.
“There’s a specific amount of isolation that folks go through when they’re in these roles” when they are among very few women or underrepresented minorities in the field, Elcock added.
Outside of the hiring component of bringing underrepresented groups into cybersecurity professions, there is an added layer of a culture where minorities and women may not move up the leadership ranks as quickly as non-minority peers, even if they have the same qualifications or more experience, said ICMCP president Aric K. Perminter.
ICMCP addresses these issues by consulting with industry partners and other corporations to help them understand the value of diversity and that diversity is “not about counting numbers,” said Perminter, who also is founder and chairman of Lynx Technology Partners, an information security and risk management services company.
“It is about creating a pathway for individuals that have a direct correlation to your business performance,” he said, referencing the importance of inclusivity.
