Tap into the Power of People

At the RSA Conference 2019, Ann Johnson, CVP at Microsoft, called for diversity and community to solve the tech and security industry’s greatest challenges.

Talent from diverse channels are key to solving diverse challenges. (Photo: Security Advisor Alliance)

What would the cybersecurity industry look like…

• if frontline defenders were empowered with intelligent tools to identify threats and bring scale to human insights?
• if companies invested in mental health resources and community for their frontline defenders, preventing burnout?
• if more security talent were recruited from non-traditional channels?
• if more organizations invested in welcoming diverse talent through organizations like the Security Advisor Alliance, Microsoft’s Cybersecurity Professional Program, BlackHoodie, or Microsoft’s Software and Systems Academy?
• if more organizations sought to recruit, train, and retain talent across gender, ethnicity, race, accessibility, education and social backgrounds?

Now, what happens if we don’t do these things?

Cybercriminals will continue to exploit our unconscious biases; we will fall into group thinking among a homogenous group of “experts”; and we will become weaker relative to our adversaries especially as the 3 million (and growing) global cybersecurity talent shortage goes unfilled.

We can’t afford not to do these things: In her RSA Keynote on March 6th, Ann Johnson emphasizes that diversity and inclusion is “not just the right thing to do…gaining the advantage in cybercrime depends on it.”

Watch the “Power of People” keynote again:

RSA Conference 2019: Ann Johnson, CVP Microsoft

Join the conversation on social media (Twitter and LinkedIn) with the #PowerofPeople hashtag or on the post-RSA events page.