Closing the Gender and Diversity Gap
Closing the Gender Gap
SPARTA has been researching the issues at the backbone of the gender gap faced in the cybersecurity field, striving to understand what could enhance the inclusion and attraction of women into the cybersecurity workforce. The lack of role models in the industry, related to the lack of visibility of women working in cybersecurity is a real problem. SPARTA gathered some of the best-practices you can adopt to attract and retain women in cybersecurity teams in a short guide: Best practices guide - Women in Cybersecurity.
The Women in SPARTA campaign aims at breaking down these stereotypes and make the cybersecurity environment more welcoming and attractive to women. The campaign aspires at building a strong community among women in cybersecurity by presenting the ones currently working in SPARTA, their work and what are their thoughts on the current gender gap issue, and how to tackle them. Meet the women in SPARTA:
Sara Ricci is working as a post-doctoral researcher on Brno University of Technology currently working on SPARTA’s Training and Awareness work package.
Luana Fabrete is an industrial engineer working as a project manager at Technikon. She is supporting the creation of the deliverables, risk mitigation and business plan at the SPARTA Management work package.
Aleksandra Pawlicka is Research and Development Specialist at ITTI. Her tasks in SPARTA focus on research of AI explainability and Fairness and on the ethical and human aspects of AI.
Last but not least, Anna Felkner, Assistant Professor and Head of Network and Information Security Methods Department at NASK, presents us in "My way in Cybersecurity" an inspiring and insightful testimony on her journey as a cybersecurity professional in a male-dominated environment! Read more
Go Cyber with SPARTA
The Go Cyber with SPARTA campaign is a coordinated action to raise cybersecurity awareness in three of Europe’s Outermost Regions (ORs). The campaign has been designed to contribute to the EU strategy for the ORs on digital accessibility and ICT use and to help to create a diverse workforce in cybersecurity. The strategy that sustained each of the following actions was grounded in a coordinated approach, involving SPARTA partners and the region’s community, aiming to forge a win-win collaboration where diversity is at the foreground, ensuring that each action is deployed taking into account the institution’s specific needs at the cybersecurity level:
- Encourage small businesses to adopt cybersecurity measures
- Stimulate young people to undertake studies or training at the university level within the area of cybersecurity
- Engage with critical infrastructure operators to stimulate them to adopt state-of-the-art cybersecurity technology
For the long and short run, the SPARTA impact is maximised through the connections between the selected regions/institutions and the stakeholders of other ORs in the same region of the world, for dissemination and communication of the SPARTA solutions. These awareness and communications activities were designed to include innovative and appealing ways to communicate SPARTA solutions (hands-on activities and demonstrators) to foster the interest of stakeholders in the importance of cybersecurity themes.
