100 Women in 100 Days Cybersecurity Career Accelerator will have its next class in Japan
Started in Sacramento, Inteligenca’s free cybersecurity training program will partner with Saya University to go across the Pacific in 2020
Sacramento, CA, November 21, 2019 – The free cybersecurity training and accreditation program, 100 Women in 100 Days (100w100d), will help another 100 students re-boot their careers with the next class taking place at Japan’s Saya University.
A cybersecurity career accelerator founded and managed by the Sacramento-based cyber risk consulting firm Inteligenca, 100w100d welcomed its first 100 students in 2019. Inteligenca CEO Carmen Marsh is working with local employers including Intel, Centene, Sutter Health, PCCI and others to place students in internships, apprenticeships, and full-time work.
“The opportunity with Saya shows that people around the world recognize the need to get more women into the cybersecurity field,” said Marsh. “We are witnessing the moment when creating opportunity for women in security stopped being a local or national phenomenon, but truly became a worldwide movement.”
Saya University, a KV Equity Partners company, is founded by Jonathan Hiroshi Rossi and Crystal Lopez, to expand multi-lingual cybersecurity awareness and training at scale. This announcement is timely as the world will look to Japan for the upcoming 2020 Summer Olympics.
“Partnering with Marsh is about inspiring our global communities to act boldly, particularly in Japan, where business leaders and entrepreneurs are in a privilege vantage to truly make a difference” said Lopez and Rossi. We believe a diverse cybersecurity workforce leads to enhanced security for all.”
The cybersecurity industry desperately needs more total workers. Cyberseek, a site developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to track workforce opportunities in the U.S. showed that in October there were 715,715 employed cybersecurity workers in the US, but 313,735 open positions. Cyberseek described the supply of cybersecurity workers as “very low.” There are signs that companies are taking action to increase the number of security workers and address diversity concerns. Marsh noted that some of the world’s largest companies, including AIG, Apple, Cloudflare, Duke Energy, Facebook, Google, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Northrop Grumman, Symantec, Unisys, Verizon, and PwC, recently signed an Aspen Institute agreement committed to building a strong cybersecurity workforce pipeline.
The need for diversity in cybersecurity is well documented. A survey done this year by the International Information System Security Certification Consortium, (ISC)², showed women make up just 24 percent of the U.S. cybersecurity workforce. One of the core principles of the Aspen Institute initiative is rewriting job descriptions to appeal to more diverse job applicants.
“Japan is the third largest economy in the world and the deep lack of cybersecurity awareness, coupled with the serious shortage of talent, emboldens Saya to achieve two inter-related goals: enhance cybersecurity literacy for all 126 million people in Japan and develop a diverse pipeline of cybersecurity professionals. Initiating this program will invigorate the business community to take action. We hope the greater business community in Japan will see our first step as a rallying call to act now.”
Marsh said 100w100d plans for aggressive expansion in the coming year. There have been conversations about starting up classes Seattle, Chicago, Las Vegas and Chile. Marsh also is working on new touches within the program itself, including the use of AI-based online gaming software as part of the curriculum.
“It is great to see that companies are open to hiring workers who don’t look like those cybersecurity workers they’ve had in the past,” said Marsh. “But we’re a long way away from having enough people to fill those spots. 100 women is a good start, but it’s a drop in a bucket and we need to make it rain… hard!”
About 100w100 Days
Inteligenca founded and designed the 100 Women in 100 Days program and works with the trainers leading the program. The accelerator financed by a donation from Craigslist founder Craig Newmark who made his contribution to Allegiant Giving, a 501(c)3 working with veterans in the Sacramento area for number of years. The Inteligenca team has also worked closely with the WeCyber (Women Elevate Cyber) company to enhance the program to where additional help is available to women in passing the certification exams, adding leadership courses, including hands-on workshops where women can learn some of the cyber risk assessment skills, penetration testing, threat hunting basics.
For more information from Inteligenca, contact Carmen Marsh at 1 800 421-5771 or carmen@inteligenca.com. Saya University can be reached www.SayaUniversity.com or Jonathan@SayaUniversity.com or Crystal@SayaUniversity.com