"Teaching and Mentoring Small Grants Project Aims to Address Lack of Diversity in Cybersecurity"
The cybersecurity field continues to expand rapidly, with a global projection of 3.5 million unfilled cybersecurity jobs by 2025 and a current growth rate in the US that is more than double the overall employment market rate. Nonetheless, the field remains underrepresented as only 4 percent of the IT security workforce in the US is Hispanic, 8 percent is Asian, and 9 percent is Black. Additionally, only 24 percent of the cybersecurity workforce identify as women. A Teaching and Mentoring Small Grants project called "Actionable Items Leading to Measurable Increase in Cybersecurity Diversity" at the University of Pittsburgh aims to identify concrete, substantial techniques for improving diversity in the cybersecurity field. The project's primary goals include identifying and analyzing barriers preventing underrepresented groups from pursuing cybersecurity education and careers, implementing pilot initiatives that increase awareness and remedy myths and misconceptions about the field of cybersecurity, and synthesizing a list of actions that would inform and lay the groundwork for an increase in a diversified population in cybersecurity courses or programs. This article continues to discuss the project aimed at increasing diversity in cybersecurity.