"Illuminating the Future of Cybersecurity: Women From Across the Nation Visit NSA for First-of-Its-Kind Event"
Women from across the country recently joined leaders from USCYBERCOM and National Security Agency (NSA) at the NSA's cutting-edge Cybersecurity Collaboration Center (CCC) to learn about the Agency's mission and shed light on the future of cybersecurity. The first-ever "Women Immersed in NSA Cybersecurity" event detailed and demonstrated NSA's mission to students emerging as the next generation of cyber excellence, which is an effort deemed critical by the Director to diversify recruitment while strengthening national defense. More than 70 leaders from across the Agency joined the students to share their reasons for joining NSA, with more than 90 percent of them being women in cybersecurity. Students heard a talk on disrupting nation-state hackers, a panel on vulnerabilities and cybersecurity advisories, a briefing on the psyche of a hacker, and many other presentations, giving the women an insight into the NSA's diverse mission set. The students had the opportunity to network with women from across NSA who are also alumni from their respective schools during their visit. The alumni and students talked about the gender gap in recruitment and how the NSA can better appeal to women, particularly those interested in STEM and cybersecurity. The students got a firsthand look at how the Intelligence Community collaborates to address the rapidly evolving cybersecurity landscape when they visited the Integrated Cyber Center Joint Operations Center (ICC JOC), a space for USCYBERCOM and the NSA to quickly collaborate on the nation's most pressing cybersecurity threats and developments. The students presented their research on a topic of their choice to a panel of NSA senior leaders, showcasing their individual interests and expertise. Presentation topics included how to improve youth cyber competitions, avoiding Chinese recruitment tactics through LinkedIn, and more. This article continues to discuss the success of the first-ever Women Immersed in NSA Cybersecurity event.