Increasing Women's Representation in Cybersecurity

By Amanda Davis | Sr. Manager, CR and Environment

NortonLifeLock is committed to cultivating a diverse workforce and to supporting a diverse cybersecurity sector. Cybersecurity is an exciting and growing industry, and we support opportunities for people to bring their passion and skills to make a safer world for us all. As part of this support, NortonLifeLock partners with the NASSCOM (The National Association of Software and Services Companies) Foundation in India on the Cyber Security Skills Development Initiative for Women. Last month, NASSCOM celebrated the 232 women that have graduated from the program!

NASSCOM is a nonprofit organization that leverages the capabilities of its member companies and emerging social enterprises to meet the technology needs of nonprofits and underserved communities across India. NASSCOM accomplishes its mission by improving the quality of life of women and youth through IT and computer-related skills training. Since 2015, NASSCOM and NortonLifeLock have been working together to provide tech training to low-income individuals in India. The Cyber Security Skills Development Initiative for Women grew out of our partnership and is designed to create greater employability opportunities for female engineering graduates by equipping them with in-demand job skills.

In India and elsewhere, women and other historically underrepresented populations present an untapped resource for the cybersecurity market. Women only make up about one quarter of the global cybersecurity workforce and according to NASSCOM, this number has been stagnant in India despite significant increases in job openings. The Cyber Security Skills Development Initiative for Women works to mitigate this disparity.

As in any field, training is sometimes not enough. An important part of our program is job placement. NASSCOM and NortonLifeLock collaborate with TMI, a training and placement firm and NSDC (National Skills Development Corporation) partner company, for program graduates who have less than a year’s experience of work. As a result, of the recent pool of graduates, 60 women have been placed into jobs and another 20 have received job confirmations. We expect these numbers to grow as the placement process continues through February.

We congratulate all the graduates and will continue our work to build a strong and diverse cybersecurity workforce across NortonLifeLock and the sector. You can learn more about what NortonLifeLock is doing to support diversity and inclusion in our ESG report.