Google looking outside the usual channels to fix security skills gap Cybersecurity moves fast. New and bigger threats emerge all the time across an ever-expanding attack surface and there's not enough people to fill vacant jobs. Because of this, "not every organization is hyper-focused on the subject of diversity and inclusion," MK Palmore, a director in Google Cloud's Office of the Chief …
"We as an industry get hung up on looking for folks who have been there, done that, and want talent to jump in and hit the ground running," he continued. "We need to slow down a bit and widen the optical on what represents new talent to bring into the field."
The whole paragraph has just meant my Bullshit Bingo card is filled for the week...
Yes, from orbit.... -->
Agree, agree 1000 times agree. !!!
I also had a 'Widening of the palpebral fissure' [<-- 10 points if you don't need to look it up :) ] followed by a involuntary widening of the Oesophagus and a bad taste in the mouth !!!
Please can we use normal everyday English instead of made up jargon .... apologies for above but at least it is real :)
I would accept an 'uncomfortable' meditation room, as I am able to carry a cushion or two; wireless headphones and music of my choice !!!
[This proves I can 'Plan ahead', 'schedule resources', manage time and multitask (Walking & carrying things at the same time!!!) ]
These skills should be so in demand :)
But are there ANY peer reviewed papers to support the following statement? "The infosec community — still mostly male (76 percent) and mostly white (72 percent) — needs diversity to produce better outcomes, Palmore said. "
I keep seeing statements like "The more diverse a company is the more successful it is"
As someone who has run teams but is crap at managing a lot of people at one time, people who can communicate well and have a common understanding seem to me to make more efficient teams. Even within the stale, male, pale group in IT we get folk that are on all sorts of curves so off the wall suggestions can be common..
That being said, I always recruited for the bright eyes and attitude regardless of sex, race or football team preferences. In the '80's I had about 40% women in my professional services team and the team was mostly Poms, Yanks, Aussies and Sri Lankans with a handful of local Kiwis. Since the '80's it seems to have got harder to attract woman into business IT roles. Maybe its just my experience though.
How do you have people from all walks of life in a cyber security team? I don't know security well, but I know a bit about software development. What you suggest is that employing florists and mechanics will improve cyber security? If not, what exactly do you mean? Are the IT folk not going to learn the same things at the same places?
Google has a long history of allowing, maybe even encouraging, service abuses that hurt competition. They obliterated Usenet competitors with gigabytes per hour of spam, they flood e-mail competitors with phishing mails, and now Google Cloud has started hosting botnets. Google Ads has a history of browser hacks to bypass user security. Android is pretty much spyware in a pocket. RCS, WiFi whitespace database, Bluetooth beacons, Google Assist, on and on...
So yeah, it takes a very specific kind of person to hold a security role at Google. I wouldn't expect diversity.
I was thinking, who really "wants" to work for goog. They removed "don't be evil", serve more malware (play store) than any other source in history, they've been caught doing political manipulation, it's just - I would never work for such an evil company. Its so bad, they have to train people - who will leave first chance they get I bet.
Plus, diverse people bring different perspectives and ideas about how to solve problems to the table. The infosec community — still mostly male (76 percent) and mostly white (72 percent) — needs diversity to produce better outcomes, Palmore said.
I hear statements like this all the time, but where's the evidence that if your team contains a range of skin colors, genders or <insert favourite physical/non-physical characteristic here> it will automatically be better at problem solving?
Personally, I think the premise is entirely false since two people can originate from an identical demographic but have vastly different approaches to problem solving. Employers should instead focus on neurodiversity.
I'll chuck out a classic example of why diversity matters.
Engineering.
Take cars.
Did you know only recently has there been a adult female crash test dummy? So long it was a smaller male dummy.
How about seatbelts? Women are far more likely to suffer chest damge in an impact than men.
Seats...designed for men.
Driving position...men (how often have you asked yourself "Why is she sat so close to the dashboard?" . When it should be "Why does she HAVE to sit so close"
Infosec?
Well we are finally working out that those with darker skins have more issues with facial recognistion.
What about alternative languages? Is Password1 as equally easy to guess in Hindi, or Urdu?
So yes diversity IS important.
No.. Proper systems analysis is required. In the olden days, before Universities did IT studies, we got into jobs by doing tests the IT companies invented. IBM's tests were highly regarded. Guess what? Biology Majors did better at Systems Analysis. When you think about it - It makes sense.
Maybe its Academia that has reduced the diversity.. There were a lot of women who moved from Biology, Stats, and Mathematics to Computers in the olden days...
'If your input continues to be monoculture, you can expect the same outcomes'
If your output is different and in any way even slightly disruptively challenging of the status quo, you cannot expect outcomes to support your input ...... and they, established forces and traditional and conventional hierarchical sources, run the real risk of being recognised and proscribed as a legitimate target for hostile enemy-like activity ..... stealthy popular global resistance and attacks reflective of mass civilised virtually untouchable disobedience.
If the future is to be different from the past and the present, and change is natural for nothing is ever able to stop progress and evolution, is everything guaranteed to be novel and in the command and control of something/someone else completely different from that in command and control of the presents today.
It ain't rocket science, is it, Pure Common Sense and NEUKlearer HyperRadioProACTivated IT ForeSight, although one would have to concede and acknowledge the fact that such can very easily be highly toxic and explosive and extremely problematical to deny and attack.
Oh and furthermore, that last combined sentence and paragraph ...... It ain't rocket science, is it, Pure Common Sense and NEUKlearer HyperRadioProACTivated IT ForeSight, although one would have to concede and acknowledge the fact that such can very easily be highly toxic and explosive and extremely problematical to deny and attack. ....... could easily be worthy of an initial $1 million equity investment from the OpenAI Startup Fund, building so much as a one-liner describing an accompanying idea can, and its programming does, on cutting edge AI models.
Out of curiosity, I had look at the application process for the 6 months scholarship program, being a woman in IT. Not only is registration on the sans.org website obligatory, but then they also require that you register with the Cyversity website.
This alarmed me a little, as the two options are Professional, or Student. Professional means forking over $100 per year.
Anyway, after jumping through hoops, a link for a 50 question (2 hour) assessment is e-mailed to you, to complete within 5 days.
I'll let you know what happens when I complete the assessment....
Methinks then, Semper Phoenix, their speculative trawl will deliver no more than more of their same old brain dead phish ..... and real ground-breaking opportunities and activities will be delivered both to and from elsewhere local or foreign and inclined to be much more radically adventurous.
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