A Call for More BIPOC in Cybersecurity
Ten years ago, I introduced myself to the cybersecurity industry by accident. I had failed my physical exam for the Prince George County Police Department in Maryland. I drank one too many energy drinks, heart palpitations ensued and I couldn’t jump a 4-foot wall. Although, I was the first one to finish the race — making that note. Obama created an initiative to invest in the cybersecurity talent pipeline. At the time I was working a help desk job at a telecom company with little technical experience. I thought to myself, “what the heck is cybersecurity?” It sounded cool at the very least. The first thing that came to my head was the movie Hackers. Terrible at best, but a nostalgic guilty pleasure.
I was taking a chance to do a career change after investing my student loan debt into a law enforcement degree. Yet, I leveraged the little IT skills that I learned on the job. An odd synergy of knowledge and skills transferred into this burgeoning industry. I took a leap of faith entering the field, especially for an Afro Latinx with little economic means. Training myself to get certified was expensive but it was the best decision I ever made.
It brought me unbelievable career opportunities, economic mobility, and achieved unimaginable goals. All while making an impact in communities that resembled my own.
Fast forward 10 years, Biden’s Administration launched the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative. I’m excited to see this finally happen. But it took us 10 years? Ten years to get both private and public sectors to collaborate and fix the cybersecurity talent gap? Google announced its new cyber security team to combat threat actors. My mind kind of exploded seeing this. If Google, the great tech Giant, did not have a cyber security team by 2021, then this is a bigger problem we as a society cannot begin to digest.
As a nation, we saw the pandemic create a steep learning curve in early education. The greater impact hitting Black and Hispanic serving communities. If both private and public sectors commit to eradicating systemic racial biases in the hiring system while diversifying the cyber security pipeline, then it’s going to take more than creating cybersecurity learning centers at HBCUs and community colleges to close the gap.
Before the closeout of Hispanic Heritage Month, I’m putting my business out there. All the laundry is hanging out to dry, as I take you behind the scenes of my start-up journey. Bringing cybersecurity awareness and development skills to Blacks and Hispanic communities.
Partner with Ori X, to provide awareness and workforce development opportunities to the K-Gray talent pipeline and internal workforce mobility. Ori X breaks the academic stigmas when it comes to entering the cybersecurity workforce. Without diverse thought in the war room, organizations increase their threat landscape.
This entrepreneurship life is a marathon, but well worth it. Definitely, a work in progress but as my father said “you are shameless” and that’s the best compliment I can ever receive. It gets me up in the morning knowing I’m one step closer to bringing economic mobility to that little Afro- Latinx girl that everyone doubted.
