New York, NY (PRWEB) September 07, 2016
The International Consortium of Minority Cybersecurity Professionals (ICMCP) and IBM Security today announced that Bertina Ceccarelli, CEO of NPower, would keynote a town hall event addressing the underrepresentation of women and minorities in cybersecurity.
Sponsored by the ICMCP and IBM, and to be held on October 4th during National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, the town hall event will bring together thought-leaders from academia and the cybersecurity industry to deliberate on innovative approaches to overcome the diversity gap in cybersecurity.
NPower is a national nonprofit dedicated to helping youth from underserved communities and military veterans pursue careers in information technology. NPower recently launched its free 26- week cybersecurity curriculum in partnership with Symantec, graduating 46 students, all from underrepresented backgrounds
Ms. Ceccarelli began her career in the Management Information Services division at Proctor & Gamble. Prior to joining the nonprofit sector, Ceccarelli led creative and technical operations for NBC.com and ran the consumer business for GiftCertificates.com. In her transition to the nonprofit sector, she served as Senior VP, Institutional Advancement at United Way of New York City and as Executive VP, Wildlife Conservation Society.
While cybersecurity has been identified as one of today’s most serious economic and national security challenges, the industry faces a significant shortage of skilled practitioners, expected to reach 1.5 million open and unfilled positions by 2020. This growing skills shortage is compounded by a lack of diversity within the cybersecurity workforce, with a significant underrepresentation of women, African Americans, and Hispanics.
Women currently represent only 10% of the cybersecurity workforce, despite an overall 48 percent workforce representation in the U.S. Further, African Americans, Asians and Hispanics represent less than 12 percent of information security analyst positions in the U.S.
In confirming her keynote, Ceccarelli remarked, “I am thrilled to take part in this town hall event. The mission of the ICMCP is directly aligned with NPower’s, which is to bridge the cybersecurity diversity gap by providing educational and financial opportunities to underrepresented and underserved communities, and to bring more talent to the field. I look forward to sharing my experience, learning from others, and helping to further this critical dialogue.”
During the half-day IBM-hosted and sponsored New York City event, thought leaders will hold a series of expert panel and audience-driven discussions, and examine ways to further the inclusion of women and underrepresented minorities in cybersecurity.
This free event is aimed at Chief Information Security officers, security professionals, and educators, and will be held at IBM’s office at 590 Madison Avenue, New York City, from 12:00 pm – 6:30 pm EST, October 4. For more information and to RSVP, please visit https://icmcp.org/icmcpeast2016
About ICMCP
The International Consortium of Minority Cybersecurity Professionals (ICMCP) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. It began official operations in September 2014 and is organized exclusively for charitable purposes, to provide members with educational/technical scholarships, mentoring opportunities, professional development and networking.
About IBM Security
IBM Security offers one of the most advanced and integrated portfolios of enterprise security products and services. The portfolio, supported by world-renowned IBM X-Force® research, enables organizations to effectively manage risk and defend against emerging threats. IBM operates one of the world’s broadest security research, development and delivery organizations, monitors 20 billion security events per day in more than 130 countries, and holds more than 3,000 security patents. For more information, please visit http://www.ibm.com/security, follow @IBMSecurity on Twitter or visit the IBM Security Intelligence blog.
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ICMCP Media Contact:
press(at)icmcp(dot)org
URL: http://icmcp.org/
IBM Media Contact:
Cassy Lalan
cllalan(at)us(dot)ibm(dot)com
319-230-2232