As cybersecurity becomes more important in industry, Marshall University aims to increase the number of women working in the field. National Center of Excellence for Cyber Security in Critical Infrastructure hosted “Path to Innovation: Women in Cyber Forum” Monday at the Brad D. Smith Center for Business and Innovation at Marshall University. The event was hosted by U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and featured Jen Easterly, the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA). The two other panelists were Amy Cyphert, a professor at the West Virginia University College of Law, and Alex Royal, senior advisor to the U.S Cyber Command under Joint Force Headquarters — Department of Defense Information Network. One of Easterly’s goals is to get more women — and really, people from a variety of backgrounds — into the cybersecurity industry. “We need everybody of all kinds to be part of this incredible profession,” Easterly said. She said that right now, 24% of the people in cybersecurity are women. At CISA, 38% are women, and in Marshall University’s program, 31% are women. Easterly said she would like to see the cybersecurity workforce be 50% women by 2030. “Women and young girls don’t aspire to become what they don’t see in the world, so the more higher education can play a role in giving that exposure to young women and girls and making it exciting and interesting, and they’ve got to see themselves in it,” Alys Smith, a panelist and first lady of Marshall, said about the role universities need to play in encouraging more women to get into STEM. Easterly stressed that curating a diverse workplace is important because a wide variety of perspectives and experiences are needed to solve a wide variety of problems. “Cybersecurity is a really tough problem, and the way to solve really tough problems is to bring people from different backgrounds, different education levels, different ethnicities, different genders,” Easterly said. “You have to have diversity of thought, that is the key to success. It’s not diversity for diversity’s sake; it’s to create and catalyze diversity of thought to be able to solve the most challenging and difficult problems facing our country.” Part of the panel discussion was about how cybersecurity is increasingly necessary in every industry. “We are being the example that we seek. We are showcasing women in cybersecurity,” Marshall President Brad D. Smith said. “We’re making sure that they see that this program is accessible to them. Our Women in Cybersecurity chapter is a pioneer.” He said last spring, Marshall sent eight students to participate in Locked Shields, the world’s largest international cyber defense exercise, run virtually by the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Centre of Excellence. “Our female students in cybersecurity demonstrated just what excellence looks like. It was phenomenal,” Brad D. Smith said. “We’re proud that we have the opportunity to be a designated center of academic access for cybersecurity. We’ve been designated to protect the East Coast of the United States, and we’re doing that in partnership with our local community, as well as state universities and community colleges,” he added. Hosting Easterly and Capito, who are “strong experts and leaders” in their respective fields, is a great opportunity for Marshall students, he said. “Both women (are) here inspiring our students and our female students to say, ‘You have a part to play.’ I think it just shows that every one of us has a seat at the table in the 21st century,” he said. Another part of the panel discussion introduced by Alys Smith was the importance of what many call “soft skills” and what Easterly calls “human skills.” Alys Smith said many companies know they can teach the technical side, but they can’t teach critical thinking, communication and collaboration skills. All the panelists agreed that these three skills are essential to working in cybersecurity. “And I think the reason women haven’t been in cybersecurity as much is because it’s been thought of as more of a highly technical engineering skill where we’re under-represented as well, so this is a really good thing for people to see,” Capito said.