CyberGirlz

2018: As the Israeli girls are trained in cybertroops from school age

By August, 2018 only the tenth part of jobs are the share of a share of women who take the positions connected with information security in Israel. To level a gender gap and to facilitate to girls work in the cyberindustry, the Hoist Ben-Aroya (Tali Ben-Aroya) founded CyberGirlz — the educational program which trains Israelis for work in the field of cyber security from a school bench.

CyberGirlz was founded within the program of Fund of Russia for promotion of equal opportunities in a business community. CyberGirlz will organize the special summer camp for dozens of teenagers which purpose consists in training and finally to select girls for work in the IT sector and also for service in elite cyberdivisions of the Israeli army.

Only the tenth part of jobs are the share of a share of women who take the positions connected with information security in Israel

Ben-Aroya notes that CyberGirlz not just helps girls to seize necessary knowledge and skills, but also tells about the opening perspectives. Girls at high school are not inclined to study profoundly technical science, mathematics and programming because they are not sure that they will be able to achieve career success in the field of information science or cyber security, she emphasized.

In the CyberGirlz camp which was open in 2018 in the city of Afula in the north of Israel dozens of teenagers met army experts in cyber security and attended a set of seminars. Seventeen-year-old Shahar Okhana (Shahar Ohana) was recognized that the meeting with women who serve in elite cyberdivisions of the Israeli army inspired it on further training.

The global research conducted in 2017 jointly by the Executive women's forum and the Center for cyber security security issues showed that the share of women among specialists in this industry makes only 11%, and even in the USA there are more than 300 thousand free jobs.

The leading specialist of the National initiative of cyber security in the USA (NICE) Marian Merritt notes that the girls who received the corresponding preparation with guarantee will be able to receive interesting and well-paid job in the near future. NICE in cooperation with Ministry of Commerce of the USA offers a number of educational programs for teenagers who dream to find the way in the field of cyber security. But for a start it is required to interest girls. Often they are simply not familiar with the women occupied in the field of cyber security of the industry, Merritt notes, and parents and teachers do not tell about work in this industry.

Though it is considered that Israel - one of the advanced countries of the world concerning cyber security, her largest company, Israel Aerospace Industries, experiences difficulties by search of qualified personnel. The director of division of cyber security of Israel Aerospace Industries Camila Edry notes that this problem exists not only in Israel – huge deficit of the trained personnel is noted around the world. Staff shortage affects security of a number of important areas, such as health care - cyber attacks to the medical systems and leak of personal information of patients became a disturbing reality long ago.

Tries to change a situation not only Fund of Russia, but also Triventures, the Israeli venture capital fund. The founder and the director of Triventures Michal Geva says that the company is extremely interested in ensuring industrial cyber security and is ready to sponsor initiatives which will help to solve a staff shortage problem in this sphere.

Specialists hope that involvement of women to participation in educational programs, such as CyberGirlz, will help to change a situation to the best.^[1]

Notes