Diversity in the workplace is an important part of creating a strong culture and reflecting your dedication to creating a better world, but did you know it also decreases your cyber risk? A workforce built on diverse perspectives, experiences, and ideas is better equipped to identify vulnerabilities, combat sophisticated cyber threats, and develop comprehensive solutions.
In this blog, we’ll explore five powerful statistics that highlight how fostering diversity in cybersecurity teams can significantly reduce risks and discuss how you can incorporate diversity in your company
Taking a Look at the Data
Time and again, the numbers have shown that we need the perspectives and experiences of a wide range of people in order to succeed and reach our full potential, including in the cybersecurity sector.
1. Diverse Teams Outperform Non-Diverse Teams on Decision Making 87% of the Time
With the frequency and sophistication of cyber threats on the rise, quick, effective decision-making is critical for strengthening your cybersecurity infrastructure and ensuring you can respond to threats promptly.
2. More Diverse Teams Are 19% More Successful with Innovation than Homogeneous Teams
Technology and cyber attacks are ever-evolving, so your defenses have to be too. The increased innovation brought by more diversity in your cybersecurity team will serve you well in developing creative, forward-thinking protections against hackers.
3. Over 80% of Cyber Incidents Can Be Traced to Human Error
Cyber criminals often take advantage of this fact and target human weakness in order to infiltrate your systems. With a wide range of perspectives, however, the gaps created by homogeneous approaches will be filled, and you’ll have more opportunities to catch more attacks early on.
4. More than 57% of Businesses Are Impacted by the Shortage of Cybersecurity Expertise
By being more open to diversity (e.g., removing barriers to entry, making efforts to hire and train diverse groups, etc.), companies will be able to fill the need for cybersecurity personnel more readily. Businesses will have access to the expertise they need from a variety of people, ensuring they have a full team that can provide comprehensive protection.
5. 75% of Employees and Job Seekers Prioritize Workplace Diversity
And they’ll readily reject offers from or leave companies who don’t make enough efforts to create a diverse workplace, significantly increasing turnover and leaving businesses without a consistent cybersecurity team. By emphasizing diversity in cybersecurity, businesses can retain their teams and maintain a steadier protective infrastructure.
The Importance of Diverse Perspectives
How exactly does all of this apply to your cybersecurity framework? Having diversity in cybersecurity means that you have different people coming together with unique experiences, thoughts, and opinions to solve complex problems. This is invaluable when it comes to identifying potential risks and finding innovative solutions.
With these diverse perspectives, organizations can more effectively combat the wide variety of cyber threats that continue to emerge. Individuals from different backgrounds bring unique approaches to identifying and addressing these vulnerabilities, allowing them to think critically and anticipate threats that might go unnoticed in a more homogenous group.
Including varied viewpoints also fosters open communication, empowering members to voice concerns, share ideas, and collaborate effectively. This culture strengthens responses to security challenges and encourages continuous learning and adaptation, all of which are crucial to creating a tight cybersecurity web.
Implementing Diversity in Your Cybersecurity
So, what can you do to prioritize diversity in cybersecurity on your team? It all starts with simple, intentional steps to include a wide variety of people and emphasize diversity within your company. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
- Hire an outside security team that has strong diversity and prioritizes inclusion in their own company.
- Be intentional about hiring a diverse workforce—actively seek those who can add new and different perspectives to your company. Don’t just wait and see if any of them happen to apply.
- Make sure different voices and attitudes are encouraged and heard in your meetings and in the workplace at large. Ask specific people for their input and thoughtfully consider it, give diverse individuals leadership roles, etc.
These goals will be the perfect foundation for you to build your culture of diversity on and help you create a stronger, more resilient workforce and cybersecurity infrastructure.
AIS: Prioritizing Diversity Since Day 1
At AIS, diversity and inclusion have always been important to us. Our business is built firmly on the belief that we need everyone’s unique contributions to reach our full potential and serve our clients in the best way possible.
So if you’re looking to enhance diversity in cybersecurity within your team, increase the variety of perspectives in your meetings, and, consequently, build a stronger, more effective security infrastructure, AIS is the perfect cybersecurity provider for you. Get in touch to learn more about what we have to offer for your business’s safety, diversity, and security.