Thoughts on Enhancing Diversity in the Cybersecurity Talent

Remarks from my Keynote at the Ignite the Light for Diversity Jeffersonian Dinner hosted by my friend Tony Spinelli and organized by the amazing Per Scholas Team.

Hello and Good Evening! My name is Val Mukherjee. I will go ahead and introduce my background and present my remarks, but first let me share with you, what an honor it is to speak here at this event tonight. Let’s give my friend, Tony Spinelli, a round of applause for hosting us at his beautiful home. His passion has inspired all of us to be here tonight.

My day job is with EY – an amazing global, diverse, and connected firm – a thriving example of what we stand for here, today – of diversity and incredible talent, and I have been proud to be part of the firm for over three years now in the cybersecurity advisory business. As if that is not enough to stay busy, I actively drive the mission of an organization that I founded a few years back, and that has propelled my life in a completely different trajectory, than I could ever imagine.

I stand here today to represent - Cyber Future Foundation – CFF, a leadership platform for building a more trusted cyberspace. We are a 501(c)(3) non profit based in Texas, and with over 4000 members in over 40 countries around the world, I can proudly say, we are ‘diverse by design’.

When we founded CFF in 2015, we had one goal, one quest in mind – how do we keep the human ahead in the digital world we are building around us, and build a trusted connection and confidence in cyberspace. While exploring this human connections, we realized that, especially in our field, we are very much insular in thinking, cybersecurity has been, and to a great degree still is, a technical expert’s realm – it is very much a cyber to cyber talk – our conferences, workshops, meetings and roundtables are essentially speaking to ourselves.

I am really proud of being a member of the cybersecurity industry community, our internal networking and connection has helped us learn, share and grow tremendously – but I think we have been missing the opportunity to tell our story more positively to decision makers, how cybersecurity is an enabler and how this community of thinkers and doers, strategists and operators, engineers and tinkerers are helping to build a more connected and secure world. This story needs to go to business leaders, the business executives and decision makers who need to understand our industry better, have a constant dialogue between cyber and non-cyber leaders and how we can assist them in achieving their goals and vision.

It is not about a guy in the hoodie in a basement that needs to get the headlines, but the heroes amidst us, who don’t wear any uniform, toiling 24 by 7, to protect our organizations, our institutions and the society we live in – with their knowledge, and expertise; dedication and courage, and unwavering passion and commitment to keep us secure in the borderless cyberspace and fulfill our digital missions; they are the ones who need to be in the headline! They are the ones who need the help most, and this help and support, we cannot get until we make sure the decision makers are enabled, informed and equipped to help us to help them. That is the mission we have signed up for at CFF, and that is why we are so passionately and actively focused on cyber leadership building.

Someone said recently, and I agree, Cybersecurity is a business of confidence, we provide the confidence and enable our businesses to operate in a digital economy, and help us operate in this hyperconnected world. But that confidence is decreasing, and the trust in cyber capabilities is eroding, the integrity of our infrastructure is dwindling. The cyber industry we so cherish, is moving from one data breach to the next, from one crisis to another one, and everything seems to be doom and gloom, and we are just one data breach or one ransomware attack away from disaster!

We cannot just hope and pray, we have to act. As Troels Oerting, the Chairman of Center for Cybersecurity at World Economic Forum, very aptly said – cybersecurity is not about fear and despair, it is about protecting our hope for the future. The director of Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Chris Krebs recently articulated in his mission for the organization – Defend Today, Secure Tomorrow.

This mission cannot be fulfilled if we are underprepared, and underequipped, and we cannot be prepared and equipped if we don’t act today – to not only build innovative capability against cyberthreats, but also enhance our cyber capacity, and not in the same way we have organically grown this industry – but through deliberate and diligent pursuit of expanding skills, knowledge and opportunities across a diverse background. Diversity not only of color, gender, race, ethnicity, neurodiversity etc., but also diversity of thought, social and economic background. Then only we can build an inclusive and expansive capacity for ‘defending today’ and ‘securing tomorrow’ – of protecting the hope to have a better future.

This is the reason, most of us under this tent today have gathered for a cause, many of us traveling great distances, to pledge our support not only raise the much needed fund, but also actively participate in this socio economic mission of driving diversity in our workforce, and giving the underprivileged, the under exposed, an opportunity to prosper and grow, have a secure future as through security our industries and our institutions.

I also want to mention that we are going to get together in exactly two weeks from now on the 3rd & 4th October in Dallas for the Annual Cyber Future Summit, and we will have a great program lined up with expanding cyber capacity and definitely diversity is already a key topic there. Welcome you to join us there.

So, on behalf of the Cyber Future Foundation community, and this incredible leadership community, let’s set out – not only to educate and enable our leaders and executives, but also equip ourselves to keep the promises we make and do more, by building diverse, inclusive and progressive teams.

Per Scholas students demonstrate why we believe that there is talent going overlooked in communities around the country. Just as these students grow from motivated problem solvers to accomplished technicians, the organization has experienced exponential growth, expanding to 11 cities this year, alone.

Please join me in celebrating and supporting an organization that positively impacting our workforce around the country. Raise your glasses for Ignite the Light for Diversity.

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