The SHe CISO Exec. Global cybersecurity leadership empowerment boot camp 2018 has been a resounding success. The boot camp concluded with a business forum on Friday, 2nd November 2018 attended by over 100 business leaders in the industry. This was the pilot event of a series of future global give back projects planned by Meta Defence Labs UK & Sri Lanka. The boot camp was held from 29th October to 2nd November 2018 at The Kingsbury Hotel, Colombo. Twenty scholarships of worth LKR 2 million, were issued by Meta Defence Labs for selected participants from various industries and backgrounds to be trained on cybersecurity, data protection, leadership and personal development that empowered not only the participants but also the fantastic international and local speakers who volunteered their time for this project. Interactive training sessions during the five days covered more than 30 modules such as fundamentals of cybersecurity, data protection, social engineering, information security frameworks, information security policies & governance, artificial intelligence, network security, ethical hacking, leadership elements and emotional intelligence as part of the program.
“Security is not just the IT guys’ responsibility anymore, it is everyone’s responsibility! We are in an era where technology is advancing so fast that we battle to keep up with that technology and a constantly changing threat landscape. To add to this situation, we don’t have enough people with the right skills in the industry and we don’t have time for people to spend 3 years at universities to be graduated into degrees that are already outdated by the time they complete them” said Chani Simms, the founder of SHe CISO Exec. and the managing director of Meta Defence Labs UK and Sri Lanka on the opening day ceremony.
She further added that, “According to an ISC2 study in 2018 the skill gap in the cybersecurity industry is almost 3 million globally and around 2.5 million for Asia Pacific. So, we clearly need more cybersecurity savvy leaders and we need them now!”.
Ms. Simms also said that this is just one part of the problem and there are massive diversity gaps, confidence and attitude gaps that can make this industry less attractive to newcomers.
“As professionals in this industry, it is our responsibility to help bridge these gaps by creating a community that shares knowledge, supports and empowers each other to help create a talent pool of information security leaders we need. You always hear that humans are the weakest link in the security chain, but with the right training and support, we can empower our staff to be the strongest link. Thereby making it much more difficult for cyber criminals to succeed. It should always be, People over Process over Technology!” said Chani Simms and other speakers agreed.
The boot camp opened with a speech and a panel discussion which comprised of many industry experts such as Mr. Jayantha Fernando, Chairman of the Board, Sri Lanka Cybersecurity Resilience Team (SL CERT), Air Commodore Mr. Arosha Vithana, Director Information Technology Sri Lanka Air Force, Mr. Champika Wijetunga, Regional Security, Stability and Resiliency Manager - Asia Pacific, ICANN and Ms. Diana Moldovan, UKI and Cyber Operations Lead at Aviva. The panel was moderated by Jaqueline A Hinds, Emotional Intelligence coach from the UK. Read more