Editorial & Advertiser disclosure

Global Banking & Finance Review® is an online platform offering news, analysis, and opinion on the latest trends, developments, and innovations in the banking and finance industry worldwide. The platform covers a diverse range of topics, including banking, insurance, investment, wealth management, fintech, and regulatory issues. The website publishes news, press releases, opinion and advertorials on various financial organizations, products and services which are commissioned from various Companies, Organizations, PR agencies, Bloggers etc. These commissioned articles are commercial in nature. This is not to be considered as financial advice and should be considered only for information purposes. It does not reflect the views or opinion of our website and is not to be considered an endorsement or a recommendation. We cannot guarantee the accuracy or applicability of any information provided with respect to your individual or personal circumstances. Please seek Professional advice from a qualified professional before making any financial decisions. We link to various third-party websites, affiliate sales networks, and to our advertising partners websites. When you view or click on certain links available on our articles, our partners may compensate us for displaying the content to you or make a purchase or fill a form. This will not incur any additional charges to you. To make things simpler for you to identity or distinguish advertised or sponsored articles or links, you may consider all articles or links hosted on our site as a commercial article placement. We will not be responsible for any loss you may suffer as a result of any omission or inaccuracy on the website.

Home > Technology > BeecherMadden find that women now make up 18% of the cyber security industry

BeecherMadden find that women now make up 18% of the cyber security industry

Published by Gbaf News

Posted on September 8, 2018

7 min read

Last updated: January 21, 2026

Illustration of data recovery and backup systems related to disaster recovery - Global Banking & Finance Review — An illustration showcasing advanced data recovery solutions, emphasizing the importance of robust backup systems for businesses to quickly restore operations after disasters. Relevant to technology and finance sectors.

As part of our annual research into the gender pay gap in cyber security, BeecherMadden has reviewed the number of women within the industry. Recently, there has been a lot of discussion about how many women are now working within cyber. The 11% figure has been used for several years and didn’t appear to have changed until recently. However, the question is being asked as to how accurate that figure is. In 2017, (ISC)² still found that the 11% figure was still unchanged. Cyber Security Ventures, put the number at 20% in a study from summer 2018.

In general, events that we attend as a company seem to have far more women attending than they did 5 years ago.

We also have far more female candidates and almost all our clients are keen to attract women into their teams. With so much attention on improving the diversity of the industry, it seemed odd that the number of women working in the industry remained unchanged. So, we undertook a much broader piece of research for this year’s gender report. We reviewed data from a variety of sources, giving us tens of thousands of participants, more than ever before. This showed us that the UK cyber security industry is now 18% female. We also reviewed our own database and found that 20% is now female, an increase of 6% since 2015.

It is an exciting thought that attraction programmes for women in the industry have been working. With cyber security constantly appearing in main stream news, it is nice to think that this has introduced the idea of a career in the industry to a new group of people. There has also been a push to introduce cyber security as a career to school leavers and graduates. With support groups and networking groups designed to attract women into cyber, it is also possible that this additional support from the industry has contributed to the increase. Maintaining this growth will be important if we are to continue to improve. One way of doing this, is for companies to offer training to those returning to work. This is the focus of my previous article for Forbes, and also an article on what women can do to retrain.

Attracting more women into cyber security is an important goal. It makes business sense. Having more women in security teams, may help companies to better protect their customer. In America, women control 83% of all spending decisions. As more spending moves online, having security processes that consider the end customer, is becoming ever more important. With women driving this level of spend, it isn’t surprising that women are 26% more likely to have their identity stolen. As well as ensuring higher security, companies with more women in their leadership teams perform better. A report called The Bottom Line: Corporate Performance and Women’s Representation on Boards, found that companies with more women on their board had a 42% higher return on sales and turned capital into profit, 66% more successfully.

Given that increasing the number of women in cyber security is a goal that many companies hold, we should all be pretty pleased that we have started making progress. 18% still doesn’t go far enough and while 50% may seem far away, there are some companies at this level already. I would encourage every company with a commitment to increasing diversity, to consider what has worked for them already, and what more they can do. Perhaps then, we can accelerate the rate of change and get closer to that 50% goal. If you would like some help on improving the diversity of your team, BeecherMadden would be happy to offer suggestions of what we have seen work so far.

As with the research from Cyber Security Ventures, our research includes all of those in the security industry. This broader definition includes digital forensics and privacy as well as some security vendor companies. It doesn’t include IoT companies, or those who work in risk or compliance, which has traditionally had a higher percentage of female candidates.

As part of our annual research into the gender pay gap in cyber security, BeecherMadden has reviewed the number of women within the industry. Recently, there has been a lot of discussion about how many women are now working within cyber. The 11% figure has been used for several years and didn’t appear to have changed until recently. However, the question is being asked as to how accurate that figure is. In 2017, (ISC)² still found that the 11% figure was still unchanged. Cyber Security Ventures, put the number at 20% in a study from summer 2018.

In general, events that we attend as a company seem to have far more women attending than they did 5 years ago.

We also have far more female candidates and almost all our clients are keen to attract women into their teams. With so much attention on improving the diversity of the industry, it seemed odd that the number of women working in the industry remained unchanged. So, we undertook a much broader piece of research for this year’s gender report. We reviewed data from a variety of sources, giving us tens of thousands of participants, more than ever before. This showed us that the UK cyber security industry is now 18% female. We also reviewed our own database and found that 20% is now female, an increase of 6% since 2015.

It is an exciting thought that attraction programmes for women in the industry have been working. With cyber security constantly appearing in main stream news, it is nice to think that this has introduced the idea of a career in the industry to a new group of people. There has also been a push to introduce cyber security as a career to school leavers and graduates. With support groups and networking groups designed to attract women into cyber, it is also possible that this additional support from the industry has contributed to the increase. Maintaining this growth will be important if we are to continue to improve. One way of doing this, is for companies to offer training to those returning to work. This is the focus of my previous article for Forbes, and also an article on what women can do to retrain.

Attracting more women into cyber security is an important goal. It makes business sense. Having more women in security teams, may help companies to better protect their customer. In America, women control 83% of all spending decisions. As more spending moves online, having security processes that consider the end customer, is becoming ever more important. With women driving this level of spend, it isn’t surprising that women are 26% more likely to have their identity stolen. As well as ensuring higher security, companies with more women in their leadership teams perform better. A report called The Bottom Line: Corporate Performance and Women’s Representation on Boards, found that companies with more women on their board had a 42% higher return on sales and turned capital into profit, 66% more successfully.

Given that increasing the number of women in cyber security is a goal that many companies hold, we should all be pretty pleased that we have started making progress. 18% still doesn’t go far enough and while 50% may seem far away, there are some companies at this level already. I would encourage every company with a commitment to increasing diversity, to consider what has worked for them already, and what more they can do. Perhaps then, we can accelerate the rate of change and get closer to that 50% goal. If you would like some help on improving the diversity of your team, BeecherMadden would be happy to offer suggestions of what we have seen work so far.

As with the research from Cyber Security Ventures, our research includes all of those in the security industry. This broader definition includes digital forensics and privacy as well as some security vendor companies. It doesn’t include IoT companies, or those who work in risk or compliance, which has traditionally had a higher percentage of female candidates.