SANS Institute, the global leader in cyber security training, and Women in Cyber Security Middle East (WiCSME) are coming together to promote the importance of a diverse security team at its first edition of annual WiCSME2020 conference on 14th and 15th November.
SANS Institute will power the Capture The Flag (CTF) track for the upcoming virtual event on 12th and 13th November. The SANS Virtual BootUp CTF platform will grant participants a unique experience and a great cyber-skills exercise by solving different challenges, and helping build cybersecurity skills across organizations.
The conference, built around the theme “To Empower and Secure Together”, will cover diverse insights on interesting and key cyber security topics from regional and international speakers. The conference will also host the first WiCSME2020 Awards, recognizing remarkable women’s contributions in the Cyber Security field in the Middle East region.
Ned Baltagi, Managing Director, Middle East & Africa at SANS Institute, said, “A more diverse workforce is the need of the hour in the cybersecurity industry. It is important to look beyond technical certifications and to also have other traits such as lateral mindset, analytical and organizational skills and better collaboration. A diverse workforce allows companies to approach problems in non-traditional manners.”
Dr. Reem Al-Shammari, Co-Founder of WiCSME Group and CISO, Kuwait Oil Company while talking about the event remarked that cyber security should be a priority for every business and individual as digital initiatives grow exponentially while cybercriminals become more sophisticated in their attacks. “With a diverse workforce, organizations are exposed to a broader set of perspectives, which can help in fostering innovation. And as our WiCSME2020 Virtual conference theme is ‘To Empower and Secure Together’ emphasizing our WiCSME role in Empowering Women in Cyber and Securing our Communities by uniting together with other Forums and entities. Thus, we are very proud to support this goal and present the first edition of WiCSME2020 CTF competition in collaboration with SANS via their SANS Virtual BootUp CTF platform. It is essential to continuously hone cyber security skills and evolve with the trends, especially in today’s difficult circumstances,” she said.
WiCSME was formed in 2018 as a voluntary group of Women to promote and increase women participation in the field of cyber security while also encouraging more female leadership in the industry.
