New program to boost cyber diversity

An all-new federal government-backed program has been announced that aims to boost diversity in the cyber workforce.

The Cyber National Assessment Program for Skills and Employment (CYNAPSE) program is being headed by cyber learning and development company FifthDomain, alongside ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr.

By next year, CYNAPSE hopes to increase its cyber workforce diversity by 100 people.

Mr Barr commented on the announcement: “Cyber security is one of the ACT’s, and Australia’s, fastest-growing sectors, and we know that ensuring it has the workforce it needs will be a key challenge in the years to come.

“It’s both encouraging and no surprise that innovative and inclusive solutions like CYNAPSE have been developed here in Canberra. Initiatives such as these will be essential to build the capable, skilled, and diverse workforce the sector needs to continue its strong growth.”

CYNAPSE will provide candidates with opportunities for work, as well as prepare them for their roles by offering training and support in cyber skills.

To help remove unconscious bias, the program will remove traditional recruitment processes, such as interviews, and promote skills assessments. This will ensure that people are hired based on merit.

FifthDomain said that this approach to hiring would create more opportunities for women, First Nations Australians, neurodiverse candidates and remote workers.

“We want to help employers. We’ve seen firsthand how hard it is to hire cyber staff. We also want to help students and those interested in a career in cyber understand what the job is really like by providing realistic scenarios,” said FifthDomain founder and chief executive Matt Wilcox.

“There is a whole pool of people with untapped potential we could be hiring in cyber, and they currently experience barriers. For example, we know that some neurodiverse individuals have incredible abilities in this industry, but the thought of the interview process is daunting for them. CYNAPSE lessens that issue, providing the employer with their data sets of ability first.

“Unconscious bias is, unfortunately, a factor to consider in cyber. Women only make up around 17 per cent of the industry, and we want to dramatically increase that. We want to remove biased recruiting and provide faster and better placements while de-risking hires.”

This program could not come at a better time, as several high-profile data breaches have been rocking the Australian market.

Research from KnowBe4 found that 60 per cent of Australian office workers receive frequent security training. This figure is up from 35 per cent in 2021.

Initiatives like CYNAPSE will add further protection by bolstering the cyber workforce.

Jacqueline Jayne, security awareness advocate APAC at KnowBe4, said increased cyber security training is crucial: “Last year’s breaches rocked Australia’s awareness of data security, so it’s a great relief to see this increase in security training at Australian organisations.

“To encourage participation and to make security awareness training compelling and relevant to employees, it really needs to be high quality, timely and easily digestible.”

Funding for CYNAPSE came from a $3 million grant awarded to FifthDomain by the Department of Industry and Science’s Round 2 of the Cyber Security Skills Partnership Innovation Fund.