CRA-W Distinguished Lecturers attend WiCyS 2018

Women in CyberSecurity (WiCyS) hosted their fifth annual Women in Cybersecurity event on March 23 through March 24 at the Hilton Downtown Chicago with pre-conference activities on March 22. WiCyS continues to innovatively expand its mission to bring together women in cybersecurity from academia, research and industry. WiCyS is designed to be a forum for speakers and guests to exchange knowledge, experience, networking, and mentoring to raise interest in the fascinating and escalating field of cybersecurity.  This event brings together mentors and peer networks for the support and retention of individuals interested in cybersecurity.

CRA-W sponsored Susan Landau, Tufts University and Celeste Matarazzo, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to be distinguished lecturers at this year’s event.

WiCyS was launched in 2013 by Dr. Ambareen Siraj, Professor Computer Science, Tennessee Tech University, as a collaborative project between Tennessee Tech, University of Memphis and Jackson State Community College. “I wanted to create an opportunity for women to learn from and share experiences with other women in the field of cybersecurity and be motivated to seek opportunities and resources within” shares Dr. Siraj. The annual WiCyS conference is organized by the Cybersecurity Education, Research and Outreach Center at Tennessee Tech in partnership with a regional university. This year’s local host for the conference is Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT). “We are delighted to have the opportunity to support the cybersecurity community and even more so, the women who are a part of it.” says Professor Ray Trygstad of Illinois Tech, “With an enormous shortfall of qualified cybersecurity professionals and with women comprising only ten percent of those in the field, bringing more women into cybersecurity is the single most obvious way to meet this growing need.”