Code Review: Making Space for More Voices in Cybersecurity
The world could benefit from more collaboration between experts as diverse as the cybersecurity challenges we face. This is the basis for the R Street Institute’s new campaign, “Making Space,” which is a pledge to ensure that expert voices from underrepresented communities in cybersecurity are heard. R Street launched the initiative earlier this week with more than two dozen partners dedicated to the cause. Many of the systems that help our networks and devices stay secure are made possible by members of underrepresented communities: women, people of color and members of the LGBTQIA community. Their stories have not only been left out of the narrative of past cybersecurity developments but are also largely missing from the policy discussions of today.
The Making Space pledge requires a commitment to recruit and include at least one woman or person of color for every panel with three or more speakers. It’s the first step in a larger effort to build a more inclusive culture in cybersecurity and highlight new and diverse voices in the cyber policy space. Coalition partners already include top cyber policy organizations and several renowned cyber-focused academic programs, including the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Cyber Policy Initiative and the Cyber Project at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center.
“In many ways, diversity is security. While this is a small step towards inclusion of underrepresented communities into the cybersecurity arena, we are acting now because diversity, equity, and inclusion are critical to the economic prosperity, well-being, and security of every American,” said Tatyana Bolton, R Street Managing Senior Fellow for Cybersecurity and Emerging Threats, who led the creation of the pledge.
Diversity, equity and inclusion are not only the right thing to do, they are essential to addressing the cybersecurity problem, said Global Cyber Alliance President & CEO Philip Reitinger, another founding signer of the pledge. “Cybersecurity must be treated as a basic human right, and to reach everyone everywhere, we need experts and advocates that speak to everyone.”
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R Street Institute joined a number of think tanks and public interest groups in filing an amicus brief on the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, a cybersecurity law being weighed in an upcoming Supreme Court case. The Cybersecurity and Emerging Threats team hosted the panel discussions “Are Zero Trust Networks the Answer to Creating a Cyber-Secure America?” and “Secure and Competitive Markets in the Digital Age.”
R Street Institute Managing Senior Cybersecurity and Emerging Threats Managing Fellow Tatyana Bolton authored an op-ed in The Hill concerning new CISA leadership in the wake of the firing of former director, Chris Krebs. Bolton also authored a blog post, “Top 5 cybersecurity priorities for the Biden administration,” and issued praise for the inclusion of some Cyberspace Solarium Commission Recommendations in the recently-passed National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
R Street Institute Senior Cybersecurity and Emerging Threats Fellow Bryson Bort released “BEER and Cyber with Patrick Miller,” the latest episode of his “Hack the Plant” podcast that focused on how best to keep critical infrastructure secure. Senior Resident Fellow Paul Rosenzweig co-authored an op-ed that called for a stop in the politicizing of the election process.
