#ShareTheMicInCyber

Another round of ShareTheMicInCyber is happening!

This time on October 23rd.

More information here: https://sharethemicincyber.splashthat.com/

The campaign is still accepting a new group of Practitioners for this round in October, sign up here to participate and get signal boosted by Cyber Allies!

After you #ShareTheMicInCyber, what’s next?

Building on the cybersecurity community’s united stance against systemic racism 

On Friday June 26, the cybersecurity community came together to honor and amplify the stories and work of Black practitioners on Twitter and LinkedIn. Organized by Google’s Camille Stewart and Harvard Belfer Center’s Lauren Zabierek, the #ShareTheMicCampaign campaign brought together professionals from Microsoft, the New York Times, Brookings Institute, Cisco, Ernst & Young, the Aspen Institute, Verizon Media, Amazon, Netflix, New America and more - all united by a commitment to elevate underrepresented voices and catalyze real change in the industry. This was a unique social media moment when prominent allies leveraged their social media platforms - and in some cases literally gave their accounts over to Black practitioners - to spur a conversation around systemic racism in cyber and national security. 

The campaign unravelled the inspiring journeys of (and roadblocks faced by) Black practitioners, invited participation and forged new connections across professional networks, and revealed the sheer generosity of the cybersecurity community. Some of the highlights of the #ShareTheMicInCyber campaign included:

3.png

  • Black Practitioners were asked to join calls and advisory boards

  • The cybersecurity community raised $16,000+ to sponsor certifications, training, and educational expenses for all participating Black Practitioners

  • A combined reach of at least 1.5 million Twitter users based on the number of followers of the campaign’s participants, as well as their organizations and campaign amplifiers

  • An emerging conversation around a possible virtual DEFCON village or other means to convene the #ShareTheMicInCyber group

  • Several prominent professionals contacted organizers Camille and Lauren to ask how they can better serve the campaign and beyond

It started with a tweet

The #ShareTheMicInCyber movement on social media evolved organically. Inspired by Instagram’s #ShareTheMicInCyber campaign, Camille and Lauren  found inspiration in the entertainment industry’s efforts to honor Black voices. With the ongoing civic unrest across America, there was a renewed and urgent need to address the historic disenfranchisement of Black people. Camille has written on the inextricable link between systemic racism and national security, and posted the idea of launching a campaign similar to the Instagram one for the cyber and national security world. Her request caught the attention of Lauren who was thinking along similar lines. What transpired was a natural partnership to spur a meaningful conversation on race in their field. 

6.png

Using operational lessons from a similar event hosted by Diversity in National Security Network, Camille, Lauren, and Belfer Center intern Sahar Kazranian worked behind the scenes to reach out to Allies and Practitioners and provide instructions and materials for the event, as well as potential organizers and influential figures to amplify.  By the launch on June 26, all the pieces were in place, and we shared, retweeted, liked, commented with the community.  

To our surprise, Rachel Tobac, CEO of SocialProof Security,  initiated a fundraiser via the Women in Security and Privacy (WISP) organization to raise money to pay for her Practitioner Partner’s SANS & PMP training and certifications--and the response exceeded expectations. With the funds from this effort, we hope to support other Practitioners in the #ShareTheMicInCyber event with their training and certifications as well, so we encourage our other Practitioners to apply. All #ShareTheMicInCyber practitioners can apply (not just those who use she/her pronouns). 


Information on the WISP #ShareTheMicInCyber Scholarship Opportunity 

8.png

WISP’s fundraising efforts started initially with a goal of $2k to cover forensic scientist Najla Lindsay’s PMP, OSCP and CISSP certifications and exams - and morphed into a wider initiative to cover as many training, certification, or learning/advancement expenses for Black practitioners in the #ShareTheMicInCyber campaign.

Rachel Tobac of WISP is planning a Twitch stream where she plays Overwatch live to raise money for the #ShareTheMicInCyber fund, and the WISP team will also be raising funds during WISP BlackHat virtual events (stay tuned on Twitter -- @wisporg and @racheltobac for more details). 

Update: We're so close to reaching our ShareTheMicInCyber fundraising goal to meet all certification and training cost needs! Every donation counts, thank you to our 70+ ShareTheMicInCyber donors, so far!

The credentials and trainings that we are raising money to cover include:

  • CISSP

  • OSCP

  • CIPM 

  • ITIL4

  • COMPTIA

  • Security+

  • Professional Cloud Architect

  • and much more!

For more information about the mission of ShareTheMicInCyber that Camille and Lauren built, and the folks in the ShareTheMicInCyber group, check out: https://sharethemicincyber.splashthat.com/