WHITE PAPER: January 2019 by Z. Iqbal and M.K. Khan | 4.53 MB

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By Zaheema Iqbal and Muhammad Khurram Khan

The vast opportunities offered by information and communication technologies with greater emphasis on the cyberspace have become a vital part of our life. However, the more connection cyberspace provides, it gets more vulnerable to cyber risks. In today’s postmodern world, cyber threats not only pose a substantial risk to individuals and businesses, but they have also become a simmering threat for the national security. The time has come when international community is to sit together and ponder over the formulation of countermeasure strategies against cyberattacks. However, studies suggest that there is a phenomenal global shortage of trained workforce, including academicians, professionals, practitioners, and scientists when it comes to the field of cybersecurity. Many countries, including the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) look at this issue as a key challenge of human capital crisis. In KSA, under-representation of women at workplace has been a sore issue since long until the recent modernization of Saudi society through science diplomacy. Now, Saudi women are robustly pursuing their careers, especially in science and technology fields. But their participation and inclusion in the cybersecurity profession is an important yet challenging task for the policy makers. This paper discusses the participation of Saudi Women in cybersecurity field and tries to narrow down the gap of human capital crisis by presenting some recommendations.

About the author(s)

Zaheema Iqbal

Zaheema Iqbal is a researcher at the Global Foundation for Cyber Studies and Research. She has completed M.Phil International Relations, from National Defence University. Her areas of interest are cyber warfare, cyber terrorism, cyber security, cyber threats and cyber vulnerabilities.

Muhammad Khurram Khan

Muhammad Khurram Khan is the Founder and CEO of the Global Foundation for Cyber Studies and Research. His research focuses on Cybersecurity from the policy, technology and academic perspectives. His detailed profile can be visited on his personal website at http://www.professorkhurram.com