Kaspersky Lab champions gender equality and digital child safety

Cyber security firm Kaspersky Lab is working to promote gender equality in the technology industry, and is committed to promoting careers in cyber security to women because diverse workforces make businesses more successful, productive and dynamic, according to the company’s latest corporate social responsibility report.

“We believe cyber security is not only a rewarding and exciting career, but it also does a lot of good in the world to protect people, businesses and organisations from cyber threats. We need more women to help us plug the skills gap and widen the industry’s perspective on those threats,” the company said.

The report highlights the company’s sponsorship of Girls in Tech’s Amplify competition for female entrepreneurs to exhibit their business achievements.

This sponsorship is one of the initiatives the company supports in its aim to help more women to pursue careers in digital products and services.

Through PwC’s Tech She Can charter, the report said Kaspersky Lab is also committed to increasing the number of women working in technology roles.

The focus on women in IT is also reflected by the UK’s New Year’s Honours list, which features accolades for leading women in IT and data.

Those honoured include UK information commissioner Elizabeth Denham, the Scottish government CIO Anne Moises, UK CEO at Microsoft Cindy Helen Rose, and Code First: Girls CEO Amali de Alwis, who was the winner of Computer Weekly’s 2018 influential women in UK technology awards programme.

Diversity was the theme of the 2018 National Cyber Security Centre’s CyberUK conference in Manchester.

“Without true diversity we are in danger of group-think, behaviour challenges and quite frankly we will not tap into the skills we need,” Nicola Hudson, NCSC director of communications told the opening session of the conference.

As well as inspiring women in the IT industry, the report said Kaspersky Lab is dedicated to helping parents keep their children safe through technology through initiatives such as the Kaspersky Safe Kids mobile app that allows parents to locate their children at all times.

Kaspersky Lab also regularly organises Safe Kids roadshows to raise awareness about child safety on the internet and teach children how to keep themselves safe in both real and virtual life situations that could lead to danger.

“We focus on projects close to our line of work, like providing access to free security solutions or teaching kids about online safety, but we also have projects to ensure gender equality, and to promote Stem [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] education,” said Eugene Kaspersky, CEO of Kaspersky Lab.

“I’m also very happy that we can share the results of the work done not only in our headquarters, but also in offices all around the globe with their own local volunteering programs and other charitable undertakings.”