Quantify the value of Netskope One SSE – Get the 2024 Forrester Total Economic Impact™ study

close
close
  • Why Netskope chevron

    Changing the way networking and security work together.

  • Our Customers chevron

    Netskope serves more than 3,400 customers worldwide including more than 30 of the Fortune 100

  • Our Partners chevron

    We partner with security leaders to help you secure your journey to the cloud.

A Leader in SSE. Now a Leader in Single-Vendor SASE.

Learn why Netskope debuted as a leader in the 2024 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™️ for Single-Vendor Secure Access Service Edge

Get the report
Customer Visionary Spotlights

Read how innovative customers are successfully navigating today’s changing networking & security landscape through the Netskope One platform.

Get the eBook
Customer Visionary Spotlights
Netskope’s partner-centric go-to-market strategy enables our partners to maximize their growth and profitability while transforming enterprise security.

Learn about Netskope Partners
Group of diverse young professionals smiling
Your Network of Tomorrow

Plan your path toward a faster, more secure, and more resilient network designed for the applications and users that you support.

Get the white paper
Your Network of Tomorrow
Netskope Cloud Exchange

The Netskope Cloud Exchange (CE) provides customers with powerful integration tools to leverage investments across their security posture.

Learn about Cloud Exchange
Aerial view of a city
  • Security Service Edge chevron

    Protect against advanced and cloud-enabled threats and safeguard data across all vectors.

  • SD-WAN chevron

    Confidently provide secure, high-performance access to every remote user, device, site, and cloud.

  • Secure Access Service Edge chevron

    Netskope One SASE provides a cloud-native, fully-converged and single-vendor SASE solution.

The platform of the future is Netskope

Security Service Edge (SSE), Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB), Cloud Firewall, Next Generation Secure Web Gateway (SWG), and Private Access for ZTNA built natively into a single solution to help every business on its journey to Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) architecture.

Go to Products Overview
Netskope video
Next Gen SASE Branch is hybrid — connected, secured, and automated

Netskope Next Gen SASE Branch converges Context-Aware SASE Fabric, Zero-Trust Hybrid Security, and SkopeAI-powered Cloud Orchestrator into a unified cloud offering, ushering in a fully modernized branch experience for the borderless enterprise.

Learn about Next Gen SASE Branch
People at the open space office
SASE Architecture For Dummies

Get your complimentary copy of the only guide to SASE design you’ll ever need.

Get the eBook
SASE Architecture For Dummies eBook
Make the move to market-leading cloud security services with minimal latency and high reliability.

Learn about NewEdge
Lighted highway through mountainside switchbacks
Safely enable the use of generative AI applications with application access control, real-time user coaching, and best-in-class data protection.

Learn how we secure generative AI use
Safely Enable ChatGPT and Generative AI
Zero trust solutions for SSE and SASE deployments

Learn about Zero Trust
Boat driving through open sea
Netskope achieves FedRAMP High Authorization

Choose Netskope GovCloud to accelerate your agency’s transformation.

Learn about Netskope GovCloud
Netskope GovCloud
  • Resources chevron

    Learn more about how Netskope can help you secure your journey to the cloud.

  • Blog chevron

    Learn how Netskope enables security and networking transformation through secure access service edge (SASE)

  • Events and Workshops chevron

    Stay ahead of the latest security trends and connect with your peers.

  • Security Defined chevron

    Everything you need to know in our cybersecurity encyclopedia.

Security Visionaries Podcast

2025 Predictions
In this episode of Security Visionaries, we're joined by Kiersten Todt, President at Wondros and former Chief of Staff for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to discuss predictions for 2025 and beyond.

Play the podcast Browse all podcasts
2025 Predictions
Latest Blogs

Read how Netskope can enable the Zero Trust and SASE journey through secure access service edge (SASE) capabilities.

Read the blog
Sunrise and cloudy sky
SASE Week 2024 On-Demand

Learn how to navigate the latest advancements in SASE and zero trust and explore how these frameworks are adapting to address cybersecurity and infrastructure challenges

Explore sessions
SASE Week 2024
What is SASE?

Learn about the future convergence of networking and security tools in today’s cloud dominant business model.

Learn about SASE
  • Company chevron

    We help you stay ahead of cloud, data, and network security challenges.

  • Careers chevron

    Join Netskope's 3,000+ amazing team members building the industry’s leading cloud-native security platform.

  • Customer Solutions chevron

    We are here for you and with you every step of the way, ensuring your success with Netskope.

  • Training and Accreditations chevron

    Netskope training will help you become a cloud security expert.

Supporting sustainability through data security

Netskope is proud to participate in Vision 2045: an initiative aimed to raise awareness on private industry’s role in sustainability.

Find out more
Supporting Sustainability Through Data Security
Help shape the future of cloud security

At Netskope, founders and leaders work shoulder-to-shoulder with their colleagues, even the most renowned experts check their egos at the door, and the best ideas win.

Join the team
Careers at Netskope
Netskope dedicated service and support professionals will ensure you successful deploy and experience the full value of our platform.

Go to Customer Solutions
Netskope Professional Services
Secure your digital transformation journey and make the most of your cloud, web, and private applications with Netskope training.

Learn about Training and Certifications
Group of young professionals working

Navigating the Cybersecurity Gender Gap: A Call for Change

Oct 11 2023

As someone who has spent decades in the technology industry, I’ve seen the landscape transform dramatically. However, one issue remains persistent: the lack of gender and racial diversity in cybersecurity.

As part of our recent SASE Week, I had the opportunity to speak with Emily Heath, General Partner at CyberStarts, and Shamla Naidoo, Head of Cloud Strategy and Innovation here at Netskope, to discuss how we bring more women into cyber – and just as importantly how we ensure they thrive in their roles so we can retain their talents.

Perhaps inevitably, when advertising on social media that the session was upcoming I saw a number of comments from male industry participants questioning the need for any focus on diversity. Hopefully those men joined the session and now have a clearer understanding of the matter. If not, this summary post might help.

The Complexity of the Gender Gap

Recent figures show a concerning trend that the percentage of women in cybersecurity roles in the UK dropped by almost a quarter over the last two years, from 22% to just 17%. The UK is not unique—the cybersecurity industry worldwide consistently struggles to attract and retain women in cybersecurity roles. But there’s more to this than just statistics.

Fifteen years ago a study of diversity on FTSE 350 boards showed that higher levels of gender diversity positively correlated with financial performance. The revelations of the research genuinely changed the debate among feminists and naysayers alike—finally there was proof that diversity was worth pursuing for hard-nosed business reasons. But these latest figures from the UK show that acceptance of the value of diversity in a board context doesn’t seem to have filtered down into the way we structure cyber security teams. 

If diverse teams drive better business outcomes, how might they impact cybersecurity and risk outcomes?  

Hiring for Skill Sets, Not Titles

When we spoke, Emily Heath was clear that changing the long-standing norms and biases that have existed across the tech sector requires commitment and concerted effort. However, she was confident that—with the right strategy—we can work toward closing the gender gap. She believes that one effective approach is shifting our focus from hiring based on titles to hiring based on skill sets.

Emily: “When you start to think about hiring for skill sets, you open up a whole new world for yourself. At the end of the day, smart people can learn. Shamla and I did not start our journeys in the corporate world thinking that we were going to be chief security officers. That job didn’t exist back then, but we all learn things along the way.”

Some women fear a backlash from diversity efforts—and understandably so, given we heard in the discussion of specific examples where women’s achievements or advancement were attributed to their gender. But Emily was unequivocal about the reality:

Emily: “I have been told more than once, by men, that I got the jobs that I got because I was a woman. To which I say, good.  It’s our time and—you know what?—if it opens a window because I’m a female, I make no apology for that whatsoever. If you’re given the opportunity, because you’re a woman, own it. I take it with open arms and I plough through that door and prove why you made the right decision.”

Shamla: “I would add that maybe you get the job because you’re a woman, but you don’t keep the job because you’re a woman. We keep the job because we are competent.”

Transparency through statistics

I asked Shamla and Emily what sort of data we might be able to look at to assess the impact of diversity on cyber outcomes.

Shamla: “Your question presupposes that the information exists somewhere, and we could just lift off the covers and pull it out. And that’s not true, right? But why is it not true? We don’t collect information and report on information that we think doesn’t reflect well on us.”

Emily: “It’s really tough because in cyber in particular, people very often don’t share their metrics around success in the ways that they would do around other lines of business. So we’re really limited in terms of what we can track as metrics that we can report on.” 

Shamla: “Most organisations are not going to bring out data that doesn’t put them in good light in the industry. So it’s hard to say ‘collect the data’ because at some point that means they have to admit there’s something they have to do, something is not working. 

I feel like we need to be thinking about this a little bit differently. It’s not to punish anyone, but to create equity in how we might view the data. And then as consumers, we make our own decisions.”

Emily: “I think that’s a great point actually, because, I think we’re starting to see this a little bit with some of the ESG initiatives. Now, a lot more companies are a lot more likely to publicly disclose their diversity statistics, for example, than they ever used to be before as a result of the pressure that they’re seeing from the investor community and from Wall Street and making sure that things like ESG initiatives are not lip service or greenwashing, but that there is a genuine intent to change.” 

Bridging the Gap for a Stronger Future

Addressing the gender gap in cybersecurity requires a multifaceted effort. We must start by acknowledging the issue, embracing diverse skill sets, and encouraging women to seize the opportunities they are given. But transparency in reporting diversity statistics and a genuine appetite to consider the business advantages of diversity are paramount. If diversity is always seen as benefiting solely the individual, we will struggle to turn the budding discussions into anything more profound than a sideline initiative – and that will in turn kneecap efforts to make real progress in increasing representation of diverse groups among our cyber teams. 

The entire conversation is available here on catch up

author image
Emily Wearmouth
Emily Wearmouth is a technology communicator who helps engineers, specialists and tech organizations to communicate more effectively.
Emily Wearmouth is a technology communicator who helps engineers, specialists and tech organizations to communicate more effectively.