GIRLS GONE GEEK?

by F-Secure

You probably already knew who the Yahoo! founders are but do you have any idea who is Marissa Ann Mayer? What about Sheryl Sandberg from one of the most well-known social media platforms – Facebook?

In case you only remember the founders or you have no idea who these ladies are, they are currently the backbones to these huge corporations. Marissa Ann Mayer, coming from the background of being the first female engineer in Google, is now, the Chief Executive Officer of Yahoo!. On the other hand, Sheryl Sandberg, the current Chief Operating Officer of Facebook was elected to be the first woman to serve the board by its very own existing board members.

Goh Su Gim, Security Advisor Asia Pacific, F-Secure Labs explaining to the competitors on the importance of IT Security in the semi-finals of the 2014 F-Secure National Inter-Varsity IT Security Competition.

All in all, we just have to say this – Well done ladies! You’ve done all of us proud by proving that women are just as capable as any other men, though being in such a male-dominant industry. However, as much as we are aware of the increasing number of young talented women in workforce compared to two decades ago, it is rather unfortunate that the world is still lack of women in the IT industry.

At this point, you would think what is the big deal there? Well, technology is the real deal now!

According to Goh Su Gim, Security Advisor Asia Pacific, F-Secure Labs, the IT industry is one of the top 10 fastest growing industries all around the world. With all the latest mobile technologies, these products are easily accessed by both men and women alike.

However, even with such an expansive growth in the industry, IT security has been taken on rather unimportantly till the recent years. With the vulnerability of having data available to anyone who can take them for granted, F-Secure – leader in antivirus, online security and content cloud solutions, educates the Gen-Y on the fundamental importance of keeping operating platforms and software protection updated from time to time through its recent 2014 F-Secure National Inter-Varsity IT Security Competition.

The only all-female team, Team Eminence from University Malaysia Sabah in action.

“There were a number of diverse teams but what really caught the attention was Team Eminence from University Malaysia Sabah, an all-female team with an E-commerce background who had their interests sparked through the education provided. It really left a strong impression when they managed to proceed to the semi-finals,” Goh commented.

It is a known fact that women have stronger purchasing power as compared to men and at least half the users of technology products are women. Therefore, with the saying “only women would understand women”, having females excelling in IT security benefits the industry in many ways, including contributions to ongoing projects, potential innovative developments and increases the overall market strength. After all, having diverse teams have a higher tendency of cooking up various sets of opinions and perspectives. It has also been proven that they almost always outdo a team of experts due to their team problem-solving which also trumps personal accomplishments.

Goh also added, “The IT industry is developing day by day. It is essential for IT corporations to be able to actively hire and hear out on the perspectives from different representatives, especially from women, who play one of the most vital roles in driving the world’s economics. Therefore, it is necessary to have their insights and problem-solving skills.”

Goh Su Gim, Security Advisor Asia Pacific, F-Secure Labs explaining on the rules and regulations for the semi-finals of the 2014 F-Secure National Inter-Varsity IT Security Competition.

Aside from having an eye for details and having the ability to visualize the bigger picture, women are also very much skewed towards designing as well as creativity and they can access to the range of emotions and satisfaction levels of their consumers to further improvise on the products.

Nevertheless, with technology comes knocking at the door and seeing its importance in most parts of our lives, it is indispensable to encourage not only men, but women to excel and take up on the opportunity to create and develop products that will change our future.

“One should always understand the value of information and be able to hold and share the personal information in a safe environment on a digital level. The more advanced the technology is, the higher the risk of unauthorized access and we should identify on how best to protect ourselves from internet breaches. In any case should the information fall into the wrong hands, it can wreck one’s lives entirely,” Goh concluded.