By Lauren Bean Buitta, Kyla Guru, Claire Smith, and Megan Stifel

Recently, President Biden emphasized the need to better prepare the U.S. for challenges posed by cybersecurity and to better educate and train future generations of cybersecurity professionals. While the pandemic has clearly demonstrated the need for solutions that anticipate unexpected security threats, recent higher profile hacks such as the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack reveal our shortcomings. 

America and the world are confronting cybersecurity threats that obliterate the long-standing boundaries between physical and digital domains, domestic and foreign policy, and personal and national security. Yet people—particularly girls and women—remain undervalued in U.S. cybersecurity. This lack of equity in our cybersecurity strategy must be addressed today. 

The pandemic has threatened the real progress of women throughout the global society and economy. Some women have seen their physical and economic security reduced, if not eliminated. A successful cybersecurity path forward must not prioritize systems over people, but should place girls and women at the forefront of a reimagined strategy.

Cybersecurity is often thought of as the protection of digital systems from unauthorized access and use, commonly defined with the “CIA Triad,” or the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information. But cybersecurity is an ecosystem that also poses new and unique challenges to girls, women, and marginalized communities. We need to devote an actionable commitment of time, attention, funding, and policy to ensure that digital threats to girls’ and women’s online engagement such as disinformation and harassment do not impede their social, educational, and civic engagement

In short, cybersecurity isn’t just about protecting systems, but creating an environment in which everyone can safely live their digital lives. A cybersecurity strategy should prioritize populations who might otherwise be underrepresented in board rooms, situation rooms, and even classrooms. 

Reimagining cybersecurity sits at the core of President Biden’s new call to action. In the Administration’s “Interim National Security Strategy