Security

Students of the study course VR13
at the Security Arena station
"Social Engineering"

Students of the study course KVR15
at the Security Arena station
"Internet Services, Apps & Co"

Phase 1: Familiarization and orientation

To get a clear impression of the security specialist job, female pupils within the vocational orientation phase are invited to experience awareness-raising measures about information security—analogue and digital game-based learning scenarios. Thereby, they become acquainted with important duties in information security—initiating, designing, choosing, accompanying and conducting awareness-raising and training measures for information security. We will design these game-based learning scenarios based on a participative approach, so that the scenarios consider digital activities of the daily life of girls as well as their preferences, needs and life situations.

Phase 2: Discussing and presenting

During the second part of the pilot event the pupils learn more about the job profile and the wider field of responsibilities of a security specialist as well as about corresponding vocational trainings and degree programmes. In addition, they meet some of the role models who will answer the girls’ questions.

The pilot event is conducted in cooperation with four schools

Humboldt-Gymnasium in Berlin
Oberschule "Dr. Hans Bredow" in Königs Wusterhausen
Friedrich-Schiller-Gymnasium in Königs Wusterhausen
Hans-Grade-Schule in Berlin

Schools and MINT-initiatives that are interested in conducting the pilot event in their organization are very welcome to contact us.

The Project “Security”

The project “Gender-Sensitive Study and Vocational Orientation for the Occupation Security Specialist (Security)” aims at arousing the interest of girls in the innovative and future-oriented occupation security specialist. Thereby, study courses and vocational trainings within the field of computer sciences should become more attractive for young women and the share of women in the field should increase.

Through an appealing and gender-sensitive presentation of the occupation security specialist, through portraits of female role models who are working in the field of information security, and through an interactive and experience-oriented pilot event, female pupils will learn that these study courses and vocational trainings are not only technical, but also very versatile.

Job profile Security Specialist

We will design a gender-sensitive job profile that highlights the diversity, versatile tasks, and meaningful nature of the occupation. Through this, the interest of young women in the job should be aroused. The field of responsibility as well as the necessary competences of a security specialist will be determined by desk research and interviews with experts.

The final job profile will be presented, discussed, and evaluated by young women through focus groups and surveys in order to investigate if it appeals to them.

Portraits of female role models

Ada Lovelace
Ada Lovelace, mathematician and first software engineer of the world

Katie Moussouris
Computer Security Researcher
Photo by Internet Education Foundation

Parisa Tabriz
Information Security Manager (Google)
Photo by 禁书网

Female role-models have existed in the computer sciences field since its early beginning. Thus, the mathematician Ada Lovelace who lived in the 19th century is considered to be the first software engineer. Besides her, there are a plenty of women who continue to decisively shape computer sciences as well as information security until today. For example, Katie Moussouris developed the reward system for the detection of software bugs (Bug Bounty).

We will talk to women who successfully shape the information security field about their professional and private lives, their decision to engage in information security, as well as their experiences as security specialists—their satisfaction, challenges, etc. We will prepare the results of these interviews as portraits in a book, in posters, and in videos. By these means, female role models in the field of information security should become more visible for young women and society as a whole.

Are you working in the field of information security and would you like to tell young women about your life? We would appreciate it if you could contact us.

Informative Events—Assurance of Sustainability

Parents, teachers, MINT-initiatives, career counsellors and representatives of chambers of industry and commerce are invited to informative events to learn about the job profile, the pilot event and how to use at no charge the materials developed through the project.

We are planning three informative events at the Technical University of Applied Sciences Wildau in the first half of the year 2019. The exact dates as well as the registration details will be announced on this website.

You would like to attend one of these informative events? Please contact us!

Studies/Links

Here, you can find links to interesting studies, to further websites concerned with the topic, as well as to the websites of the partners involved in this project.