How Check Point’s female senior leadership team is empowering women in cybersecurity

In light of International Women's Day 2022, cyber security solutions provider Check Point Software Technologies has highlighted its strides in recognising women as an important group in cyber security. The company said it is ensuring women are represented not only in its workforce, but also in the cyber security sector.

According to ISC2's Women in Cybersecurity report, women accounted for holding only 11 percent of jobs in the domain in 2013, but by 2020, the number had grown to 24 percent. However, in spite of women filling up positions in engineering and R&D, there is still a gap that needs to be bridged.

Check Point Software said it is aiming to become more gender-balanced and inclusive at the organisational front, and so the company participates in conferences that spark conversations about the same.

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The Woman Mentoring Program is a mentoring drive that has been established by the company as part of leadership development for future women leaders. Every six months, the program is run in the EMEA region, and the company appoints an experienced team lead or manager from different divisions to guide a lesser experienced woman mentee. The development is fostered through guidance, counselling, and support for women who have an interest in cybersecurity.

"At Check Point Software, we have always been committed not only to equality, but breaking the bias in the workplace when hiring, training, and evaluating our employees. To this end, we run special programs dedicated to developing the careers of all our female employees, for example in the area of training and appraisal. We have implemented a high-performance mentoring program to develop the careers of women in our teams and another one focused on leadership development for future managers, a four-month project to prepare the next leaders of our company," Maya Horowitz, Vice President, Research at Check Point Software, stated.

Additionally, Check Point Software has an initiative in collaboration with the company FIERCE. The program is called FIERCE Mentorship in the US, and enables women to involve themselves in cybersecurity. The community outreach forum works in tandem with local communities, and has innovative activities that are aimed at inspiring girls to pursue cybersecurity as a career option.

Gil Shwed, Founder and CEO of Check Point Software, said, “Women of excellence have been a crucial part of Check Point’s success since its establishment and I’m pleased that we continue with this important tradition. The best cyber security is based on the best women and men providing it, and our diversity is a blessing”

Check Point is attempting to bring inclusivity to the table by increasing female representation in cyber security. Today, over half of their top executive management positions are held by women.

A shout out to the sponsors of Women on Mission Summit 2022, an Initiative by HerStory, by YourStory - BYJU's, the presenting partner, and other sponsors - Kyndrll, Sequoia Spark, Zilingo, Atlassian, Akamai, Freshworks for Startups, and NetApp Excellarator.