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Importance of cybersecurity highlighted at women's conference in Cleveland

There's a large gender gap in cybersecurity jobs. Meanwhile, there is a large demand for employees.

CLEVELAND — The internet is everywhere. And 1,700 of the brightest minds in cybersecurity are in Cleveland right now. 

The goal? Encourage women in the field to come and work right here in Northeast Ohio.

"There's always going to be a need for cybersecurity and considering we're at a workforce shortage, we have to fill that void and then we have to prepare for the next generation to come in and fill those roles as well," Women in Cybersecurity Executive Director Lynn Dohm says.

Well, 900 of the 1,700 women at Huntington Convention Center for Women in Cybersecurity are still students and it's a career that still has a large gender gap. 

Dohm says since 2014, they've seen women go from holding 11% of cybersecurity jobs to holding 20 to 24%. "My recommendation is to dive right in. Cybersecurity encompasses it all so much," Dohm adds.

While among experts and with so many cybersecurity risks out there for the average consumer, we had to ask: What are the easiest things we can do to make our digital lives and information more secure?

"Be paying attention to your personal accounts or your bank accounts and making sure you don't repeat your passwords, all the spiel you get with your cybersecurity person," advises Mary Grace Perotti, an Information Security Consultant with KeyBank.

"Multi-factor authentication, it needs to be on everything, we can start with the very basics on there," Dohm adds.

This conference was originally scheduled for 2020, but had to be pushed back due to COVID.

One of the big things local leaders are hoping to see come from the conference is people experiencing and then wanting to come work right here in Cleveland.

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