In response to anti-black racism and the deaths of countless black people, the country and the world are standing up against systemic racism. Many in the cybersecurity community have been searching for ways to amplify the voices of black and brown practitioners in the national security/foreign policy space. Inspired by the #ShareTheMic campaign on Instagram, Camille Stewart (@CamilleEsq on Twitter) and Lauren Zabierek (@LZXDC on Twitter) have teamed up to launch the #ShareTheMicInCyber Twitter campaign. On June 26, 2020, prominent members of the cybersecurity community spent the day tweeting about Black cybersecurity practitioners. This campaign has started a movement that continues to grow! We're excited to host part two of this campaign on October 23, 2020 in celebration of Cybersecurity Awareness Month!
If you know a Black cybersecurity practitioner who you think should be profiled or someone who may want to participate as a Cyber Ally, have them sign up via the form below!
Follow the hashtag #ShareTheMicInCyber & the participants.
Share the campaign with your network.
Retweet the professional stories of the Black Practitioners featured.
ACT. Find a way to support these practitioners and the countless other Black Practitioners in this space. Take steps to make the field more inclusive for EVERYONE & your work responsive to systemic racism.
Together, we all created an important conversation around racism in cyber and national security and we had some tangible impact:
-- Allies asked Practitioners to join calls and join advisory boards
- The cyber community raised ~ $10,000 to sponsor certifications and training for participating Black Practitioners and counting (Donate Here)
- The campaign had combined reach of at least 1.5 million Twitter users (based on number of followers)
- There is a possible virtual DEFCON village or other means to convene the #ShareTheMicInCyber group in the works
- Many who didn’t originally sign up contacted us to ask what more could be done.
***Davin Jackson shared his story and the impact of the campaign on his blog. Read his story here.
