More young women interested in cyber security careers after global attacks

High-profile cyber attacks such as WannaCry have driven interest of a career in cyber security among young women, research from Kaspersky Lab suggests.

Currently, only 11 per cent of cyber security professionals are female - a proportion that needs to increase if the industry is to avoid a shortfall of 1.8 million professionals by 2022.

Businesses should seize the opportunity to attract more recruits into cyber security roles while interest is hot off the back of global attacks like ExPetr, Kaspersky Lab says.

Kaspersky Lab’s study found that 72 per cent of women want a career they can be passionate about, while 52 per cent are keen to earn a good salary.

As such, Kaspersky Lab believes cyber security may meet all the required qualities.

The research also discovered that young women view cyber security as an important role (57 per cent) and helpful to society (44 per cent).

A spokesman for Kaspersky said: “With competitive salaries, exceptional perks and an end goal to protect everyone from online threats, cyber security could soon be up there with highly prized careers for ambitious young people that want to make a difference in society.”