A Survey of Cybersecurity Professionals’ Perceptions and Experiences of Safety and Belonging in the Community

The cybersecurity workforce lacks diversity; the field is predominately men and White or Asian, with only 10% identifying as women, Latine, or Black. Previous studies identified access to supportive communities as a possible disparity between marginalized and non-marginalized cybersecurity professional populations and highlighted this support as a key to career success. We focus on these community experiences by conducting a survey of 342 cybersecurity professionals to identify differences in perceptions and experiences of belonging across demographic groups. Our results show a discrepancy between experiences for different gender identities with women being more likely than men to report experiencing harassment and unsupportive environments because of their gender. Psychological safety was low across all demographic groups, meaning participants did not feel comfortable engaging with or speaking up in the community. Based on these result we provide recommendations to community leaders.