OAS Annual Cyberwomen Challenge

Summary

The OAS Cyberwomen Challenge, as part of the OAS Cybersecurity Program, seeks to encourage the participation of women in the field of cybersecurity and promote the development of technical skills through the organization of cyber exercises, in which only women can participate, in order to tackle the gender gap in cybersecurity.

Details

Context

The Organization of American States (OAS) has a long-standing commitment to promoting gender equity in Latin America and the Caribbean. The OAS is involved in the fight for gender equity: currently, for example, gender-related issues must be included across all its initiatives, programs and projects. The OAS Cyberwomen Challenge was established in 2018. The project has been supported by Amazon Web Services (AWS) and LATAM Women in Cybersecurity (WOMCY).

Outcomes

Throughout the larger Latin American region, the OAS Cybersecurity Program, CitiFoundation, and Trend Micro have organized more than 20 cyber exercises since 2018, involving over 1,000 women from different countries. Within 2023 alone, 60 women from 11 different Caribbean countries participated in the CyberWomen Challenge.

Activities

In the setting of a controlled environment and under the guidance of an expert, the participants experience a cyberattack to a server with critical data and must solve different challenges, employing the same tools and techniques used in a real life scenario. A 6-hour online technical workshop offers participants the tools to manage a comprehensive cyber defense strategy even when their digital attack surface grows and changes by the minute.

The last edition of the OAS Cyberwomen Challenges was held on November 1, 2023