Inclusion of Women in the Cybersecurity Field in Brazil
Abstract
The low professional participation of women in Computing is even worse in some of its areas, such as cybersecurity. In this context, based on a mapping of the literature, this article presents actions and initiatives taken in Brazil to include women in this area. To this end, articles were searched in the Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar databases and in two events organized by the Brazilian Computer Society (SBC), the Brazilian Symposium on Information and Computer Systems Security (SBSeg) and Women in Information Technology (WIT). In this search, only one article was found that uses cybersecurity in an activity to include women in Computing, and five projects on the subject. Thus, it was found that there is a strong lack of information on the role of women in cybersecurity in the country. Globally, articles were found from countries on five continents. Based on this information, actions were proposed that could contribute to the inclusion of women in a cybersecurity area.
References
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Yogarajah, J. and Hossain, G. (2025). Optimizing cybersecurity recruitment with graph-based algorithms. In 2025 IEEE 4th International Conference on AI in Cybersecurity (ICAIC), pages 1–7.
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Costa, G., De Francisci, S., Renieri, M., and Valiani, S. (2025). Tackling the gender gap in cybersecurity education. In Proceedings of the 56th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 1, pages 234–240.
Costa, G., De Francisci, S., Valiani, S., and Prinetto, P. (2023). Why Mary can hack: Effectively introducing high school girls to cybersecurity. In Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security, ARES ’23, New York, NY, USA. Association for Computing Machinery.
Da Silva, J. (2023). Protection, expertise and domination: Cyber masculinity in practice. Computers & Security, 133:103408.
de Freitas, R., Pereira, K., Pessoa, L., Bentes, A., Santos, I., and Oliveira, I. (2018). Cifra de César - princípios de criptografia como trote educacional e em comemoração do dia da mulher. In Proc. XLIV CLEI, pages 1–9.
Dong, Z. C., Gu, H., and Panero, M. A. (2016). REU site program to engage undergraduate students in cybersecurity research. In 2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition.
Duarte, B., Moura, A., and Moro, M. (2019). Mulheres na computação: Análises por sub-Áreas. In Anais do XIII Women in Information Technology, pages 174–178, Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil. SBC.
Elnahass, M., Ahmed, Y., and Trinh, V. Q. (2024). Empowering women to lead cybersecurity: The effect of female executives on disclosure sentiment. International Journal of Finance & Economics, n/a(n/a):1–27.
Ferreira, A., Oliveira, S., Peçaibes, V., Giesteira, B., and de Sousa, A. P. (2022). Girls4cyber: A game to promote awareness and innovation in cybersecurity. In International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, pages 481–486. Springer.
Foley, M. and Basu, S. (2024). Decoding the gendered imaginary of cybersecurity careers: a social shaping of technology perspective. Information, Communication & Society, pages 1–17.
Jethwani, M. M., Memon, N., Seo, W., and Richer, A. (2017). ”I can actually be a super sleuth promising practices for engaging adolescent girls in cybersecurity education. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 55(1):3–25.
Kitchenham, B., Brereton, O. P., Budgen, D., Turner, M., Bailey, J., and Linkman, S. (2009). Systematic literature reviews in software engineering–a systematic literature review. Information and software technology, 51(1):7–15.
Liu, X. and Murphy, D. (2016). Engaging females in cybersecurity: K through gray. In 2016 IEEE Conference on Intelligence and Security Informatics (ISI), pages 255–260. IEEE.
Lorenz, B. and Kikkas, K. (2020). “trust me, you will need it”: Cybersecurity as extracurricular subject at estonian schools. In International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, pages 175–188. Springer.
Maciel, C. and Bim, S. A. (2016). Programa Meninas Digitais - Ações para divulgar a computação para meninas do ensino médio. Anais do Computer on the Beach, 7:327–336.
Mossburg, E. and Zalis, S. (2025). Unlocking a more resilient and secure future. [link]. Acessado em 08 mar. 2025.
Nogueira, M. (2025). Carreiras em cibersegurança: Oportunidades no mercado em alta. SBC Horizontes, 1:1.
Ramonyai, T. M., Mpekoa, N., and Tom, S. (2024). Cyber security skills development in south africa: Addressing the gender gap in the industry. In 2024 Conference on Information Communications Technology and Society (ICTAS), pages 144–149. IEEE.
Sani, A. I., Olajide, A. O., Abosede, O. V., Oyebode, D. F., Vayyala, R., Alfred, J. G., Oseni, T., Jegede, E. O., Nwaogu, N. G., and Abbas, R. (2025). Cybersecurity challenges in digitizing government administration. In Proceedings of the International Academy of Sciences, volume 2, pages 1–13.
Selma-Housein, E. and Plancher, B. (2025). Improving the representation of undergraduate women in cybersecurity: A literature review. In Proceedings of the 56th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 1, pages 1043–1049.
Techrepublic (2025). Deloitte: Why Only a Quarter of Cybersecurity Professionals are Women. [link]. Acessado em: 08 mar. 2025.
Turner, R. and M’manga, A. (2022). Requirements for a platform that improves the number of young women entering cybersecurity. In 35th International BCS Human-Computer Interaction Conference, pages 1–4. BCS Learning & Development.
White, V. M., Lee, S. B., Lineberry, L. H., Ivy, J., and Grimes, C. D. (2018). Illuminating the computing pathway for women in mississippi. In 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition.
World Economic Forum, Centre for Cybersecurity (2025). The cybersecurity industry has an urgent talent shortage. [link]. Acessado em: 08 mar. 2025.
Yogarajah, J. and Hossain, G. (2025). Optimizing cybersecurity recruitment with graph-based algorithms. In 2025 IEEE 4th International Conference on AI in Cybersecurity (ICAIC), pages 1–7.
Yusof, S. B. M., Abdullah, S. N. H. S., Mohd, M., Adnan, N., Yusof, R. J. R., Asma’Mokhtar, U., Norman, A. A., and Fauzi, W. F. P. (2022). The effectiveness of women 4ir cyber 3a aware, avoid, act program in Malaysia. In 2022 International Conference on Cyber Resilience (ICCR), pages 1–5. IEEE.
Published
2025-07-20
How to Cite
HOLANDA, Maristela; LIMA, Adrielly; BERNARDES, Emilly Victoria; SILVA, Luana Cruz; MITZI, Marjorie; ARAUJO, Aleteia; GONDIM, João; WALTER, Maria Emilia Machado Telles.
Inclusion of Women in the Cybersecurity Field in Brazil. In: WOMEN IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (WIT), 19. , 2025, Maceió/AL.
Anais [...].
Porto Alegre: Sociedade Brasileira de Computação,
2025
.
p. 1-12.
ISSN 2763-8626.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5753/wit.2025.7528.
