Women, Pioneers and Whistleblowers

Women are pioneering the world of security and defining new ways to protect themselves. The world is changing and the feeling of privacy and safety along with it. Inspirational women are taking back the power to ensure other women can feel the same sense of security in their life. Here are some of the women and businesses making a difference, pushing the boundaries of the status quo and blowing the whistle on injustice.

1. Women make up half of the workforce, while they still shockingly only make up about 11% of cybersecurity jobs but that doesn’t stop them from seizing the opportunity to take on a high-profile role in the industry. Why are there still so few of them? Today women are continuing to push for progress in the male dominated field and represent a mix of researchers, chief information security officers, executives, and top government cyber security leaders. Women are making an impact all over the world in cybersecurity by empowering women with a Voice, Vision and Innovation. IBM hosts a global cyber day for girls every year to educate women of all ages about what cybersecurity is, how it’s rapidly affecting our world and what women can do to help change it. #IBMCyberDay4Girls

2. Hyphen-Labs is a young women of color collective made up of scientists, architects, engineers and designers from around the world who’ve brought fashion to the forefront of surveillance. The line was designed to protect those wearing it—focusing on women of color. The idea behind the body worn technology is to empower and protect women in the field, whether they’re activists, whistleblowers or just living their everyday life. Security is important, our identity is important. The prototype fashion wearables debuted at the 2017 South by Southwest Conference.

Some of the pieces highlighted were a pair of oversized “door knocker” earrings with hidden cameras and microphones used to record during any kind of altercation or unwanted interaction at the touch of a button.

Hyphen-Labs | NSAF | Michelle Cortese

The sun visor was made with reflective material to deflect any unwanted gazes and to protect the identity of the person wearing it.

Hyphen-Labs | NSAF

The most innovative body worn counter surveillance piece was the pink and purple silk scarf. Hyphen-Labs partnered with Adam Harvey, an American artist living in Berlin to bring the HyperFace Scarf to life which camouflages the wearer from facial recognition software, the kind used by social media, online retailers, law enforcement and the military. The scarf’s fabric is designed with 1,200 pixelated faces meant to mislead computer algorithms.

Hyphen-Labs | NSAF | Adam Harvey

The scarf was designed for women activists during protests. With enough people wearing it, it could break the system. Adam is now working with the collective to bring forth more innovative covert designs. Unfortunately, all of these products are prototypes and not out on the market, but we look forward to their fashionable body-worn counter surveillance gear.

3. More than ever women are standing up and fighting for what’s right in the world we live in. Whistleblowing can be life-changing, life-defining and comes with a great personal risk for the individual, so know your rights. We have seen heroic whistleblowers wearing hidden cameras to uncover the dark truths of this world like sexual harassment in the #metoo movement. By sharing their story and speaking up, they are exposing the cultural bias that will change our society - and hopefully for the better. 

With a female executive at the helm, KJB Security salutes women who have pushed boundaries to increase safety for everyone. We may not be on the front line with these women but we can certainly be counted on to provide reliable covert surveillance equipment to help them make an impact.