Girl Scouts will soon get the chance to earn their first ever cyber security badges.
The Huffington Post reports that Girl Scouts can earn the first of 18 cyber security Girl Scout badges beginning in September 2018. The program will reach as many as 1.8 million Girl Scouts in kindergarten through sixth grade and is being developed in a partnership between the Girl Scouts and Palo Alto Networks, a security company.
Women are vastly underrepresented in the cyber security industry, holding just 11 percent of jobs worldwide, so one of the program’s main goals is to instill “a valuable twenty-first century skill set” including preventing against a cyber attack in girls and eliminate barriers to cyber security employment, such as gender and geography, said Sylvia Acevedo, CEO of the Girl Scouts of the USA.
“In our increasingly tech-driven world, future generations must possess the skills to navigate the complexities and inherent challenges of the cyber realm,” said Acevedo. “From arming older girls with the tools to address this reality to helping younger girls protect their identities via internet safety, the launch of our national cybersecurity badge initiative represents our advocacy of cyber preparedness.”
