Fivewomen receive a cybersecurity scholarship at FS-ISAC's annual Asia-PacificSummit

SINGAPORE - MediaOutReach - 23 July 2018 -  The Financial Services Information SharingAnalysis Center (FS-ISAC) announced therecipients of the Building Cybersecurity Diversity(BCD) scholarship in Singapore. The announcement was made at the FS-ISACsummit in Singapore.

BCD Scholarship recipients pictured from left to right: Sun Meng, Gayathri Sugumar, Tan Zhi Xuan Francine, Yvonne Soh and Tan Lixin.

According to Frost & Sullivan's 2017Global Information Security Workforce study, womenare underrepresented in the global cybersecurity workforce at a mere 11 percentcompared to their male counterparts. In Asia Pacific, women make up only 10percent of the cybersecurity workforce.

The scholarship wasstarted by FS-ISAC in 2016 to bridge the diversity gap by helping womeninterested in cybersecurity kickstart their careers. This is the first year theBCD scholarship is being offered in Asia Pacific.To date, FS-ISAC has awarded seven scholarships, with additional scholarshipsto be awarded in Europe and the U.S. later this year.

"FS-ISAC started the BCD scholarship because webelieve that diversity of thought can help the global financial servicesindustry stay ahead of cybercrime," said Bill Nelson, president and CEO ofFS-ISAC. "Women are underrepresented in our field by a large percentage, soFS-ISAC is trying to build up the talent pipeline with top students looking tobreak into the field."

The scholarship offers $5,000 and a trip to theregional summit for a chance to learn and network with influential industryleaders. Scholarship recipients are also paired with industry mentors.

This year's scholarship recipients are: Yvonne Soh, Tan Lixin, Tan Zhi XuanFrancine, Sun Meng and Gayathri Sugumar.

• YvonneSoh is pursuing a diploma in digital forensics atTemasek Polytechnic in Singapore. She is also a member of the Singapore SymphonyYouth Choir.
• TanLixin is pursuing a diploma in digital forensics atTemasek Polytechnic. She is also a member of Temasek Polytechnic's InformationSystems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) student group.
• TanZhi Xuan Francine is pursuing a diploma in digitalforensics at Temasek Polytechnic. She participated in ongoing cybersecurityresearch at the University of Waikato in New Zealand for three months. She isalso a certified system administrator.
• SunMeng is a Ph.D. candidate pursuing a degree in electricalengineering at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Her researchfocuses on privacy preservation in data mining.

GayathriSugumar is a Ph.D. candidate pursuing a degree incybersecurity at the Singapore University of Technology and Design. Aside fromher research, she has been a volunteer with the national cadets.

AboutFS-ISAC:

The Financial Services Information Sharing andAnalysis Center (FS-ISAC) is a non-profit corporation that was established in1999 and is funded by its 7,000 member firms headquartered in 45 countries withusers in 72 countries. FS-ISAC is a member-driven organization whose mission isto help assure the resilience and continuity of the global financial servicesinfrastructure and individual firms against acts that could significantlyimpact the sector's ability to provide services critical to the orderly functionof the global economy. FS-ISAC shares threat and vulnerability information,conducts coordinated contingency planning exercises, manages rapid responsecommunications for both cyber and physical events, conducts education andtraining programs and fosters collaborations with and among other key sectorsand government agencies. Follow us on Twitter @FSISAC, on LinkedInor visit www.fsisac.com.