Channel urged to sign anti-harassment pledge to stamp out 'shocking' behaviour

Respect in Security campaign aims to encourage employers to clamp down on widespread harassment in the infosecurity industry

The founders of a new anti-harassment campaign has urged channel partners to sign a pledge to help stamp out "shocking" behaviour in the cybersecurity industry.

Respect in Security launched yesterday. The not-for-profit initiative was founded by a group of cybersecurity professionals including Trend Micro's VP of security research Rik Fërgüson, co-founder and managing partner of Redbox Partners Marc Avery and Nikki Webb, global channel manager at Custodian360.

The group was set up to raise awareness of widespread cases of harassment within the cybersecurity industry and urge employers to sign a pledge to stamp out harassment within their businesses.

Research from the initiative, carried out by Sapio Research, found that 32 per cent of cybersecurity professionals have personally experienced harassment online, while 35 per cent said they have been victims of harassment in-person.

Forty-eight per cent of in-person harassment cases occurred during work socials, the research found, while 47 per cent took place in the office and 36 per cent at industry events.

The research reported that there's a "fairly even split" between male, female and non-binary respondents who said they had been victims of harassment.

The majority (44 per cent) of online harassment experiences came from Twitter, while 37 per cent originated from emails.

Nearly half (45 per cent) of respondents believe their employer should do more to tackle harassment and ensuring their staff know what constitutes harassment.

Avery told CRN that the idea for Respect in Security began in June last year after an organised panel session for online harassment highlighted the scale and severity of the issue in cybersecurity.

"I personally wasn't aware of it as much as I should have been," said Avery. "In the past we've heard about a couple of incidents in physical conferences that have been widely publicised, but there seems to be something underlying that was just growing and growing and no one was addressing it."

"Some of the stories I've heard in the last three months were shocking," he added. I never asked the question, so I think we just need to change the conversation around it."

Respect in Security is aiming to have at least 50 organisations signed up to the anti-harassment pledge by the end of the year, claiming that several firms including Trend Micro have already thrown their support behind the initiative.

Companies that sign the pledge are committing to work towards eliminating harassment within their business and to actively encourage staff to come forward and report any grievances without fear of repercussions.

"I think it's important, more so than ever now with regards to going back to the office, that employers are giving their employees a safe way to whistle blow this behaviour without prejudice, or repercussions from it," said Nikki Webb from Custodian360.

"Just be absolutely clear, we are not being judge and jury here; we're not looking to collect stories, make a judgement, and then publicise something - that is drastically far away from where we want to be. We're here to raise the awareness and to make employers accountable," added Avery.

The co-founder added that, in many cases, perpetrators of harassment are widely known within the industry, yet somehow fly under the radar of their employers and evade disciplinary action.

"The fact that this has gone on without their employers knowing about it is pretty shocking, if I'm honest. So that's the problem that we're trying to resolve," he said.