The cyber security industry has been told to change its "bro culture" to attract the next line of digital defenders in a world that never stops.
The US may be junking diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs under President Donald Trump, but Australia's National Cyber Security Coordinator Lieutenant General Michelle McGuinness says "diversity is capability".
The three-star general, one of only three women to hold that rank in Australia, says she has navigated a significant gender gap for most of her career.
Speaking at an elite cyber security summit at Parliament House, she issued a clarion call for more women to become the nation's digital defenders.
"There is nothing particularly masculine about cyber security," Lt Gen Michelle McGuinness said.
"One of the biggest misconceptions about cyber security is that that it's all about coding or sitting in isolation behind a computer screen.
"It's a field that requires teamwork, innovation and creativity, it requires risk analysis, it requires leadership," she said.
Women were key to code-breaking during World War II at the UK's once top-secret Bletchley Park and were recruited as linguists, mathematicians, engineers and crossword puzzle fanatics.
While today's culture is not akin to the 1940s, she said there were parallels because of a vital need for greater workforce capacity and the skills and perspectives that women bring.
She said the appeal of keeping the nation and community safe should be a drawcard for young and mid-career women to step up.
"We need them to join our incident responders, our cryptographic engineers, our cyber security analysts, our cyber lawyers, our cyber psychologists, our policy makers and our researchers who delve into the data and tell the story," she said.
On current estimates, the cyber workforce is short by 30,000 employees and women make up 17 per cent of the sector.
"That's not just an imbalance, it's a security risk," special envoy for cyber security and digital resilience Andrew Charlton told the Australian Information Security Association event.
Cyber crime is more costly than natural disasters and more profitable for criminals than the total global trade in illegal drugs, the federal MP warned.
Australia remains one of the most targeted nations, with the average cost of a cyber attack to a small business around $50,000, he said.
Fee-free TAFE and access to child care would help, along with micro-credentials to help women gain the skills they need and retain and advance them in the industry, he said.
"Part of that is about rethinking how and where cyber work happens ... remote work and flexible models are not perks, they're necessary," he said.
The government was doing it's bit and industry must do the same with new hiring processes, equal pay and zero tolerance for toxic workplace cultures, he said.
The digital world is tied to every aspect of national security and economic prosperity for Australia and its immediate region, the nation's ambassador for cyber affairs and critical technology Brendan Dowling said.
But the "bro culture" of a male-dominated sector where others are made to feel uncomfortable must change, he said.
"Unless you have the diversity and imagination to recognise how bad actors misuse technology, then we actually let all of ourselves down," he said.
"The coming year is going to be very challenging for cyber security in this region," he warned.
"We still see cyber crime and scams proliferate throughout the Pacific, throughout Southeast Asia the same way that they hurt Australians," he added.
"People have lost their lifetime savings, their dignity and their sense of personal security."
He said the frontline defenders in cyber warfare were often people, including many women, who operate childcare centres, schools, hospitals or government agencies.
"More state actors have better tools. You're going to see those tools used to target us where we're most vulnerable," he said.
Women and girls are also disproportionately targeted as emails, social media and most recently generative artificial intelligence have been harnessed for harm.
"It's like we're surprised that in every phase of innovation in technology that some of the earliest adopters and earliest masters of technology are sexist and misogynist," he said.
Australia is also building up the ability of Pacific countries to counter cyber crime and is rolling out online safety programs in the region.
"We take this seriously ... we do not need to accept that content that is problematic, damaging, biased or just hateful be allowed to proliferate," he said.
A research report released on Friday by the nation's e-safety agency found Australians were receiving online hate and abuse based on race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability or gender.
Most targeted adults who personally experienced online hate said the perpetrator was a stranger and, in most cases, it occurred on social media platforms.
The eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant herself has been the target of attacks online, as have her children.
"I urge Australians to visit eSafety.gov.au to report harmful content, particularly if the platform does not take action and to seek out information, resources and advice," Ms Inman Grant said.
The agency can investigate cyberbullying of children, adult cyber abuse, sharing or threats to share intimate images without the consent of the person shown, and illegal and restricted content.
"I also ask technology companies to do more to protect users by enforcing their own terms of service and improving the availability, responsiveness and transparency of reporting tools," she said.
California-based Infoblox chief information officer Amy Farrow said she has been "appalled" at the direction and comments of some tech leaders and the US government in the past four to six weeks.
"I'm a firm believer in diversity of as many kinds as you can get - ethnicity, experiences, walks of life," she said.
"DEI is important and, over the long term, it will prevail ... the end is better business, better government, better policies, better solutions, a stronger company or nation," she said.
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