Kaspersky, together with Smart Africa and Africaines in Tech, has launched an innovative, science-backed career orientation test “Future You in Tech” created to promote professional development for young women in the cybersecurity industry and help remove potential entry barriers. The test is designed to help them discover which career paths best align with their interests, skills, and personality.
The IT industry continues to face a significant gender imbalance. While technology is one of the fastest-growing fields shaping the global future, women remain underrepresented due to systemic barriers such as stereotypes and unequal workplace opportunities. According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2024, women make up only 28.2% of the global STEM workforce. With this new initiative, Kaspersky and its partners aim to lower these barriers by sparking interest, building awareness, and offering guidance to the next generation of women in cybersecurity.
The orientation test is designed to help young women discover which cybersecurity career paths best align with their interests, skills, personality, and values. The test guides participants through scenarios that reveal their natural problem-solving styles and strengths. Once completed, the results highlight each participant’s top two matches out of six possible cybersecurity roles. The six cybersecurity paths covered in the test are:
- Threat Intelligence — analyzing cybercriminal groups and predicting their next moves.
- Security Operations (SOC) — monitoring systems, detecting threats, and responding to incidents.
- Malware Analysis — reverse-engineering malicious code and creating detection rules.
- Network Security — protecting IT infrastructure, running penetration tests, and securing networks.
- Information Security Research — uncovering vulnerabilities, exploring new attack techniques, and designing security standards.
- Security Assessment — testing and auditing systems to identify risks before attackers exploit them.
Alongside these personalized matches, participants receive explanations of the roles and advice from Kaspersky’s female experts who work in these fields. They also receive suggested next steps such as recommended readings or practical activities to try, developed together with Smart Africa, Africaines in Tech, and Kaspersky Academy.
“We strongly recommend young women to take this orientation test — even if you never considered a career in cybersecurity. This test would provide you with unbiased view — while cybersecurity is a field, that requires technical skills development, it also needs curiosity, creativity, problem-solving, and resilience — qualities many young women already have. The test would help one to connect strengths with real career paths, empower to see a future in cybersecurity and to take first steps with confidence,” comments Evgeniya Russkikh, Head of Academic Affairs at Kaspersky.
This launch builds on Kaspersky’s long-term commitment to supporting women in technology. As of early 2023, women represented 25 percent of the company’s global tech workforce — a 6.9 percentage point increase over four years. To further amplify women’s voices, Kaspersky also runs the Empower Women digital project, which raises awareness of gender-related challenges, shares expert perspectives, and offers practical advice for building fairer and more inclusive environments in tech and beyond.
By taking just a few minutes to complete it, young women can gain a clearer picture of how their abilities and passions align with the cybersecurity profession and take their first step towards a rewarding career protecting people, organizations, and the digital society at large. Check out the project here.
About Africaines in Tech
Africaines In Tech is a pan-African network that brings together more than 700 experts, founders and professionals women committed to driving the digital transformation of the African continent.
It was born from the initiative launched by Abidjanaises in Tech in Côte d’Ivoire and from the desire to strengthen and promote women’s participation in the digital field in Côte d’Ivoire.
Our core mission is to inspire, connect, and equip women who dare to claim their place in the tech sector. We position ourselves as a business club driven by a strong ambition: to build the largest pool of highly qualified technology experts.
Over time, Africaines in Tech has expanded to bring together active communities in several francophone countries, with chapters currently operating in Senegal (Sénégalaises in Tech), Togo (Togolaises in Science), Cameroon (Camerounaises in Tech), and soon in new francophone African countries. Learn more at https://africainesintech.com/
About Smart Africa
Smart Africa is an alliance of African countries, international organizations, and global private sector players tasked with advancing Africa’s digital transformation agenda. Empowered by a bold and innovative commitment from African Heads of State, the alliance aims to accelerate sustainable socio-economic development on the continent and usher Africa into the knowledge economy through affordable access to broadband and the use of ICTs. With a vision to create a single digital market in Africa by 2030, Smart Africa brings together member states to accelerate the digitalization of the continent and create a common market. Launched in 2013 by seven African Heads of State, the alliance now has 40 member countries, representing over 1 billion people and over 50 private sector members committed to the vision and advancement of Africa. Learn more at https://smartafrica.org/
