Infosec Community Posts Solidarity Bikini Pics After Twitter Troll Outburst

Cybersecurity professionals have come together on Twitter to show their support for an infosec worker who was trolled after posting a bikini pic.

Coleen Shane, founder and chief engineer for InfoSec Bad Girls and Hacker Spring Camp, was astonished when an anonymous follower reacted angrily to the shot.

The user, who follows over 200 infosec-related accounts, argued that there was “no warning” for the image, intimating that “otherwise respectable people” should not be doing such.

Coleen’s response was widely praised.

“It’s a bikini, and I’m a human being who is a lot more complicated than just Infosec – also I do whatever the hell I want, whenever the hell I want, however the hell I want. Adios,” she tweeted.

The incident sparked a number of solidarity pics from members of the cybersecurity community from right across the spectrum — including several mankinis and one dog in a bikini.

Discrimination, sexism and gender inequality are still rife in the industry.

A report from ISC2 last year revealed that women are paid on average 21% less than their male colleagues, while over a fifth (22%) cited discrimination as an issue they’d experienced in their careers, versus just 13% of men.

A separate National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) study on diversity last year revealed more troubling findings, particularly that 74% of negative incidents still go unreported.

“Gay and lesbian respondents reported feeling discriminated against over their sexual orientation at eight times the level of survey respondents as a whole. Female respondents reported nearly two and half times the level negative incidents as a result of their gender identity than the survey as a whole,” it noted.

“These begin to illustrate the varied experiences of professionals today. Given these findings, it is worrying to discover that the industry has low levels of incident reporting and resolution. In the circumstances, it is little surprise that just over 9% of all those surveyed are considering changing employers or leaving the industry entirely.”