Did "women in tech" push cause largest security breach in history ... after female chief security officer with degree in fine arts screws up, well, everything? "Equifax Chief Information Security Officer Was An Affirmative Action Hire"

Historybuffman · 2017-09-18T02:49:07+00:00

I have always thought Affirmative Action was one of the worst ideas humans have ever had.

Qualified people? Nah, not enough (blacks, women, other) here. Let's get us some of them.

Seriously?

Then, how would you feel when you got that job? They only hired you because you met some diversity criteria, but (probably) would have never got the job otherwise. Just try not to think about, I guess?

It is just insulting to everyone.

mensmod · 2017-09-18T13:49:01+00:00

For people who are not normally subscribers of /r/MensRights, understand that the argument being made here is NOT that women are bad employees in tech.

The argument being made here is that Affirmative Action pushes organizations to hire people based on gender, which can override or impede competency considerations. When that happens, the employee is more likely to make a mistake. Even if that didn't happen here, the presence of affirmative action policies will always undermine women employees.

There are consequences to such actions - since Affirmative Action influences the hiring of women, unqualified women in careers end up creating a higher fraction of mistakes by women employees and undermines the perception of women employees. i.e. if a higher fraction of women screw up, it makes it seem like women aren't good at that type of work and perpetuates stereotypes. This undermines the purpose of the affirmative action in the first place.

The solution to a lack of women in tech is to encourage women at a younger age to pursue careers in tech. However, adults are responsible for their decisions and once barriers to women in tech are removed, the relative employment rates of men vs women are a natural consequences of the interests of the individuals of the society.

perplexedm · 2017-09-18T07:09:24+00:00

Equifax on Friday said that Susan Mauldin, chief security officer, and David Webb, chief information officer, were retiring.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-equifax-cyber-moves/equifax-two-top-technology-executives-leave-company-effective-immediately-idUSKCN1BQ2WN

Just like rats out of a sinking ship. Don't know whether she will get a huge severance package or a golden parachute.

5th_Law_of_Robotics · 2017-09-18T12:49:22+00:00

I mean even if it was responsible that won't change anything.

The fact that they've lowered physical standards for firefighters to force equality means we as a society are ok with people literally dying rather than telling some women they aren't qualified for a certain job.

UNLIKELYME · 2017-09-18T06:53:57+00:00

Could this all have been done in an attempt to hide that the individual that Equifax put in charge of protecting 143 million American’s credit information was an affirmative action hire meant to meet some quota? That still remains to be seen,

And the title was:

Equifax Chief Information Security Officer Was An Affirmative Action Hire

Hmm, I don't trust liars all that much.

xydroh · 2017-09-18T08:31:11+00:00

I've met some really bad CSO's, this doesn't have much to do with her degree but more with competence. I'm fine with having a degree in fine arts if she's got some experience in the field elsewhere since the cybersecurity field is only about 5 years old.

Ted8367 · 2017-09-18T05:24:39+00:00

Did "women in tech" push cause largest security breach in history?

It might have contributed some, but (IMO) it probably wasn't much.

Chief Information Security Officer Susan Mauldin was a music major in college.

The commentator "Red" put it best:

CyberSecurity is not an industry which anchors on academia for one very simple reason. It’s only existed as an academic field for what, 5-10 years? Maybe what, 3%? 5%? of people working in the Security Industry have ‘formal cybersecurity’ academic qualifications. In my 15 years in the field I think I’ve met one. So, I think you’re off-base this time. Plenty of blame to go around, but her educational background is a red-herring.

Also, she had had other jobs after college:

Equifax, which is a credit reporting agency, hired Mauldin as their Chief Information Security Officer in 2013. Previously, Mauldin was the Senior Vice President and Chief Security Officer at First Data Corporation until 2013. Prior to that, she was also SunTrust Banks’ Group Vice President from 2007 to 2009.

So, from the resume, not so unthinkable.

This is supported by the fact that the security breach and the handling of it since then both indicate that Susan Mauldin had no idea what she was doing.

Similar to some male managers I have known.

Ashenox · 2017-09-18T14:18:21+00:00

It's almost as if when you hire some one for their gender or skin color instead of ability to do the job shit goes south. Who would have thought!

KinglyWeevil · 2017-09-18T14:03:51+00:00

Pretty sure this has more to do with nepotism than affirmative action.

serial_crusher · 2017-09-18T15:21:36+00:00

It's a bit of a stretch. Never underestimate the ability of a big corporation to promote somebody incompetent to the highest levels, regardless of the incompetent person's gender.

Given the complete lack of evidence here, a feminist could just as easily say that this lady had it right and everybody else in the organization ignored her. Institutional sexism caused this! What, you can't prove that didn't happen, so maybe that's what happened.

Unless you have an email thread where they discuss hiring her over another candidate, or some other form of proof, it's best to just assume this is any other case of corporate incompetence, not confirmation of everything you suspected all along.

swallonyall · 2017-09-22T18:02:02+00:00

I work(ed) in security and this woman's background was thrown through the ringer because of the outcomes of her company. She deserves criticism, sure, but not for her education. The reality is that in the age when she was going through college there was no such thing as a cybersecurity major, and most folks moved into the field from other areas.

Blind_Topics · 2017-12-08T22:48:30+00:00

I think women in tech are great, and it's unfortunate they have to deal with all the BS in addition to all the work BS. https://us.teamblind.com/article/what-do-you-think-of-women-in-tech-n88OAJV8

ee4m · 2017-09-18T08:56:53+00:00

"Liberty conservative"- this libertarian stuff is class warfare against the average man.

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