Palo Alto Networks’ CEO has apologised after a photo of two women dressed to resemble Palo-branded lamps at an event went viral.
Nikesh Arora acknowledged that there is “no excuse on our part” for the episode at last week’s Black Hat USA 2024, which was variously branded “sexist”, “creepy” and “tone deaf” by onlookers.
Having been taken by security architect and public speaker Sean Juroviesky, the image was swiftly circulated on LinkedIn, including by veteran global CISO Olivia Rose.
“Palo Alto should also be made aware that I have personally received multiple messages from women at the company who were too scared to speak up about this decision. Quite a Bro Culture going on there, sounds like,” Rose wrote.
Talking to IT Channel Oxygen, Juroviesky said he’d never encountered anything like it before.
“I’ve previously seen ‘booth babes’ at events like comic con, but never were they essentially blindfolded as they were at this event,” he said.
“Also there is a difference between a professional event like Black Hat and what you’d unfortunately expect to see at recreational events.”
“Not the culture we support”
Rose’s viral post highlighting Juroviesky’s image prompted apologies from both Palo and CyberRiskAlliance, whose ‘CyberRisk Collaborative Happy Hour’ the world’s largest cybersecurity vendor was sponsoring.
The image is a painful reminder that the objectification of women at cyber trade events is not completely a thing of the past, despite large trade events such as Infosecurity Europe and CES moving to ban or crack down on so-called ‘booth babes’ a decade ago.
Palo Alto’s backfiring marketing stunt comes amid concerns that many women are leaving the cybersecurity industry, even though they currently make up just 17% of the employee base.
In a LinkedIn post of his own, Arora said he was “saddened” to see the picture, stressing that it is “unequivocally not the culture we support, or aspire to be”.
“I would like to assure you that we will double down and ensure this does not happen again, I would urge you and others to treat this like an isolated incident and not see this as something that Palo Alto Networks stands for,” he wrote.
“There is no excuse on our part, thanks again for your consideration.”
Since his profile blew up last week, Juroviesky has used his heightened platform to highlight the work of Women in Cybersecurity.
“As pointed out in the comments a lack of diversity is a core issue within our industry and they’re doing amazing work that I’ve seen first hand making a difference,” he wrote.
