Communications of the ACM
Cybersecurity Experts Needed to Meet Growing Demand
Credit: Technology Blog
Demand for cybersecurity professionals far outweighs supply, with the U.S. government needing to hire at least 10,000 experts in the near future and the private sector requiring quadruple that amount, says Trend Micro's Tom Kellermann. Experts say the U.S. government needs more "white hats" in its arsenal to prepare itself for cybersecurity events, but the pool of qualified digital specialists is small. A 2009 Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce study found that less than 6 percent of all college graduates were earning degrees in computers and math, while only 2 percent of that number earned a degree directly related to cybersecurity.
Booz Allen Hamilton's Edwin Kanerva says students who major in computer science are often drawn to fields outside of security, because they have more appeal and can be more lucrative. He says students must be exposed to more science, engineering, technology, and math education, and some cybersecurity training should be added to high school curricula.
"What I'd like for kids to see is that cybersecurity is intellectually stimulating; it's a great field," says the U.S. National Science Foundation's (NSF's) Janice Cuny. NSF plans to fund 10,000 computer science classes in public high schools by 2016.
From The Washington Post
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