One of the biggest challenges facing the IT industry is determining how to boost the number of skilled cyber security professionals in order to combat an epidemic of cyber crime. That's according to Jon Ramsey, CTO of Dell SecureWorks, the hardware manufacturer's information security division.
"It's become increasingly apparent that there is a cyber security skills crisis. With the continued rise in cyber crime of all types, there needs to be a corresponding rise in skilled employees to tackle this epidemic," he told Computing.
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"Since the dawn of the internet age there have been malicious actors whose intent has been to disrupt and sabotage. Companies and governments are continually working to keep up with the advanced methods and knowledge of the threat actors. One of the industry's biggest challenges is to find enough skilled security professionals to meet the demand."
Ramsey argued that more needs to be done to make people aware of the opportunities available to learn the skills required to combat cyber crime and that this should begin in schools before being repeated at college and university, with the help of government funding if necessary.
"There needs to be multiple approaches for building up the number of employees in the industry," he said.
"It starts with schools educating students that a career in cyber security is a viable option. Higher education plays an important role in building on this message, and linking graduates to the jobs market.
"Some Far Eastern countries are dedicating resources to training graduates in fighting cyber crime and the Western world needs to ensure it keeps up. We need to ensure universities supply both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in cyber security," said Ramsey.
Businesses also need to play an important role in addressing the cyber security skills gap, he told Computing.
"Companies need to attract talented individuals and show career progression for employees in the cyber security industry. This is one of the advantages that Dell SecureWorks has in recruiting - being solely focused on cyber security we can offer varied career paths to security professionals that join us.
"All organisations need to increase efforts in training and recruiting workers to ensure we are closing the skills gap that exists today," Ramsey added.
Dell SecureWorks recently launched a targeted cyber threat hunting service, designed to help organisations stay ahead of cyber criminals by detecting hackers lurking in their systems.
