The Cyber Security Challenge (CSC) is not only about recruiting talent, but is aimed at raising awareness and widening the IT security talent pool, according to the competition's CEO, Stephanie Danan.
Danan was responding to Computing's coverage of the challenge yesterday, which questioned whether the competition was a worthy programme or a waste of time after its latest winner, 28-year-old Stephen Miller (pictured), said he had no plans to switch from his current role at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to a cyber security position.
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She emphasised that the competition's main role was not solely to focus on recruitment.
"What we're about is widening our talent base, so most recently we announced that we'd be working with schools and universities to raise awareness of IT security roles. The very end point is to ensure people go into security roles but there is a lot that goes on first," Danan told Computing.
"You also need to give people time, as many of them say they did this as a hobby and did not realise there was a career out there for them, so they could attend the challenge for a few years and then realise this is what they want to do in their careers," she added.
However, as the challenge's latest winner Miller is not taking up a role in cyber security, it begs the question whether the challenge is achieving its aims.
"It is slightly frustrating [that Miller is not taking up a role in cyber security] but we are not at the end of the story with our winner - it wouldn't surprise me if he moved to an IT security department within GSK," she said.
"The story of someone who taught himself and reached where he has is a very powerful one, especially as people are put off by the IT security industry as it is thought of as hard to get into," she added.
Yesterday, a spokesperson from CSC told Computing that 40 people had secured IT security jobs following two full years of the challenge, while in total 7,000 people had registered for the competition. Danan believes that this was a reflection of the industry as a whole, and that changes were needed in order to ensure more candidates take up roles in IT security.
"It is not up to us to do the recruitment part of it but our sponsors are very keen for us to continue to be involved in the process. The cyber security profession is still incredibly young and there are not the same processes as there are in the established professions because there is no easy career path or easy way in from school - you have people [at the challenge] who aren't qualified so companies have to work on re-gearing themselves [in order to accept these candidates] and that doesn't happen overnight," she said.
Danan went on to say that it was not up to the CSC alone to raise awareness and help companies and the government to recruit the right talent for IT security roles, and that the CSC does not have a target for how many people it hopes to persuade to get into the industry.
"If it came to a point where our sponsors said that they're finding lots of people with the right skills then that would be our job completed," she said.
