Cyber talent shortage complicated by ‘deprioritizing’ in colleges

By Erin Ayers on May 23, 2016

Talent shortfalls remain an obstacle in the battle against cybercrime, with a Cisco report from earlier this year pinning the need for 2016 at one million cybersecurity jobs.

However, a study by security firm CloudPassage suggests that US colleges and universities aren’t meeting the demand, with not one of the country’s top 10 computer science schools as ranked by US News and World Report requiring a cybersecurity course for graduation. Three out of those 10 do not offer elective courses, either.

“I wish I could say these results are shocking, but they’re not,” said Robert Thomas, CEO of CloudPassage. “With more than 200,000 open cybersecurity jobs in 2015 in the U.S. alone and the number of threat surfaces exponentially increasing, there’s a growing skills gap between the bad actors and the good guys.

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erin.ayers@zywave.com'

Erin is the managing editor of Advisen’s Front Page News. She has been covering property-casualty insurance since 2000. Previously, Erin served as editor-in-chief of The Standard, New England’s Insurance Weekly. Erin is based in Boston, Mass. Contact Erin at [email protected].