Cyberattacks hit record highs last year, with nearly 160,000 cyber incidents reported and seven billion records exposed in the first three quarters of 2017, according to Online Trust Alliance’s Cyber Incidents and Breaches Trends Report. With the ubiquity of cyberattacks comes a need for more professionals. However, skilled individuals who are not already in the field and who have an interest in cybersecurity careers remain scarce.

In June, the Center for Cyber Safety and Education and (ISC)² released the biennial Global Information Security Workforce study, which found that 66 percent of companies reported not having enough workers to address current threats. The workforce shortage may be inhibiting organizations from proactively preventing data breaches, further emphasizing the need for an inflow of skilled workers.

Despite focused efforts to strengthen the U.S. cybersecurity workforce, finding workers to fill that gap has proven difficult. A new national University of Phoenix survey found that 80 percent of U.S. adults have never considered a career in cybersecurity. When asked why, more than four in 10 said that they have no interest in the field.*

This seeming disinterest in cybersecurity careers could be the result of a lack of familiarity with the more technical jobs in the industry. According to the survey, only about one in 10 U.S. adults are very familiar with cybersecurity job titles such as penetration tester, information security analyst and chief information security officer. Up to 50 percent had never even heard of them.

To fix the shortage, clarification of what these roles entail and the necessary education to pursue them could help decrease the intimidation and potentially bridge the workforce gap. Many of these job titles may have become foreign concepts to adults outside of the field. The survey suggests that this could be because people (Read more...)