Universities are giving cybersecurity education a significant boost by introducing fast-track degree programs and artificial intelligence learning. The changes are geared towards rapidly bridging an expanding talent gap in the industry, of which there are more than 4.7 million cybersecurity positions lying vacant globally.
Recently Northwood University introduced a 90-credit Bachelor of Applied Science in Cybersecurity that allows students to enter the workforce one year faster than a traditional four-year degree program, without sacrificing the depth of education. Likewise, the University of South Florida has gotten a 40 million gift to create the Bellini Center AI, Cyber, and Computing, making it the first university in the U.S. to integrate AI and cybersecurity within a single academic building.
The need to do so is pressed. ISC2 further reports that in North America alone, approximately 543,000 cyber positions are unfilled. As the number of cyberattacks and their severity increase, public and private sectors are turning to find ways of quickly increasing the supply of qualified professionals.
To answer this need, instructors are resorting to AI-assisted tools, which provide a simulated real-life attack environment and focus on critical thinking. And a few programs are even going so far as to enter K12 classrooms, such as CETAP and CYBER.ORG, to seed cyber literacy at an early age and develop future interest and capabilities.
According to the industry analysts, the worldwide market size of the cybersecurity training is expected to reach $13.7 billion by 2030, with more than 17 percent of compound annual growth rate. In the meantime, the threats to organizations have not diminished: last year over 30000 new software vulnerabilities were disclosed, and cybercrime expenses in the U.S. alone exceeded 12 billion dollars.
Such hurdles notwithstanding, a tsunami of innovation in cybersecurity education portends a change in the speed and efficiency with which new talent can be brought to bear on one of the most important technology frontiers in the world.
