Closing the Cybersecurity Skills Gap: New Security Training Program
Cybersecurity professionals help safeguard our most important information - from sensitive government and military data to corporate intellectual property to our individual personal, health and financial data.
But there is a huge gap between the need for cybersecurity professionals and the number of people who have the skills to fill those roles, according to the (ISC)2 Cybersecurity Workforce Study:
(ISC)2 estimates that there is an unmet need for almost half a million cybersecurity professionals in North America alone. The study also found that almost two-thirds of organizations reported a shortage of cybersecurity staff.
A team from the University of Arizona College of Electrical and Computer Engineering launched a new program to help close this cybersecurity skills gap: the all-new fully online University of Arizona Network Security Training.
Hands-On Practical Security Training
Network Security Training is designed by Dr. Salim Hariri and a team from the NSF Cloud and Autonomic Computing Center at the University of Arizona. Dr. Hariri is a world renowned researcher in the area of cybersecurity, distributed computing, and autonomic computing.
While the program is fully online, Dr. Hariri and his team wanted to make sure that participants who complete the program would be ready to apply and use what they learned. That's why the courses provide hands-on practical experience in using network and computer monitoring tools, intrusion detection and prevention tools, and other cybersecurity tools, in addition to teaching the fundamentals of cybersecurity.
The skills taught in the program map directly to the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) Cybersecurity Workforce Framework, a collaborative effort between the private sector, government and academia designed to improve cybersecurity education, training, and workforce development.
The Network Security course will launch in January 2020. Additional courses will be launched in later months.
This noncredit professional development program is open to technical professionals in any location. You do not need to an admitted and enrolled University of Arizona student to participate. You will need to submit a short form through the office of Continuing & Professional Education describing your technical background and knowledge before registering for the course.