350,000 jobs, according to CyberSeek.com are available right now across the United States in the cybersecurity industry. As you might expect, schools are looking to take advantage of the demand and train a new generation of crime fighting cybersecurity experts.
There have been large scale cyber assaults from Russia and China, but even small scale identity theft at your own home computer. Large and small attacks prove though, the need for cybersecurity has never been greater.
That’s why inside classrooms at Cleveland State University, students are learning skills to combat cyber threats and fill the estimated 350,000 cybersecurity job vacancies around the country.
“As soon as I was made aware what cyber security actually entailed, it was almost instantaneous I was interested,” said Brendan Whitted, a Cleveland State Cyber Security Law student.
Whitted is in his second year of law school student studying cybersecurity law.
“It occurred to me that it was such a deep topic and so important in the field of law that we keep data secure especially because law firms tend to be some of the least secure entities out there,” he said.
While Whitted is focused on a career in law, cybersecurity employment is available in IT, computer science, and engineering, among other industries.
“The cyber security specific jobs like the problem span different areas and different industries,” said Brian Ray, the Co-Director of the Cleveland State Center for Cybersecurity and Privacy Protection.
Ray says internet security is one of the fastest growing sectors for U.S. employment with potential job openings totaling more than a half million by 2020.
“It’s only going to get bigger and it’s only going to get more complex and as a high school student if you’re looking at career opportunities, growth industries, cyber security straddles all sorts of professions,” he said.
His students are already cracking the code to job security in cybersecurity, “My advice would be to at least take an introductory course in cyber security,” said Whitted.
