Infosec education gets boost with launch of (ISC)2 programme

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Security organisation (ISC)² has announced a new Global Academic Programme it hopes will boost the importance of security in higher education teaching programmes around the world.

The larger purpose of the Programme is to address the growing skills shortage in the security profession through, a situation not helped by the marginal status of the subject in some computing science degrees. This means the industry needs to turn out more and better security professionals and do so not just in developed countries but across the world.

(ISC)²’s Programme will offer support universities and colleges in the form of specific modules to handbooks and student textbooks drawn from the organisation’s certification Common Body of Knowledge (CBKs).

“With the global skills gap in this sector increasingly acknowledged by companies and governments around the world, industry and academia must come together to address this challenge,” said W Hord Tipton, CISSP, executive director, (ISC)².

“We believe it’s critical to recognise and support the role of the academic community in the development of much-needed cybersecurity talent for now and in the future,” he said.

“(ISC)² is in a unique position to offer its educational content, which is regularly updated and vetted by experts, to colleges and universities around the world as part of this collaborative development effort required for our now digitally-dependent society.”

This effort also chimed in with global attempts by governments to improve the quality of cybersecurity in education.

Computing graduates should not leave university with only a cursory understanding of security, agreed Carsten Maple, Vice Chair of the Council of Professors and UK higher education body, Heads of Computing.

“Clearly with the growth in cyber-attacks there is a need for graduates to be equipped with skills and knowledge of the threats and methods to overcome these. To do this and to give Computing students the best opportunity to succeed, we as an academic community are trying to better engage with industry representatives in fields such as information security,” he said.

Institutions looking for more information on the Global Academic Programme should contact Dr Jo Portillo at academic@isc2.org or make an inquiry via the web site.

John E Dunn, Computerworld UK

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