Cyber security skills in short supply and high demand

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 18 January 2011 10:06

IT Industry - Market

Australia is facing a serious shortage of cyber security experts and there is a lack of formal training opportunities to address the issue, says the newly-appointed CEO of security specialist Stratsec.

Australian cyber security company Stratsec was acquired by BAE Systems Australia this week and CEO, Tim Scully - former head of the Defence Signals Directorate's cyber security operations centre - told iTWire: "There are a lot of people out there who could do the work but the problem is they need serious training and there is a dearth of formal training that would get them up to the level where they can be credibly employed and where clients will be happy to take them on board.

"That sort of training can really only be acquired on the job, and there needs to be more formality and structure around that training."

He called for closer co-operation between government and industry with a stronger focus on training and development. "There needs to be a greater partnership between government and industry in general and that should include training and development initiatives.

"The Government's cyber security strategy [released in November 2009] was a good start but industry is really going to be the boots on the ground to develop those capabilities. Government will play a high level policy leadership role focussing on co-ordination, but industry needs to develop the real capabilities."

Scully said that university computer science courses provided good preparatory training for cyber security experts and some tertiary institutions went well beyond this. "Edith Cowan University, for example has a fairly full range of training that goes deeper into cyber security, but industry needs to start building the capability to provide more education and training in cyber security."

He attributed the lack of this capability in part to the fragmented nature of the industry in Australia. "There are a lot of smaller companies providing a range of professional services but there is no consolidation for training and development."

Following Stratec's - a 60 employee company - acquisition by BAE Systems Australia - part of a 107,000 employee, $US36b multinational, Scully said the company intend to develop and offer format courses in cyber security. "We want to provide a full range of courses. We will have accredited and non-accredited courses; theory and practice'¦ We don't have a start date at the moment. We are going through a discovery period, but we hope to be offering some serious training before the end of the year."