There is a shortage of qualified professionals within the cybersecurity field across the globe, and universities in the United States are looking for solutions.
It is predicted that by 2021, there will be 3.5 million unfilled cybersecurity jobs globally. Comparably, there were one million open jobs in 2014, according to research organization Cybersecurity Ventures.
The unfilled cybersecurity jobs could cause both security and financial concerns.
Cybercrime damages are predicted to cost the world $6 trillion annually by 2021, up from $3 trillion in 2015, Cybersecurity Ventures reported.
“The Internet is still a lot like the wild West with barely enough law enforcement,” said Steve Morgan, founder and editor-in-chief at Cybersecurity Ventures. “This is placing enormous demand on governments and private enterprise to provide cybersecurity products and services.”
Since cybersecurity professionals handle internet security, Robert Jorgensen, assistant professor of cybersecurity at Utah Valley University, believes that working in the field can have both a “rewarding aspect as well as a challenge aspect.”
Dr. Eman El-Sheikh, director of the University of West Florida Center for Cybersecurity, believes that the ever-changing environment of the cybersecurity field contributes to the low rates of qualified professionals currently in the workforce.
