Approved for 1 GIAC CPE
Anyone who has tried to hire a security professional for their organization understands that there is a serious shortage of people out there with the skills needed to plan, design, implement, and manage a cybersecurity strategy. In fact, according to ESG’s 2016 IT Spending Intentions Survey, 46% of organizations now claim that they have a problematic shortage of cybersecurity skills. The question everyone in the industry is asking is, where will we find the folks to fill this gap? Networks are undergoing dramatic transformations, fueled by BYOD, IoT, virtualization, and cloud deployments. At the same time, threats are escalating in their prevalence, sophistication, and impact. The lack of skilled cybersecurity professionals could literally stall our growing digital economy. The cybersecurity industry offers a unique opportunity for military veterans. Today, the post-9/11 unemployment rate for veterans is close to 6%, while the security engineer unemployment rate is 0%. And while every year 250,000 more veterans transition out of the military, according to Forbes, one million new cybersecurity jobs are created every year, which translates to an expected five to six million cybersecurity jobs by 2019. Over 200,000 of these cyber jobs go unfilled, with a 74% increase in postings in just the past year. Fortunately, military veterans and the cybersecurity industry share many skills that can make cybersecurity a rewarding career opportunity for veterans. Military veterans are highly sought after by employers that understand the real synergies between military service and cybersecurity. This presentation will provide an overview of the cyber threat landscape, synergies between military service and cyber security industry, common transitional tracks into the cyber security careers, the traits that employers are looking for and the programs that veterans can leverage to get into the cyber security business.