Could Your Grandma Be The Next Cybersecurity Expert?

I was in attendance of a panel discussion during RSA Conference 2018 that was focusing on emerging cyber threats and the challenges faced by corporationsand governments in a digital world. Yes, the thrilling melting pot of modern security concerns.

- Zachary Chan

However, there was one discussion point that stuck with me, and it was about how we think of cybersecurity experts today. I’d imagine the first thing that popped into your mind— just as it did mine—was the typical programming savant. A high profile black hat hacker, brought in to reverse engineer a company’s infrastructure, in order to find and eliminate security loopholes. Or maybe I’ve just watched one too many movies.

The reality of it, as echoed by panelists Zulfikar Ramzan, the CTO of RSA, and Narelle Devine, the Chief Information Security Officer at the Australian Government Department of Human Services, is that IT skills aren’t the most important thing you need to be a cybersecurity expert any more. And organizations are finding out that current education curriculums aren’t producing people with the right skills for the real world when they leave university.