Bridging the Gap in Cyber Security
According to the “Cyber Security Workforce Study” that was conducted by the International Information System Security Certification Consortium, there is a cybersecurity workforce gap of more than 2.9 million and the highest gap is found in the Asia-Pacific region. It needs to be emphasized over and over again, how devastating the effects of cyber threats and cyberattacks can be on organizations and institutions around the world.
In such a scenario, the government of Malaysia has made some key points about the need to bridge this gap in cybersecurity. Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) Chief Executive officer Datuk Yasmin Mahmood said that the shortage of talent in cybersecurity is a crisis that can’t be ignored. One of the ways in which the MDEC is trying to bridge this gap is by building collaborations between the industry and the government that provides cybersecurity startups access to valuable requirements like technical mentoring, business support and so on. There are also partnerships with institutes of higher learning and government agencies that seek to close these gaps through Skill-Up programs, an example of which is the one conducted by Protection Group International (PGI) UK and Asia Pacific University of Technology and Innovation (APU).
MDEC’s Platform for Real Industry Driven Project Exchange (PRIDE) is another talent program that seeks to increase the industry readiness of new professionals. Through the various initiatives under this program, students will be given a more hands-on approach to cybersecurity operations that will expose them to the global scale threats within the campus environment. There are also plans underway introducing the cybersecurity curriculum at the grassroots level, instilling ethical values and responsibility among schoolchildren.
According to Talent Pool Report Pro — Oct 2017, the top 10% of job opportunities in Malaysia are related to cybersecurity and according to Frost & Sullivan’s recent digital talent study, there is a cybersecurity talent demand of 10,500 in Malaysia by 2020. The implications of both of these statistics show clearly how the potential and requirement for cybersecurity are sky-high at the moment. And while the mechanisms mentioned above seek to train a new generation of cybersecurity workers, there is also the need to revitalize the existing workforce. It is important for Organisations to invest in their current cybersecurity team members through personnel training because it is as important to get more out of existing security resources as it is through adding more.
Cybersecurity is also a very lucrative career option for those looking to change careers or for those reentering the workforce after an absence. A December 2017 LinkedIn Report showed how the percentage of women in the Malaysian cybersecurity workforce was only 21%. Women can also be one of the key factors in bridging the gap in cybersecurity in Malaysia.
The Deputy Education Minister Teo Nie Ching spoke about the need for skills training and “this includes exposure to the techniques used by cybercriminals and the identification of the vulnerabilities of the network system and recommendations for improvements which can prevent the system from being invaded by unscrupulous people.” This is exactly what the Security Researchers at TheBugBounty does.
Organizations can’t do everything themselves and there is a need to augment internal resources with those of external protection like those provided by TheBugBounty. Hackers are ramping up their attacks and the number of White Hat hackers that can take preemptive measures and/or stop them need to increase drastically as well. Crowdsourcing security is one of the most effective means of doing so because of the many advantages of sheer number, time zones etc that come with it. At TheBugBounty, we bring together the smartest and best Security Researchers. This mission is very important to us and TheBugBounty seeks to ensure that we play a key role in bridging, as soon as possible, this gap in Cyber Security in Malaysia and around the world.
