11 May Cybersecurity must be on school curriculm

The Principal Instructor at SANS Institute, a cybersecurity training and certification specialist, is calling for South Africa to incorporate cybersecurity into its school curriculum, in order to tackle the growing problem of cyber threats in the country.

According to Jason Jordaan, the country has a lack of quality STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) education, which means fewer children are exposed to IT security as a potential future career. In turn, this leads to too few job-seekers with the necessary skills to add value to the cybersecurity market.

He said:  “When cyber security also gets introduced at the school level, we have seen significant interest in cyber security careers and often identify real talent before they even leave school. We have seen this in countries such as the United States, United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates to name just a few.”

The role of the cybersecurity professional is set to become more relevant and crucial to businesses’ success. Therefore it’s vital that a new generation of experts is being trained up to take on the role – and are encouraged to continue training throughout their careers.

Jordaan continued: “One of the key things that anyone in cyber security will face is that with the constant changes not only in technology, but in the threats that we face, that we constantly have to learn and upskill ourselves, and that is our responsibility, not that of our employers.”