“We’re the largest provider of cybersecurity solutions to the federal government, so we know that we’ve got to help build that talent pipeline,” said Diane Miller, Northrop’s program director for the CyberPatriot contest, on the sidelines of the March event.<\/p>\n
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Walters, who says he has 22 years of experience in the field, helped prepare 48 students from Marshall Academy in Falls Church, Va., who competed in the CyberPatriot contest this year.<\/p>\n
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Listings for cybersecurity positions rose 73 percent in the five years through 2012, 3.5 times faster than postings for computer jobs as a whole, according to Boston-based Burning Glass, a labor market analytics firm that collects data from more than 22,000 online jobs sites.<\/p>\n
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Just more than a month after graduating in December from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh with a master’s degree in information security technology and management, he started working at defense contractor Raytheon Co.<\/p>\n
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“Cybersecurity is a good field these days to get into \u2014 there are a lot of people out there looking for talent,” said the 24-year-old, who got offers from all six of the potential employers he interviewed with.<\/p>\n
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To prepare the next generation of specialists, the federal government’s National Security Agency is working to strengthen college-level education through its National Centers of Academic Excellence in Cyber Operations program, which gives a designation to universities that meet curriculum and other criteria.<\/p>\n
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Companies and government agencies are finding many candidates exiting college programs inadequately prepared for high-skill jobs crucial to cybersecurity, said Frank Reeder, co- founder of the Center for Internet Security in East Greenbush, N.Y., and former senior official at the U.S.<\/p>\n
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A spate of recent disclosures by corporations about security breaches include social network Facebook, which said it was targeted in a “sophisticated attack” by hackers in January who installed malware on laptops used by company employees.<\/p>\n
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U.S. companies and public sector organizations will raise outlays on computer security to an estimated $89.1 billion in the fiscal year ending October 2013, more than double the 2006 level, according to data collected by the Ponemon Institute. and analyzed for Bloomberg.<\/p>\n
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Each year JPMorgan Chase “spends approximately $200 million to protect ourselves from cyberwarfare and to make sure our data are safe and secure,” with 600 people dedicated to it, Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon wrote last month in a letter to shareholders.<\/p>\n
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“There’s a lot of really talented hackers or people with cybersecurity skills \u2014 it’s finding those folks who want to use their skills for good, not evil.”<\/p>\n
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A participant in last year’s CyberPatriot contest earned certifications and went from high-school to a job paying $62,000, said Bernie Skoch, the commissioner for the competition at the Air Force Association, a nonprofit, independent group that supports the service through educational and promotional programs.<\/p>\n