The University of Waikato is calling for school students to me made more aware of the potential of a career in cyber security, saying options are expanding rapidly in fields such as law, research, teaching and insurance.
The University notes that the government’s cyber security strategy annual action plan report, released last week, shows the government-appointed cyber security taskforce aims to introduce a secondary school programme to help position students for higher level study towards cyber security qualifications.
Cyber Security Researchers of Waikato (CROW) associate professor Ryan Ko, who is a member of the New Zealand cyber security taskforce, says secondary school students need to be better informed of the “massive potential” that a career in cyber security can have for their personal benefit and that of the New Zealand economy.
“We need to train more Kiwis in cyber security to align with the fast growth and deployment of new technologies. This is important to protect New Zealand because tech is our fastest growing industry and a lapse in cyber capability would be detrimental to the economy,” Ko said.
He claimed that only 23 percent company directors actively participate in security policy and said that $34 billion could be added to the New Zealand economy if businesses made more effective use of the Internet.
“Globally, unfilled cyber security jobs are predicted to reach 1.5 million by 2019 and international experts say the entire cyber security sector unemployment rate is zero percent,” he said.