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Fighting the World’s Cybersecurity Talent Shortage

How RSA’s ‘Academic Alliance Programme’ is building Singapore’s first line of cyber defence.

RSA offers business-driven security solutions that uniquely link business context with security incidents to help organizations manage risk and protect what matters most. RSA solutions are designed to effectively detect and respond to advanced attacks; manage user identities and access; and reduce business risk, fraud, and cybercrime. RSA protects millions of users around the world, is recognized as a leader in 4 Gartner Magic Quadrants, and helps 94% of the Fortune 500 companies thrive in an uncertain, high risk world. For more information, visit www.rsa.com

C ybercrime caused financial losses of a staggering US$1.33 billion last year, with Asia-Pacific bearing the brunt of

increasingly sophisticated malicious attacks. As organisations scramble to defend themselves, it’s becoming clear that cybersecurity’s most crucial challenge may be one of manpower.

It’s no secret that as cybercriminals become increasingly organised and aggressive, the teams that defend against their attacks are struggling to fill their ranks. A recent Frost & Sullivan report found that the global cybersecurity workforce will have more than 1.5 million unfilled positions by 2020. In November, Singapore’s Minister for Communications and Information, Yaacob Ibrahim, said that the nation will need to fill 42,000 more technology jobs over the next three years in addi-tion to the current 180,000 technology jobs that are waiting to be filled.

By linking security incidents with business context, RSA already protects millions of users around the globe and helps more than 90% of the Fortune 500 companies, but the organisation is taking cybersecurity’s worldwide talent shortage extremely seriously.

Since 2014, RSA started addressing the cyber- elephant in the room by collaborating with Singa-pore’s leading institutes of higher learning to form an Academic Alliance Programme, the first of its kind anywhere in the world.

Singapore’s Temasek Polytechnic (TP) was the first to partner with RSA and set up a joint Security Operations Centre (SOC) on campus. A curriculum was tailor-made to teach students in the Cyber & Digital Security and Digital Forensics courses how to effectively monitor, detect and respond to cyber threats. The TP-RSA Security Operations Centre provides students with the opportunity to work in an operational environment that is equipped with advanced technologies in IT security and analytics.

“Crucially, this collaboration, supported by the Economic Development Board (EDB), lets students experience hands-on what it’s like working in a real SOC and monitor real networks, and not just a simulated one,” explains Nigel Ng, RSA’s Vice-President in Asia-Pacific and Japan.

Each year, close to a hundred full-time TP di-ploma students are forged into full-blooded cyber-security professionals. It must come as no surprise that majority of the programme’s graduates find there’s a job waiting for them and top students are routinely cherry-picked by big enterprises.

RSA next collaborated with Republic Polytechnic that has a curriculum focusing on teaching their

diploma students how to hunt for advanced threats. Realistic cyber attacks are simulated in a lab environment, and the students must learn to work as a team as they conduct their forensic investigations.

At the same time, a third Polytechnic has opted to expose their diploma students to RSA Governance, Risk and Compliance solution as a tool for compliance to standards and regulatory requirements.

Initiated in Singapore, the Academic Alliance Programme has generated interest from tertiary institutions across ASEAN, Australia & New Zealand to develop a new generation of cyber-security professionals to better assist people and organisations mitigate against cyber threats and cyber frauds. Customers across the region and higher learning institutions representatives from Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand have already visited the TP-RSA SOC.

Besides the collaboration with the higher learning institutions, RSA also recognises the

benefits of increasing cybersecurity awareness amongst younger students. RSA’s Cyber Safety for kids programme complements the Singapore Cyber Security Agency’s efforts in educating pri-mary school students on how to use the Internet wisely while avoiding danger. Since its inception in 2016, more than 10,000 students have partici-pated in the programme and RSA intends to con-tinue expanding the reach to more this year.

“With the proliferation and sophistication of cyber threats, it is critical to have strong defences. These strategic alliances are RSA’s efforts in the right direction to build a bigger pool of skilled cybersecurity professionals for the industry at large,” reveals Nigel. “The lack of skilled cyber-security talent is a real global challenge and we have plans to extend the Academic Alliance Pro-gramme across Asia-Pacific and beyond. Start young, start it right – we at RSA aim to continue nurturing and train the much-needed next gen-eration security experts in today’s fast-changing world.”

RSA Senior Director, Edward Lim at the TP-RSA Security Operations Centre, addressing the students.