Slashdot Mirror
The Cybersecurity Industry Is Hiring, But Young People Aren't Interested
Daniel_Stuckey writes "Cybersecurity, as an industry, is booming. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, jobs as network systems and information security professionals are expected to grow by 53 percent through 2018. Yet, young people today aren't interested in getting jobs in cybersecurity. By all accounts it's a growing and potentially secure, lucrative job. But according to a new survey by the defense tech company Raytheon, only 24 percent of millennials have any interest in cybersecurity as a career."
I'm not a millennial, but I am familiar with computer system security, and while I don't have a security clearance, I do have a clean record which makes it possible to get one. Perhaps raytheon et al are simply expecting too much for too little pay. They're not going to find BS degree'd, clean cut 20 somethings with no criminal record if they insist on offering $12/hr wages. That mythical 22 year old working 22 hours a day for 22k a year doesn't exist.
The employees are out there but they cannot work for chinese slave labor wages, nor do they want that lifestyle.
I certainly wouldn't take a job that would force me to flee to another country for asylum if my conscience makes me become a whistle blower.
I would've thought 24% of young people being interested is pretty good. Especially for a niche job like this.
such a retarded word
The problem with slashdot is that most of its users were bullied and stuffed into lockers as kids!
Please give me a big list of other occupations which more than 24% of a random sample of kids are interested in, then I'll allow you to claim that too few youngsters are interested in cybersecurity.
Terje
"almost all programming can be viewed as an exercise in caching"
The idea of working on mechanisms to stop other people from doing things seems like such a depressing job, even if the objective is to stop malicious people from doing bad things! The goal is to suppress and defeat the actions of other people who actually lead interesting lives!
Meanwhile, almost every other kind of development job involves creating something visible, something meant to be shared, something constructive, helpful, or fun!
Progress is slowly being made in the use of capability based security.
If you think a technology will solve all our security problems, then you don't understand what security is all about.
Securty is a process, not a technology.
Every time you think you've built something idiot-proof; nature comes right in, and delivers you a more idiotic idiot.
Until you can eliminate all humans in organizations; computer security can never be a solved problem.
Because most security problems are caused by humans, AND IT security falls within the broader umbrella of risk management.
You will never own a perfectly secure system. Not now. Not in a thousand years.
It doesn't matter what fancy new capability-based models you come up with; there will always be threats and vulnerabilities.
A very surprisingly large number of corporations do NOT spend money on security.
Which is why the FBI surprised over 70 companies a couple years back when the FBI told them their systems had been hacked for the company's intellectual property. The companies in question had _no_ idea they'd been hit. Which is also why the NSA makes a point of touring US-based companies to present corporate execs (primarily in the IT end of things) un-classified reports on the latest security threats (if you don't already know, take a look at the NSA Information Assurance program). Which is why I was laid off because one such company was not going to listen to someone suggesting to them their computer security really sucked and were actually in the process of slashing intellectual property protection and computer security jobs. Again. For the eighth time in four years. So they could use the money "saved" on the salaries of people at my level who were also laid off to "buy" low level grunt "talent" in their China operations. That company's security still sux and remains far too easily hacked, and this is in a sixty year old high tech company that would've known better had they not be bought out by an aggressive "rollup" company to then be run by a bunch of greedy WallStreet-types who extract, literally, $100's of millions of dollars for themselves from the companies they've absorbed and stripped of assets.
So, no, many companies could give a rat's rear about security.
Only large corps really spend money on security...
Am I missing something? 24% of millenials sounds like a huge number if its not just IT workers polled.
When your job is security, the best thing that can happen is that you do an excellent job, and the end result is - nothing. That's the whole idea of it. If you do your job right, nothing happens. If you do your job badly, shit happens. Stuff gets stolen, and so on.
So will anyone congratulate you for a job well done? No, they will only see money spent on your salary with zero results. You will look as if the company could do without you. You know better, but the people who might give you a raise don't. And the people who could fire you to safe on salaries and increase profits don't.
You get much better recognition in a job that visibly produces positive results.