The importance of soft skills in cybersecurity
For reducing the risks to the employers, there is a need for soft skills for filling all unique niches within the organisations along with making them quite versatile (Lu, 2022). Culture matching, as well as soft skills, help to reduce risks (Parrish, et al., 2018). Verbal along with written communication with the stakeholders and management is the daily activity. Communication is quite crucial for all compliance analysts who consistently communicate with all other teams. As a security analyst, it is expected in delivering presentations to a group of executives as well as stakeholders. In addition, managing projects, assets, people, and time is also required for this job (Henry, 2017). It is crucial in establishing and following procedures for the purpose of troubleshooting. There is a great value in convincing others of any viewpoint. Cybersecurity is quite full of all regulatory bodies along with professional organisations which inform as well as standardise the methods to solve the issues within the industry (Yuan, et al., 2019). Additionally, people exercising creativity within problem-solving could diversity the team methods of problem-solving also (Švábenský, et al., 2018).
The hard skills help in the functional understanding of all fundamentals of cloud computing as well as computer networking. The hard skills also provide an understanding of the operating systems and provide the ability to build along with evaluating the network architecture. Research is the major component for every penetration tester who should stay diligent in understanding the process to trap all new kinds of attacks (Švábenský, et al., 2018). Penetration testing is another hard skill required for the security experts (Zhu, 2018). Pentest describes the launching of the simulated cyberattacks, which seek out every exploitable vulnerability within applications, websites, networks, and computer systems. Network security covers several processes, devices, and technologies (John, et al., 2020). Network security is the set of configurations as well as rules designed for protecting the accessibility, confidentiality, and integrity of data along with computer networks using both hardware as well as software technologies (Lu, 2022). The employees should have the knowledge of network security for dealing with the data along with computer networks. The employees should also be tasked with the responsibilities like updating information, maintaining, and troubleshooting the systems of information security, providing security solutions, and implementing continuous monitoring of the networks.
As the world grows continuously with the internet and technology, the government, along with other private organisations, are attacked by numerous hackers. Hence, there is a crucial need for cyber security. There is much potential for this industry of cyber security to grow, and there is also a demand for engineers, analysts of cyber security, and investigators within several sectors. Numerous countries provide significant bachelor’s degrees and associate’s degrees in cyber security to students (Slay & Austin, 2018). Regarding education on cyber security, education’s quality in the United Kingdom is globally recognised. There are several programs within the British universities in several areas of study which excel along with top the rankings. The USA is another country where significant programs of cyber security are provided. This country offers several undergraduates along with graduate degrees in cyber security. The educational institutions in Switzerland also have a good reputation for providing excellent training on cyber security to the students.
The significance of hard skills in cybersecurity
Several universities in Australia offer studies of cyber security at postgraduate along with undergraduate levels. These levels offered vary from the named postgraduate along with undergraduate coursework degrees to the IT degrees that offer as the major or minor theme. However, a few universities don’t offer certain courses related to cybersecurity, while all others offer these courses relating to all industry firms. Australia is ranked 12th worldwide for education on cyber security (Caelli & Liu, 2018). Australia has a long history and notable position in using ICT for several application sectors. Australia has some difficulty in attracting along with retaining talents in cyber security. However, the education sector in cyber security within Australia is in its infancy currently (Henry, 2017).
The courses of cybersecurity in Australia are popular as several universities within this country have designed carefully flexible degree programs as well as courses. Approximately 14000 students are enrolled on the programs for cyber security within Australian universities (Beukes, 2021). For getting admission to several graduate courses in cybersecurity in Australia, the aspirants need a bachelor’s degree mandatorily within a minimum of 60%, LOR, SOP for Australia, test scores for English proficiency, and proof of availability of finance (Parrish, et al., 2018). Monash University provides several courses, such as Bachelor in Cybersecurity, Master of Cyber Security, and Bachelor of Computer Science Security and network. The University of Western Sydney provides courses, such as Bachelor of Cybersecurity along with Behaviour, and Murdoch University provides courses like Master of Biosecurity and Cyber Forensic along with Information Security.
In this rapidly expanding digital business, along with technology, almost every information is digitally kept, whether this is personal information or commercial data. Such type of data is quite vulnerable to theft, data erasure, and data manipulation. For avoiding this, there is a need for a multi-layered process that involves technology, practices, and processes should be implemented for preventing loss of data. Learning cybersecurity could help in refining such skills along with entering this profession as an expert. Several universities within Australia provide several courses on cyber security that range from postgraduate to bachelor’s degrees (John, et al., 2020). The contents of the courses differ for different universities in Australia. Security management, software management, computer ethics, computer forensics, and ethical hacking are a few of the modules offered by these Australian universities.
Tutorials, lectures, sessions in the computer lab, and group projects might be included. Based on the program, the students could participate in work placement (Beukes, 2021). The bachelor’s degree in cybersecurity within the Australian universities covers several topics, such as computer crimes and computer forensics, analysis of cybersecurity, cyber security practices, cyber security along with management, security governance, ethical hacking, and principles of cyber security (Slay & Austin, 2018). The master’s degree in cybersecurity within the Australian universities includes several programs, such as cybersecurity analytics, applied analytics, coding for all cyber communications, digital risk management, network management, information security, cloud security, web technologies along with communications, and computer security, and computer networks.
The crisis of skills of cybersecurity is a major policy issue within several countries, along with governments are looking to universities for addressing it (Yuan, et al., 2019). In Australia, there isn’t any university scholar taking research full time into the pedagogies along with a public policy for the education of cyber security (Zhu, 2018). The firms in Australia struggle in finding workers for cyber security despite offering some huge wage premiums. There exists a huge gap in aligning a student’s education and every hands-on skill needed for making ready for the jobs (Henry, 2017). The undergraduate education should prepare the graduates for cybersecurity as this does in logic as well as communication. However, most universities are far from the inclusion of cyber security as a new discipline. The first main pedagogical reform as well as curriculum for this general subject of cyber security to be much more appreciated along with realisable by the students (Caelli & Liu, 2018). In Australia, there are some signs that this formal education system is failing in producing enough graduates of cyber security. However, there is a crucial need for addressing the shortage of talents by increasing individuals having the skills in cybersecurity. For ensuring that the education on cyber security continues to grow, the universities in Australia should apply some new ways to think, understand, and strategy to the response of the nation to such new age of digital transformation. Such a proposition aligns with all current emphases on the multidisciplinary methods for the education of cyber security.
References
Beukes, D. J. (2021). Evaluating the cyber security skills gap relating to penetration testing. Retrieved from https://commons.ru.ac.za/vital/access/services/Download/vital:42021/SOURCE1
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