What is cyber security? Why do we need it?
We have heard one or two news about a company’s data being attacked, the data of the company’s users were hacked and all the information was stolen and in return asked for ransomware. A secured company can be hacked even if it has modern features because as cyber security improves so do the cyber attackers that is why it is not only necessary to be aware of cyber problems but also have knowledge about them. It is necessary to know about cyber security as every situation will be different and will require different sets of action and therefore, the company or users should have the facilities like cyber security personnel to handle the situation and save the files and information as much as they can and update systems, check systems regularly so that unusual or forbidden activities do not take place.
Cyber security is used to protect data, files, and information with the help of networks, hardware, software systems, technologies, and network. Cyber security is important to protect the business data theft and damage. These prevent unauthorized access to files, data, and information. Cyber-attacks cause the freezing of computers, unwanted programs which can affect businesses for many days.
It is necessary to have a cyber-security staff since protecting the company from cyber threats is a 24*7*365 job since threats can come anytime. It is also necessary to have experienced staff and not someone who has some knowledge in this field or does not have an educational background in this field. There should be a dedicated team for the cyber security branch to perform responsibilities and duties.
Companies should also provide specific training to the cyber security personnel and basic training for other staff. Training could include showing new advancements in the field, few instances from the news so that they will be capable to identify a similar threat.
Cyber security talent in the US.
As COVID-19 struck everywhere, companies and businesses were trying to still provide their services and keep their business running for which they started work from home facilities. This step made people use the internet technology and get more dependent on computer technologies, the internet, websites. This is why companies need Security Analysts, Threat Researchers, Security Architect, Security Analysts, or Cloud Security architects more than ever.
According to Forbes, nearly 465,000 unfilled cyber jobs across the nation.
How will the plans by Microsoft change the future of cyber security talent in the US?
Microsoft company wants to expand and strengthen the cyber security workforce. They say that some non-profit organizations and companies also need to come together. There are four-year courses from colleges and universities but there are also community colleges that also provide the course and instead it will take less time to build a cyber-security workforce.
Community colleges are everywhere and in any setting, any state and territory. Also, community college accepts applications from every type of educational background, whether they were recent graduates or job seekers. They also allow part-time jobs, allowing students to gain experience, additional skills, and knowledge. These colleges also allow enrolling on a non-credit basis. According to Microsoft, In 2018-2019, community colleges awarded 878,900 associate degrees, 619,711 certificates, and 20,700 baccalaureate degrees.
Microsoft has been communicating with administrators, faculty, and students at 14 community colleges in six states across the country, the American Association of Community Colleges, and at the National Cybersecurity Training & Education Center (NCyTE), for partnering up with community colleges. This communication was required to sort out the problems faced by the community colleges lack of state-of-the-art curriculum which can be included in the college’s courses, lack of training and teaching in cybersecurity programs to be aware of the emerging threats and all these requirements to be backed financially and have additional learning facilities.
Microsoft also came up with a cybersecurity jobs campaign.
An as per Microsoft, this campaign will help to fill 250,000 cybersecurity jobs under its four-year campaign. They will start by providing the curriculum free of charge to every community college in the nation, it will also help in providing new training facilities to the existing faculty in 150 community colleges and also provide scholarships and supplemental resources to 25,000 students.
The Microsoft Learn for Educators program will provide free access to curriculum, educator training, and tools for teaching to every community college. It will include Microsoft Security, Compliance, and Identity Fundamentals (SC-900) and Microsoft Azure Security Technologies (AZ-500) certification according to course materials. Faculties of every community college will also access additional resources including free practice and certification exams, curriculum integration support, and course delivery prep sessions led by Microsoft Technical Trainers along with entry to our global community of educators committed to helping students succeed. They will also continue to develop and expand our work to provide educational institutions with easy access to courses through LinkedIn Learning.
This step will help 150 community colleges to train and retain cybersecurity faculty in their institution. Their partnership with the National Cybersecurity Training & Education Center (NCyTE) will help in attaining the Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense (CAE-CD) designation. This will help to build the foundation for cybersecurity training at nearly 15% of the community colleges across the United States, according to Microsoft.
They are planning to work with the American Association of Community Colleges to launch a community of practice for institutions offering cybersecurity education. they will provide grants to fund and provide technical assistance to 42 community colleges that are accelerating their cybersecurity programs. their goal is to learn from this effort and find out ways to scale promising practices to additional community colleges throughout the nation.
The training to faculties of every community college will also build educator and administrative capacity in cybersecurity learning paths. This step will help 150 community colleges to train and retain cybersecurity faculty in their institution. Their partnership with the National Cybersecurity Training & Education Center (NCyTE) will help in attaining the Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense (CAE-CD) designation. This will help to build the foundation for cybersecurity training at nearly 15% of the community colleges across the US nation, according to Microsoft.
They are planning to work with the American Association of Community Colleges to provide a community of practice for institutions offering cybersecurity education. they will provide grants to fund and provide technical assistance to 42 community colleges that are accelerating their cybersecurity programs. Their goal is to learn from their effort and find out ways to improve promised practices to additional community colleges.
Microsoft’s scholarship program includes scholarships and additional resources that will reach at least 25,000 students in the coming next four years. The scholarship program will help to provide funds to enhance the existing federal, state, and other financial aid that was already available but are not sufficient to fulfill the students’ needs, especially students with low income. This aid will also cover up tuition costs along with other financial challenges that often arise during the course completion, including certification exam costs and childcare expenses. It will also partner up with the Last Mile Education Fund, through which we will provide Microsoft Cybersecurity Scholarships to 10,000 low-income students, including veterans pursuing cybersecurity career pathways and certifications in community colleges.
How can we maintain minimum cyber security by ourselves?
We should remain updated about cyberattacks around us to be familiar with current types of attacks to identify at their beginning stage as after the virus has been placed in the business databases or files, they do not attack the right away but it does some very few changes or attacks to remain unnoticed before creating a major attack.
Along with staff and users, we should also update our technologies, devices, software. Use software that protects from several types of attacks, breaches and update them yearly o whenever recommended. Also, buy these packages from a reputable store or website and not just from anywhere.
Cyber attackers attack to freeze your data and make you unable to use your data and ask for money for which you can back up your data so that even if you get hacked, you will still be able to access your data.
Routinely check the number of users accessing your appliances, Wi-Fi, email accounts to identify if there is unauthorized access to these. If possible routinely change your devices and appliances password and if you think some unauthorized person is accessing your appliances, then changing the password and selecting an option to log out the account from other devices will successfully log out your account from devices and then you can log in from the devices you want to have access on.
It is necessary to improve the situation of cyber security of not only one nation but other nations should also be aware and have a good cyber security workforce to avoid any threats in the nation’s companies or to the nation.
