From Tech Policy Press
The Cybersecurity Workforce Has an Immigration Problem
By Nick Merrell
3.5 million. That’s how many unfilled jobs there are in the cybersecurity profession worldwide, per Cybersecurity Venture’s Cybersecurity Jobs Report.
How will we fill them?
July 31 marks the one-year anniversary of US President Joe Biden’s Cyber Workforce Strategy. This policy document aimed to alleviate the pervasive shortage of cybersecurity workers in the US economy. One technique noted in Biden’s strategy is the clinic model pioneered by the UC Berkeley Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity, through which students are trained to provide digital security assistance to nonprofits, city governments, and other public interest organizations. The cybersecurity clinic approach has proved successful, and there are now 33 clinics in 23 US states, with four new clinics coming online in Taiwan.
Here’s the problem: there just aren’t enough young people. According to research from the US Chamber of Commerce, only 1.8 million people will enter the workforce in the next seven years. Of the 3.5 million unfilled jobs, 750,000 will be in the United States. To fill them, we’d need to train 40% of all new workforce entrants in cybersecurity...
Nick Merrill graduated from the I School with a Ph.D. in 2018.
