Future Needs of the Cybersecurity Workforce

Abstract

Expected growth of the job market for cyber security professionals in both the US and the UK remains strong for the foreseeable future. While there are many roles to be found in cyber security, that vary from penetration tester to chief information security officer (CISO). One job of particular interest is security architect. The rise in Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) implementations, especially in the cloud environment, promises an increase in the demand for these security professionals. A security architect requires a set of knowledge, skills, and abilities covering the responsibility for integrating the various security components to successfully support an organization’s goals. In order to achieve the goal of seamless integrated security, the architect must combine technical skills with business, and interpersonal skills. Many of these same skills are required of the CISO, suggesting that the role of security architect may be a professional stepping-stone to the role of CISO. We expected degreed programs to offer courses in security architecture. Accredited university cyber security programs in the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States of America (USA) were examined for course offerings in security architecture. Results found the majority of programs did not offer a course in security architecture. Considering the role of the universities in preparing C-suite executives, the absence of cyber security architecture offerings is both troubling and surprising.