More and more data breaches ... I think the problem has been found!

We keep seeing news articles on data breaches these days. Big companies like eBay, LinkedIn and Twitter have all been victims of data breaches. Have you ever wondered why this happens all the time even though massive amount of money has been spent on improving security mechanisms?

Is it because hackers are better than security professionals? Is it because there is a lack of adquate security mechanisms? Maybe.

This article here has given us another reason. There are not enough IT security professionals. That's why.

Cybersecurity has been a buzz word for some time now. Even if this is the case, the latest report in the U.S. still suggests that "more than 209,000 cybersecurity jobs in the U.S. are unfilled." The number is also expected to grow by 58 per cent by 2018. 

Of course, the increase in the demands has led to better salaries for IT security professionals than other IT jobs. In my previous article, it was said that an initial salary for an IT job was around US$100,000 per year. That means a job in cybersecurity could earn you considerably more. 

These are the numbers in the U.S. However, I don't think the numbers (at least in proportion) in Thailand will be very different.

Still, there are just not enough cybersecurity professionals. Why?

Are universities and colleges not producing enough graduates in the security domain? 

Many leading universities in the U.S., the  U.K. and in Thailand provide degrees in computer science, information technology and data networking. All of them have courses in security. The problem is information security or network security are not compulsory courses at those universities. This implies that not all computer science and information technology students will take the security courses.

As suggested in my previous article, the trend in IT today tends to go towards machine learning and artificial intelligence. Cybersecurity is not even on the list even though the demands are greater.

I hope it does not take too long for this problem to be solved.

Maybe the Department of Data Communication and Networking at KMUTNB can lead other universities in Thailand to ease the problem. Just a thought.  ^_^ 

Demands for computer scientists are higher than ever.

Recently, I have read an article stating that the starting salaries for computer scientists graduating in 2015 are around US$100,000. That's over 3,000,000 Baht a year! And ... this is just an initial offer.

It looks like the demand for graduates with computer science background is higher than ever. The demand is not just from technology companies, but from all sectors.

The article also suggests that the strongest demands are for students specialised in robotics, machine learning and artificial intelligence. However, personally I think demands are for those specialised in security as well.

Moreover, students with strong software background are also sought after by companies.

The increase in the demand has led to more students wanting to study computer science in the past few years. The Computing Research Association says that the number of computer science degree awarded has gone up by 14% between 2013 and 2014.

As a computer science graduate and a lecturer in IT, it is interesting to see this situation. The problem is that in the past several years, the trend in Thailand appears to be the opposite with fewer and fewer students choosing to study computer-related degrees.

I wonder why? Is it the salaries of fresh graduates? Is it the younger people want to run their own companies rather than being hired? ... Maybe this is something we need to look into.