Cybersecurity trainingPace University launches new cybersecurity institute

Published 8 December 2011

Last week Pace University announced that it had launched a special institution aimed at helping the United States alleviate the critical shortage of cybersecurity professionals and secure the nation’s data networks

Last week Pace University announcedthat it had launched a special institution aimed at helping the United States alleviate the critical shortage of cybersecurity professionals and secure the nation’s data networks.

By working with government agencies, other academic institutions, and the private sector, university officials hope the new Seidenberg Cybersecurity Institute will become a critical research hub as well as a place where future professionals can gain hands-on experience.

With more and more critical government and business operations relying upon information technology and the increasing ability of hackers to disrupt or steal sensitive information, the demand for individuals with cybersecurity expertise has far outpaced supply.

According to Jim Gosler, the founding director of the CIA’s Clandestine Information Technology Office, only 1,000 cybersecurity specialists in the United States have the necessary skills to operate effectively in cyberspace, while the United States needs as many as 30,000 individuals with such skills.

To help train the next generation of cybersecurity professionals, the Seidenberg Cyberseecurity Institute “will leverage the strengths of both Pace’s Lubin School of Business and Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems by focusing on information security management, planning and auditing,” said Constance Knapp, one of the co-directors of the new institute.

Bel Raggad, a Seidenberg professor of information technology and the new institute’s other co-director, added that the institute will be “a forum to propagate basic and applied research advances.”

In the fall of 2013, the Seidenberg Cyberseecurity Institute plans to offer a five-course program to help senior executives and functional managers quickly gain cybersecurity knowledge. Classes will focus on information security management as well as security and planning audits.

By the fall of 2014, the new institute hopes to offer a Master’s in Information Security Management with a concentration in Security Planning and Auditing to help alleviate the growing demand for independent cybersecurity evaluation and recommendations.