How Consumer Cyber Awareness Can Bridge The Cyber Skills Gap
Cybersecurity as an industry is young. Even younger than its over-encompassing IT industry.
The IT industry can date itself back to 1904.
The Cybersecurity industry saw the first AV in 1987.
What’s somewhat ironic is that ISPs emerged in 1989, and internet access became available to consumers in the 1990s.
This has created a problem that seems unique to societies: One of the most dominant portions of our culture and something that crosses into every part of our lives today has only become available to use within the lifespan of a 36-year-old.
Worst yet, you are expected to be smart enough to avoid attacks on your personal data, finances, and digital life when you had no concept of digital life for most of your life. That’s a dangerous way to approach this problem, as the cybersecurity skills gap only concerns enterprise and government information security. The FBI can tell us the dangers to the population, but they aren’t staffed to solve this problem.
Cybercrime accounts for $8 Trillion in yearly damages worldwide (Cybersecurity Ventures). The FBI tracks $10 Billion of that to internet crime affecting US Citizens (Security Intelligence). Comparatively, incarceration for the war on drugs cost the USA $182 Billion/year (CNBC). That is a lot, seeing as Americans spending on illegal drugs in 2016 was $150 Billion (Rand), including cannabis, which is legal in more states today than in 2016.
I’m not advocating for a “War on Hacking,” but a national cyber awareness campaign would undoubtedly enable consumers to understand why they need better protections. If consumer awareness of cyber threats was used to fund out-of-band management security services, this could create a training ground to employ more entry-level cyber security professionals.
If we look at cyber awareness as a cyber skill, then more complex cyber skills are built on top of that essential skill of cyber awareness. Cyber safety and awareness are the ABCs of cybersecurity.
Here are some resources to learn the ABCs of Cybersecurity:
Infosec Institute Youtube Channel