Let’s start with some good news. If you are a woman looking to transition into or transform your cybersecurity career, I have good news: WiCyS has partnered with Google, the SANS Institute, Bloomberg and Facebook to offer the 2021-22 Security Training Scholarship Program. CISA also has grant opportunities available for Cybersecurity and Workforce Development and Training. Perhaps these little tidbits influenced the lens through which I viewed other headlines, but I did note lots of cybersecurity education stories this week.

Thanks to a grant from the Department of Defense, universities in Washington, Idaho and Montana are working together to build the Northwest Virtual Institute for Cybersecurity Education and Research. Not to be outdone by its neighbors, the University of Idaho took its efforts a step further and launched a master’s degree program in cybersecurity. At Rochester Institute of Technology, cybersecurity students conducted a security test of voting machines and found “zero attacks that could alter or manipulate a voter’s choices under real-world conditions at an active polling site.”

It’s all great news intended to address the skills gap that is “widening as the cost of breaches rises,” according to VentureBeat. The talent shortage certainly remains a problem area for the federal government. In his testimony before Congress this week, Max Stier, President and CEO of the Partnership for Public Service, argues that the federal government needs to identify “specific benchmarks for success” when it comes to recruiting and retaining cybersecurity workers.  

Narrowing the skills gap is critical across all sectors and silos, as we can see in this week’s cybersecurity headlines.

July 30: Forbes Communications Council member Becca Chambers argued that cybersecurity should be a paramount concern for marketers.

July 29: A cyberattack on the port operating systems of Transnet, a South African state-owned enterprise that manages the country’s rail, port and pipeline infrastructure, revealed the vulnerability of South Africa’s critical infrastructure.

July 28: The FBI issued a press release announcing, “The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), United Kingdom’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) released a joint cybersecurity advisory today, highlighting the top Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) routinely exploited by cyber actors in 2020 and those vulnerabilities being widely exploited thus far in 2021.”

July 28: The newly established Respect in Security initiative aims to squelch harassment experienced by cybersecurity professionals both online and in person.

July 27: TikTok has plans to open a European cybersecurity centre in Dublin that will reportedly create 50 jobs in security, privacy and policy.

July 27: BBC reported, “A recent survey from the UK and US-based security firm, Tessian, found that 56% of senior IT technicians believe their employees have picked up bad cyber-security habits while working from home.”

July 27: Cybersecurity remains a top priority for lawmakers, with 18 new bills introduced before Congress.

July 27: “Congress should not attempt to address the threat of ransomware by making ransom payments to cybercriminals illegal, a top FBI official told US lawmakers Tuesday,” CNN reported.

July 26: Homeland Security Today reported, “NSA’s Jason Wang, technical director for the Computer and Analytic Sciences Research Group, forecasted a future in which AI will support the Intelligence Community’s (IC) efforts to secure and defend our Nation’s networks.”