There's been a lot of talk out there in the local and national level about the growing need for employees
and various industries and how employers can find top talent to fill critically needed roles.
One of the fields that is reaching our might already have met a critical need for workers is cybersecurity.
Joining us for more on the growing need for the cybersecurity workforce is Dr. Bryson Payne.
He's the director of the University of North Georgia Center for Cyber Operations in Dahlonega.
Dr. Payne, always great to have you on the program, sir.
Thank you so much for your time here today.
Thank you, Russell, it's a pleasure to be on.
Where are we at, where the cybersecurity workforce I was reading some numbers today that, what, one
point five million unfilled positions by 2020 is what the projection is right now.
That does not sound good.
That's right, and what's more, the job field is growing 12 times faster than all other jobs out there
right now.
So cyber security has definitely hit a point where it's the best time to that you could possibly study
any of the cybersecurity fields, whether it's ethical hacking, whether that's forensics, whether
you want to go in as a security analyst, now is the time to do it.
We need more people in this field to protect us from the attackers that are out there.
We're fortunate in the U.S. to have some of the best people working in cybersecurity, but we need a
lot more.
Yeah, and it's not just in the civilian workforce to either, right?
I mean, I'm I'm only assuming the government in the military needs as many hands on deck as possible.
Absolutely.
That's one reason the National Security Agency funded our high school program this summer, the National
Cyber Warrior Academy.
We took 40 high school students and put them through a full ethical hacking course, just like you'd
get from a certification company.
And these students came out of there with some tremendous skills to protect themselves, protect their
families, their friends, and eventually protect business or protect their country.
Wow, that's really cool.
I want to get back to that here in a second before we talk a little bit more about the civilian workforce
and what's needed out there in the private sector.
I'm I'm curious about the military and what has changed since the digital age began in the cyber age
began when it comes to America's military, because I have a friend that I haven't talked to in some
time now.
But last I heard from him, he was when the United States Air Force and he was doing some drone work
and doing some pretty cool stuff.
So I'm only assuming a lot has changed when it comes to what a military operative in cybersecurity is
doing over the last decade.
Right.
Well, absolutely, some of the generals we work with who are alumni from UMG say that this is the single
most critical skill that anyone going into the armed services can pick up, because everything that
we do now goes over those networks.
We send it over a wireless network, we send it over wired networks or fiber optics.
And if you've got the skills to protect that network and defend against attacks, you've got the skills
to help get everything else done.
Mm hmm.
Again, folks, if you're just joining us, we're talking to Dr. Bryson Payne.
He's the director of the University of North Georgia Center for Cyber Operations, which is a field
that we all know is growing at an incredible rate.
And the jobs are just needed in that field right now.
There's such a shortage.
We've talked to financial experts in the city of Atlanta who have told us that just right here in Georgia,
the need is so rampant right now that they can't keep up.
Companies cannot keep up.
They can't keep hackers at bay because there's not enough qualified people.
Let's talk about what UMG is doing.
What is your department doing, Dr. Payne, when it comes to bridging that gap?
Absolutely, we've had a cyber security program since 2004, so we were actually one of the early ones
in the state to begin in our computer science program, concentration and information, assurance and
security.
We call that cyber security these days.
But we also have a bachelor's degree in strategic studies that begins this year that will allow you
to mix cybersecurity with a strategic language so you can study cybersecurity and pick up Arabic or
Russian or Mandarin Chinese.
We've got a new graduate certificate that was just approved and that begins this year.
That's a 10 hour intensive three month program.
So students can start next summer and finish during the summer with 10 hours of cybersecurity course.
That's 10 credit hours.
So they'll spend three months studying pretty hard, but they'll pick up some computer ethical hacking,
some computer forensics, and then they get an elective course in several different fields, software
development, security.
So what we're trying to do it North Georgia overall is build cyber heroes, build the next generation
of cyber leaders.
There are so many jobs open out there.
But that means that there's also a lot of need for leadership in this field and no shortage is known
for its leadership.
We're known for strategic languages and we're becoming known for cyber now, which is a great thing,
because as these numbers are pointing out, we we need people right here in Georgia working cyber security.
If you're talking to a high schooler and trying to recruit them into this industry, what do you say
to them?
Because I know this is still a blossoming field that not a lot of people know a ton about at this point.
Right.
That's right, and cyber give students a chance to protect themselves online, just about everything
young people do these days because over a cell phone or over a computer Internet, and they're under
attack as much as we are as adults or our parents are as older adults, we have to learn how to protect
ourselves first because like you said, there aren't enough people out there doing it for us.
Second of all, it is the hottest new job skill that a young person can pick up.
I don't know very many jobs that will still be here 20 years from now, but I'm pretty sure that cyber
security will be there and probably some health care.
So you're not going into cyber I recommend you to go into something in health care.
But seriously, when I'm talking with young people these days, they already love working with computers.
They just don't know that they can do cybersecurity.
And that's what's so great about our National Cyber Warrior Academy.
The National Security Agency pays for the students tuition, the books, their room, their food, everything
for that 10 day program to come and study nothing but cyber.
Wow.
And how much is that grown since you guys started that?
Well, we had one hundred eighty two applicants for the 40 positions.
Well, one thing that we're doing differently this year, the NSA could only fund about 40 seats to
because they pay for everything for those students.
But we're offering a course to all 182 applicants from this past year.
They're going to get a full ethical hacking online course that will give them some of the same skills
we practiced in the cyber academy.
But it'll give them the chance to work on it over the year and come in next year.
And we're applying for an advanced camp and some teacher camps next year to try to teach local middle
school and high school teachers some of these cyber lessons so that they can share them either in the
regular classes or in an after school program, maybe get a cyber competition team together that will
give that give students a way to interact with cyber and find out what it means when we're talking about
cyber security means protecting your computer, protecting your friends from scams, from phishing emails
and from other attacks over the Internet.
I can tell you what, if I was in high school right now, this is most certainly the career I would
be thinking about.
The future is limitless when it comes to cyber security.
So many jobs need it out there.
And just trying to think of the next 10 or 15 years where that could lead somebody, it's really staggering
to think about, which is a great thing.
But these jobs got to be filled.
They got to be filled quickly.
The University of North Georgia working hard to do that with that program there with cyber ops.
Dr. Bryson Payne, thank you so much for your time today, sir.
Certainly appreciate it, as always.
Love to have you back on the show any time.
Thank you, Russell.
All right, Dr. Payne.
Ten minutes until six o'clock here on Wednesday afternoon.
Newsround.