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The Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) is looking to inflate the pool of future cyber talent by targeting high school students with early training.
Partnering with the Australian National University (ANU), the ASD held a cyber security workshop on Tuesday, through the National Youth Science Forum.
The “hacking and cracking” workshop, which was run by an unnamed ASD employee for security reasons, looks to get young students interested in and prepared for a potential future in cyber security.
For high-schools students Chris Yoo and Lily Watt, both of whom participated in the workshop, a future in cyber security is on the cards.
“I want to get to interact with career experts already working in cyber security,” said Yoo.
“I want to know about what their day looks like, what I actually might expect when I step into this career and any advice that they might have for aspiring cyber security professionals.”
Watt similarly found interest in the workshop, saying she participated in it as a way to expand her knowledge.
“I was interested in the day of the life of someone who works in cyber security, and I didn’t really know that much about that field, so I chose this as a way to broaden my horizons,” she said.
“I would love to go to university studying physics, particularly like astrophysics or astronomy.”
Despite the promise of entry-level six figure salaries, the cyber industry is facing a rapidly worsening skills shortage thanks to an increased number of cyber attacks and a large workload leading to burnout.
CyberCX says that “the shortfall of qualified cyber security professionals is forecast to hit 30,000 unfilled positions across Australia” over the next four years.
The workshops host has said that running workshops for high-schoolers is a major tool in solving the skills crisis.
“ASD is trying to recruit 1,900 people over the next 10 years as part of our REDSPICE program.
“We really want to make sure that there’s plenty of new students coming through, studying these things, building that talent pool so that we have the talented staff that we need to be able to complete our mission.”
REDSPICE stands for Resilience, Effects, Defence, Space, Intelligence, Cyber, Enablers.
The ASD hopes to fill its own skills gap as well as industry wide, saying it can offer roles that other organisations cannot.
“We offer missions and jobs that aren’t available elsewhere, really exciting activities that have a real important impact for Australia,” the host added.
Through the $9.9 billion REDSPICE program, the ASD hopes to:
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