Hartford Business Journal

www.HartfordBusiness.com • November 11, 2019 • Hartford Business Journal 13 The new curriculum will cover such topics as vulnerabilities in inter- net-of-things devices, the integrity of electronic voting and power-grid devices, website security and security of network routing and others. Arthur House, the state's former cybersecurity czar, said that while the recently added programs at state colleges and universities are "a good sign," Connecticut is still playing catch up. "Offense is still far ahead of de- fense," he said. While he is glad to see four-year schools building up their programs, he said more community colleges must add cybersecurity curricula. He said many businesses can't wait for prospective employees to go through a four-year program. "They're saying 'We just need somebody with a two-year cyberse- curity background, and we'll teach them the rest,' " he said. Businesses are also asking for more cybersecu- rity certificate programs to update current employees, he added. However, in a good year, House said the state's community colleges are only graduating around 40 cy- bersecurity students combined. "We have good curricula [in the schools that are offering programs] but we are not close to producing the numbers [of workers] we need," he said. But Abe Baggili, chair of cyber- security and computer science and founder of the cyber forensics lab at the University of New Haven, wor- ries some schools are rushing to roll out programs to meet demand and compete for new students, without paying attention to quality. He said the best programs have "deep, hands-on courses" and need to be taught by experienced cyber- security professionals, who can be expensive to hire. UNH, which offers both undergrad- uate and graduate degrees in cyber- security, was among the first in the state to launch a cybersecurity pro- gram in 2013 and it has since grown both in size and national reputation. Earlier this year, it became one of only three colleges in the Northeast (along with NYU and Northeastern) and 21 in the country to be named a Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Operations by the National Security Agency. Baggili said the university is en- gaged in a fundraising campaign to expand the existing cybersecurity lab and faculty with a goal of establish- ing a named school of Cybersecurity, Computing and Artificial Intelligence. "We shouldn't just be creating programs because we want to com- pete in the market and fill the gap," Baggili said. "These programs need to be amazing. They need to be top notch." FOCUS: CYBERSECURITY Cybersecurity job demand heat map This map shows which states have the most demand for cybersecurity jobs. Source: Cyberseek.org Member FDIC | Member DIF BusinessExpress. Easy Application. Quick Decision. Fast Funding. No time to apply for a business loan? firstsuffieldbank.com 877.888.1388 Get started now at bankatpeoples.com/businessexpress. Imagine applying for a $100,000 loan in minutes. Now that's a reality. With BusinessExpress you have an incredibly fast way to borrow the capital your business needs. There's never been a faster or easier way to borrow up to $100,000 for your business.

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