This is according to a paper published jointly last week by the Council of Professors and Heads of Computing and (ISC)2, the International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium.

¡°Twenty years ago very few courses paid any significant attention to security, and the situation has started to change, albeit slowly,¡± says ¡°¡±.

This is despite ¡°a growing voice from industry that cybersecurity knowledge should be core to the disciplines of computing and information technology¡±, meaning such skills should therefore be ¡°a key element of the computing and computer science curriculum, particularly at the undergraduate level¡±.

Currently most institutions offer computer science courses in which there is one module or unit ¨C approximately 5 per cent of the total credits ¨C dedicated to cybersecurity in a three-year degree, the paper claims.

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It also notes that graduates find it difficult to enter the cybersecurity industry because ¡°the supervisory cost of placements is very high for companies to take on many graduates of any kind in cybersecurity roles¡±.

¡°Academia must look at its curricula and accreditation requirements,¡± said Liz Bacon, president of the Chartered Institute for IT, adding it was also incumbent on industry to accept more trainees and placement students.

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She said that more sandwich placements needed to be made available, and that lecturers could not single-handedly boost interest in cybersecurity among students, and that ¡°talks from external speakers¡± and ¡°war stories¡± from industry were more likely to excite students.

¡°It is not enough to integrate technical cybersecurity subjects into computing degrees as cybersecurity is an increasingly a diverse discipline, requiring a mix of business savvy, soft skills and technical skills for varied roles,¡± added Adrian Davis, managing director (Europe, the Middle East and America) of (ISC)2.

¡°Universities have a real opportunity to include and?make explicit reference to cybersecurity topics within many degrees.¡±

In August, the first GCHQ-certified master¡¯s courses were unveiled, with Edinburgh Napier University, Lancaster University, the University of Oxford and Royal Holloway, University of London, among those accredited.

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chris.parr@tesglobal.com