American-Japanese multinational cybersecurity software company Trend Micro says it will be expanding its education partnerships across Canada this year.
As part of Trend Micro’s recent partnership with Simon Fraser University, which launched in September 2020, the software company says it’s providing course lectures, lab exercises and assessments in cloud security to the first cohort of the university’s new Professional Master’s Program in Computer Science – Cybersecurity Concentration.
The 2017 Global Information Security Workforce Study (GISWS) reports a global shortage of skilled cybersecurity workers estimated to reach 1.8 Million by 2022. Even some of the conservative estimates are disheartening. The 2017 GISWS report predicts that North America will have 265,000 more cybersecurity positions than skilled workers by 2022. It also reports that 68 per cent of IT professionals feel there are too few security workers in their organization.
“As we know, the skills demand for our industry has really grown because of the implications of COVID-19 pandemic,” said Mohammad Tayebi, cybersecurity researcher and program instructor, Simon Fraser University, in a press release. “We’re really pleased to have an expert partner like Trend Micro to help make the transition from school to work seamlessly for our students as they gain the skills and experiences relevant to cybersecurity right now.”
Spanning 16 to 20 months, the curriculum will provide students opportunities to explore cyber risks related to cloud infrastructure and cloud-native applications. In addition, Trend Micro says the students are learning the necessary skills needed to secure these environments in an AWS lab environment using some of Trend Micro’s CloudOne solutions pertaining to cloud security posture management and runtime application self-protection.
“Trend Micro’s mission is to make the world a safer place for the exchange of information and we believe it starts with education,” said Antoine Saikaley, technical director at Trend Micro Canada, in the press release. “Both in the boardroom and in the classroom, we’re committed to preparing the next generation of cybersecurity professionals to ensure the future of Canadian business will remain resilient in the face of growing cyber threats.”
Building on previous work
The company says this partnership is another step it is taking to connect Canadian students with industry insights and networking opportunities while they are still in school.
In 2017 Trend Micro’s chief executive officer, Eva Chen, established the Trend Micro Initiative for Education with the aim to strengthen the company’s efforts on user awareness and digital safety education. The parent initiative supports three digital safety outreach programs, namely, the Internet Safety for Kids & Families (ISKF), Internet Safety for Small Businesses (ISSB), and Cybersecurity Education for Universities (CEU).
Since its launch in 2008, the first program, ISKF, has reached millions around the world. The ISSB and CEU were later launched by the company in 2017, which aim to improve Internet safety awareness, digital literacy, and malware defense capabilities for a safer digital world. The company has partnerships with several universities around the world, SFU being its newest partner.