The Development of a Multidisciplinary Cybersecurity Workforce: An Investigation

Abstract

The unexpected digital transformation that was forced due to COVID-19 found many citizens and organizations unprepared to deal with the relevant technological advances and the cyber threat landscape. This outcome high-lighted once more the cybersecurity skills shortage and the necessity to ad-dress this gap. A solution to this, is to consider a multidisciplinary cybersecurity workforce with professionals originating from different backgrounds, beyond the traditional ones such as computing and IT. To be able to engage people though, they need to be aware of the possibilities that exist in cyber-security for those that originate from non-traditional disciplines. Moreover, cybersecurity professionals need to be aware of the added value when collaborating with these professionals. These are aspects that need to be extensively investigated to provide insights to academia and industry, to develop education and training curricula towards building a multidisciplinary cyber-security workforce. This paper investigated these aspects in a Further Education and Higher Education College in the UK, where 88 students from 5 disciplines were surveyed, providing valuable observations as to the interest of students, and future professionals, to work in cybersecurity industry and their perception on the subject disciplines relevant to cybersecurity jobs.