Schools not prioritizing cyber security in computer science programs
A recent study examined computer science programs at top American universities and discovered that cyber security is far from a priority at these institutions.
CloudPassage, a security company headquartered in San Francisco, CA, analyzed undergraduate computer science and engineering programs at top U.S. universities and found that cyber security education is not being prioritized as an important part of the programs.
According to CloudPassage, none of the top 10 computer science programs in the U.S. even requires a single cybersecurity course to graduate. Among the top 36 computer science programs, just one school requires cybersecurity coursework to graduate — University of Michigan. The school program rankings referenced there were obtained from U.S. News & World Report.
US Universities Get An F in Cybersecurity Education https://t.co/QCzNVUermN pic.twitter.com/xZU5l5ViMb
— CloudPassage (@cloudpassage) April 7, 2016
Other key findings
When using a different list of top computer science programs — this time Business Insiders’ top 50 list — only three programs (six percent) require cyber security coursework to graduate: University of Michigan, Brigham Young, and Colorado State University. That means that 94 percent of the top computer science university programs in the U.S. have very little focus on cyber security.
Of the 121 universities that CloudPassage analyzed, only two — Rochester Institute of Technology and Tuskegee University — offered 10 or more elective courses on cybersecurity. DePaul University and the University of Maryland came close to achieving that mark, with 9 and 8 elective cybersecurity courses, respectively.
Cyber security — a growing threat
Cyber security incidents are making headlines with increasing frequency. A [link url=”https://amuedge.com/u-s-government-sees-rise-in-cyber-attacks/” title=”recent report”] detailed how the U.S. government fought off more than 77,000 cyber incidents in 2015, and President Barack Obama recently [link url=”https://amuedge.com/u-s-extends-national-emergency-on-cyber-threats/” title=”extended the national emergency on cyber attacks”] that was originally declared in 2015.
“Our research reinforces what many have been saying: there is an incredible IT security skills gap. But what we’ve revealed is that a major root cause is a lack of education and training at accredited schools.” — [link url=”https://www.cloudpassage.com/company/press-releases/cloudpassage-study-finds-u-s-universities-failing-cybersecurity-education/” title=”Robert Thomas, CEO of CloudPassage”]
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