The fastest growing crime in the United States is cyber theft. As data breaches and hacks continue to advance in complexity and frequency, companies are scrambling to hire workers with the right cybersecurity skills to keep their businesses secure. A lack of qualified job seekers makes finding the right talent an arduous task that often goes unfulfilled.
Every year in the United States, 40,000 infosec jobs go unfilled and another 350,000 cybersecurity related jobs remain open. By 2021 it's predicted that there will be 3.5 million cybersecurity jobs needing to be filled globally. The skills gap is due in large part to a flawed education model. Radically different education is needed to fill this skill shortage, and Norwich University in Vermont is stepping up to prepare the next generation for exciting and high-paying jobs in the world of cybersecurity.
Nestled in Northfield, VT - forty-five minutes south of Burlington,VT - Norwich University is the countries oldest private military college. For the past four years they have been hosting the Cyber Security and Cyber Defense summer camp to educate and train high school juniors and seniors for information security and cybersecurity roles. The camps are free to attend and give students real-world experience through hands on exercises, field work, and competitions.
With grant money from the NSA, Norwich has been able to expand their summer camp to include an advanced program, the Advanced Cyber Forensics camp which offers the opportunity to earn a cyber forensics certification.
Building on the success of their programs for high school students, Norwich University has just been awarded a $3.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation to provide scholarships to students majoring in computer security. The university will be opening a sophisticated new cybersecurity war room, digital forensics lab, and cyber research lab for students attending the university this fall.
Students education will surround emerging technologies and they will conduct cutting edge research in areas such as Internet of Things that will be submitted to cyber conferences globally. Just 20 minutes outside Montpelier, VT in a bucolic town of 6,000 - students will have the opportunity to earn international acclaim for their work at Norwich.