Macquarie Telecom Cyber Security Scholarship – Addressing the Cyber Security Skill Gap in Australia
The need for Australia to urgently build a deeper cyber security skills base is one of the very rare public policy priorities everyone agrees on.
Cyber security represents a huge national economic opportunity, but also a big national risk if we drop the ball.
It is the arms race of the 21st century, except this is not a battle between nation states alone.
Every business and every person connected to the Internet is a potential target of the criminal element lurking in cyberspace seeking to engage in everything from vandalism to data theft and extortion.
Macquarie Telecom provides frontline security to 42 percent of Federal Government agencies and we are acutely aware of the need to play our part in building the pipeline of smart, qualified and motivated young people to satisfy this national imperative. We are also aware that the private sector needs to step up and do its bit to generate interest in the field.
That is why we are sponsoring two scholarships in cyber security at Western Sydney University, with the applications for the first awards closing on March 6.
The scholarships are open to Australian citizens or permanent resident students entering their final undergraduate year, with a major in one of the following:
- network security
- information security
- computer security
- intelligent systems
- social web analytics