Microsoft has announced a campaign to bring 250,000 more people into the US cybersecurity industry by 2025 by offering colleges and students alike the support they need to enter the field.
“The country’s cybersecurity challenges in part reflect a serious workforce shortage,” Microsoft President Brad Smith says in a blog post. “Until we redress the cybersecurity workforce shortage, we will fall short in strengthening the country’s cybersecurity protection.”
Smith cites data from LinkedIn and Cyber Seek (a US government-run website devoted to this very issue) that shows one-third of America’s cybersecurity-related jobs remain unfilled due to a lack of qualified applicants, even though some of those positions offer six-figure salaries.
“Currently there are 464,200 open jobs in the United States that require cybersecurity skills,” Smith says. “They account for 6% of all open jobs in the country.” The problem—according to Microsoft—is that cybersecurity education isn’t preparing enough people for those roles.
Microsoft wants to change that. Smith says the company will offer free curriculum to the roughly 4,000 colleges throughout the US, provide cybersecurity training to faculty at 150 community colleges, and support 25,000 students via the new Microsoft Cybersecurity Scholarship Program.
Smith says that scholarship recipients will also receive “mentorship from Microsoft employees and student supports, as well as free LinkedIn Premium accounts to help close the networking gap and connect them to jobs,” along with “access to GitHub education benefits, including student developer packs and access to local GitHub sponsored events” via this program.
“We want to give people across the country the opportunity to see more clearly something we see directly at Microsoft every day,” Smith says. “If we’re going to protect the nation’s future, we need to strengthen cybersecurity protection. And we need a larger and more diverse cybersecurity workforce to succeed. Great jobs are waiting to be filled. Now we need to recruit the talent and provide the skills that people need.”
Those efforts will take time, however, with Smith saying that Microsoft plans to support those 25,000 students over the next four years. It’s also worth noting that many people can’t enter the cybersecurity field directly—which is part of the reason why these jobs are vacant.
Cyber Seek itself notes in its career pathway that entry-level cybersecurity positions follow what it calls a “feeder role” such as IT support, software development, and networking. Many positions also seek applicants with certifications as well as a bachelor’s or master’s degree. Some of those certifications (and the trainings associated with them) cost thousands of dollars a pop.
This problem is so prevalent that Copado Head of Security Kyle Tobener’s TikTok videos about entry-level cybersecurity job postings requiring years of experience—as well as relatively advanced certifications or degrees and top secret clearance—can receive over 10,000 likes.
Microsoft is addressing one part of the industry’s hiring problem, a lack of qualified applicants, via this campaign. But the other part—companies demanding bachelor’s degrees, expensive certifications, and years of experience for entry-level jobs—will also need to be rectified.
