According to a survey conducted by the Slovak Business Agency and the NSA among medium and small enterprises, only a third of smaller and half of medium-sized companies in Slovakia deal with cybersecurity, while there is a shortage of experts in this sphere in the thousands. What to do about it and where to start? We approached representatives of technical universities with the question: What should the future of IT and cybersecurity education look like? Will we see a success story or wasted years?
Miroslav Michalko, Head of LPS KPI FEI TUKE
The Digital Coalition and the IT Academy project are bringing positive activity – by starting to train digital coordinators in schools. It is also important to strengthen the cooperation between IT companies and schools by having practitioners come to teach IT in schools for a few hours a week. Although this is partly hampered by legislation, I believe it is solvable. In discussions with secondary school principals, I also picked up on the idea of ‘shared IT teachers’ – that is, one teacher would teach cyber security in several secondary schools. At least for an interim period while schools strengthen their own staffing capacity, this may be a solution. But these decisions belong in the hands of those competent within the leadership of our school system. If the will is there, then surely a way will be found.
Peter Feciľak, KPI FEI TUKE
It should be linked to clearly defined needs of practice, following current standards and guaranteed by experts in the field. Education must go hand in hand with a deep knowledge of current technologies, knowledge of their weaknesses, and consequently with a way to protect against individual vulnerabilities. The sustainability of experts in the academic environment and the availability of hardware or software to educational institutions are also important.
Ondrej Kainz, KPI FEI TUKE
It is essential to provide quality lecturers who not only have theoretical knowledge in the field, but also practical skills from practice. To ensure a quality educational process based on current trends and market needs.
Ivan Dolnák, FEIT UNIZA
Computer science departments are rushing to implement cybersecurity education while ignoring the fact of how the world of computers has evolved. The reason? Because the words “cybersecurity” sound good on the menu of study fields. In the future, too, students need to be taught first how computer technologies were intended to function, and only then what vulnerabilities they contain and how to defend against their exploitation. It is not possible to teach “just keep learning new things” without the basics. The biggest challenge, however, is not to waste the opportunity and time available. In 5 years, the topic of cyber security can be a success story, backed by a group of successful graduates further developing the field. The alternative story may be 5 wasted years and a few disappointed people. At the same time, the challenge is to secure long-term ongoing funding and an influx of new people so that the achievements do not gradually fade away. Fortunately, we are not creating cybersecurity from the ground up, but actually “just implementing” it.
