80 Percent of U.S. Adults Have Never Considered a Cybersecurity Career

July 24, 2018

When it comes to cybersecurity careers, adults in the US reportedly don’t know the various job opportunities available in the field, despite the growing demand for professionals to fill the enormous skills gap.

According to a new survey from the University of Phoenix, US adults are not familiar with certain cybersecurity jobs, and the majority have never considered a career in the field. Most are unfamiliar with what cybersecurity professionals do and the education it takes to work in the field.

Conducted online between 26 April and 10 May 2018 by the Harris Poll, the survey included 2,000 US adults over the age of 18. Of the total participants in the survey, 859 said that they have been hacked in the past three years. The survey examined U.S. adults’ perceptions of different aspects of cybersecurity, including career familiarity, gender disparity and workplace readiness.

Only about one in 10 respondents was very familiar with the 11 different cybersecurity job titles presented in the survey, and at least 20% had never heard of them. More than half ( 52%) had never heard of a penetration tester, while just under half (46%) had no knowledge of the “white hat” ethical hacker job title. Only 13% of respondents had heard of a security software developer, and as little as 8% of participants were familiar with the roles of security engineer and computer security incident responder.

When asked why they had never considered a career in cybersecurity, respondents said that they do not have the proper skills to become a cybersecurity professional or had no interest in the field.

In addition, the survey noted that women comprise just 14 percent of the U.S. cybersecurity workforce, emphasizing the need for gender balance to improve national security.

The survey also found that only a third of U.S. adults are confident that their company is prepared to combat hackers. Of the respondents who do not believe their company is prepared for a cyber-attack, a quarter (26 percent) said that it is because they do not have an expert on staff.

https://www.phoenix.edu/about_us/media-center/news/uopx-survey-perceptions-cybersecurity.html

You must login or register in order to post a comment.

ON DEMAND: DevSecOps creates an environment of shared responsibility for security, where AppSec and development teams become more collaborative. With the right training and tools, developers can become more hands-on with security and, with that upskilling, stand out among their peers... however, they need the security specialists on-side, factoring them into securing code from the start and championing this mindset across the company.

ON DEMAND: The insider threat—consisting of scores of different types of crimes and incidents—is a scourge even during the best of times. But the chaos, instability and desperation that characterize crises also catalyze both intentional and unwitting insider attacks. Learn how your workers, contractors, volunteers and partners are exploiting the dislocation caused by today's climate of Coronavirus, unemployment, disinformation and social unrest.

Security Magazine

2020 November

This month, Security magazine brings you the Security 500 Report, Rankings and Thought Leader Profiles. How does your enterprise compare to others? Which security programs are leading the way? Also this month, we highlight how to plan, prepare for and build resilience to protests and other unplanned events, video surveillance tools for SMBs and more.

View More Create Account

80 Percent of U.S. Adults Have Never Considered a Cybersecurity Career

Related Articles

Report Abusive Comment