What is Cyber Security?

The UK and other countries have had the threat of terrorism attacks against them for decades and although these threats are still very much active more recently the dangers have also started to move online or into the Cyber space. Cyber-attacks can be in many forms including the internet, telecommunications systems and computer systems.

Cyber Security is the action of countering cyber-attacks from these external threats.

The UK is now facing an ongoing threat from hostile states, terrorists, hacktivists and criminals operating in this area with the common goal to disrupt the critical national infrastructure and steal sensitive national security information by attacking our infrastructure.

Due to the nature of this increased risk the need for specialists within the UK has created a shortfall of qualified candidates. The need to support a new digital age is coming at a time when there is a 50% decline in UK residents entering the IT profession.

The shortfall that we now have is providing great opportunities for candidates with an IT exposure to cross train and work within Cyber Security or for 1st jobbers to enter this exciting marketplace.

CyberSecurityJobsite.com is a specialist Job board that caters for such roles and is used by many Central Government bodies, Consultancies and Nuclear sites that have a need for candidates to assist in their Cyber Security protection projects.

The government have highlighted that Cyber Security for the UK is now as much of a priority to them as international terrorism, international military crisis and natural disasters. In order to obtain their objectives within the Cyber Security space the government have committed £650 million of funding over the next 4 years. The funding will be put into a transformative National Cyber Security Programme (NCSP) to strengthen the UK’s cyber capabilities.

The key objective of the NCSP is to ensure that the UK is one of the most secure places to do business in the world.  The current level of GDP enabled by the internet in the UK stands at 6% and this is set to grow very quickly.  The growth in this area also provides greater threats within cyber-crime so we need to take steps to protect ourselves against these and build our defences.

The government cannot put in place all it needs to do so without working closely with the private sector which own, maintain and create most of the very spaces that the UK is seeking to protect and so, is instrumental in the defence of these. These partnerships between the government and the private sector throw up many opportunities for candidates to work within the niche cyber security workforce.

The UK is one of the world leaders in Cyber Security research, development and innovation and GCHQ, the Governments communications office, will be working closely with the private sector to develop a new pioneering national security hub that will allow government and business to exchange information on threats and planned responses.