Cybersecurity Careers Should Start Before University

As businesses, government institutions and other organizations accelerate digital adoption, the need for cybersecurity professionals continues to grow. At the same time, the skills required to protect increasingly complex environments are changing. Cloud security, threat intelligence, security operations, penetration testing and artificial intelligence are becoming part of the modern cybersecurity skill set. The gap between available talent and the capabilities organizations actually need is becoming harder to ignore. CYBERSECURITY NEEDS ARE CHANGING FASTER THAN SKILLS The global cybersecurity workforce is facing a skills shortage alongside its broader talent challenge. The 2025 ISC2 Cybersecurity Workforce Study found that 95% of cybersecurity professionals surveyed reported at least one skills need within their teams, while 59% described those needs as critical or significant. The study also found that 88% had experienced at least one significant cybersecurity consequence because of skills shortages. For Indonesia, the implication is clear: building a cybersecurity team isn't simply about filling vacancies. Organizations need professionals who can apply their knowledge to real security problems. The skills required are also changing rapidly. The World

A cloud security engineer sees unusual traffic reaching an application. The access policy looks correct. The workload configuration looks normal. Nothing obvious is flashing red. Now the investigation moves somewhere less convenient. Where did the request resolve? Which route did it take? What identity did the workload use? Which protocol carried the connection? Did traffic pass through an edge service, private network or another cloud environment? The cloud console can answer some of those questions. Networking knowledge answers the rest. An ITU Academy course running through 28 September 2026 offers an interesting picture of how interconnected modern infrastructure has become. Its curriculum combines cloud and edge computing with IPv6, QUIC, DNS, SD-WAN, fixed and mobile broadband, IoT, AI and cybersecurity. ITU Academy [https://academy.itu.int/training-courses/full-catalogue/future-fixed-and-mobile-broadband-internet-cloud-computing-and-iotai-1?utm_source=chatgpt.com] For cybersecurity workforce development, the combination makes sense. Cloud security increasingly requires people who understand what the cloud is built on. ABSTRACTION DOESN’T REMOVE THE FUNDAMENTALS Cloud services are very good at hiding infrastructure complexity. That’s part of their appeal. Security teams don’t always have the same luxury. A DNS configuration can

“Cybersecurity talent shortage” is a useful phrase until someone has to decide what to do about it. Hire more people. Train more graduates. Upskill employees. Fine. Train them in what? NIST’s latest cybersecurity workforce investment takes that question seriously. On 18 September, it announced more than $1.7 million for nine Regional Alliances and Multistakeholder Partnerships to Stimulate Cybersecurity Education and Workforce Development, or RAMPS, projects across eight U.S. states. The interesting part isn’t the funding figure. It’s the design. Each project is expected to connect the specific workforce needs of local businesses and nonprofit organizations with learning objectives based on the NICE Workforce Framework. The projects then translate those requirements into curriculum development, internships, apprenticeships, hands-on projects and other learning opportunities. In other words, training starts with the capability that’s missing. ONE SHORTAGE CAN HIDE SEVERAL GAPS Consider three organizations hiring cybersecurity talent. A financial institution may need people who can investigate identity abuse and respond to incidents. A cloud-heavy technology business may be struggling to find people who understand cloud configurations, IAM and