UNSW, CBA dump $1.6M into cyber security skills

The University of New South Wales and Commonwealth Bank on Tuesday announced a partnership to develop a cyber security centre aimed at addressing the shortage of security engineering specialists.

Under the Security Engineering Partnership (sec-edu), the organisations will build a lab, which will become a centre of expertise for education and research in the area.

UNSW will create a new security engineering stream in its computer science degree program with an applied cyber security undergraduate curriculum. This will be published under creative commons licensing and made available as a massive open online course (MOOC).

The university will also offer support for new PhD research tackling internet security issues and for tutoring undergraduates.

Research published today by employment marketplace, SEEK, found that over the past 12 months, the number of cyber security roles advertised in Australia has grown by more than 60 per cent.

It also showed that within the IT industry, cyber security roles are both the most difficult for employers to fill and some of the highest paid. IT security workers are commanding the highest salaries over the next five years.

Ben Heyes, chief information security and trust officer, at CBA, said the bank recognises a shared responsibility to secure Australia’s digital economy and help educate the next generation of cyber security experts.

“The investment will build on UNSW’s enviable record of producing some of the world’s best computer scientists by providing a complete cyber security curriculum that prepares students for the roles most in demand in the tech sector,” he said.

Meanwhile, CBA has also made an ‘in-principle’ commitment to invest an additional $10 million over the next five years to help build the world’s first silicon-based quantum computer in Sydney.

This follows the Turnbull government’s announcement yesterday that it would invest $26 million into UNSW’s Centre for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology.

CBA made an initial $5 million investment into this project last December.

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