Considering the role of academic qualifications for IT security professionals |
Information security has become an essential element of organisational IT infrastructures, with networks at risk from an increasing range of threats. However, the IT security industry is comprised of individuals with varying degrees of skill, competency, and knowledge. Although a wide variety of professional certifications are available, ranging from the highly specific and technical, to those that are more general and broadly based, there is arguably a greater role to be played by academic qualifications in this domain
Furnell SM, Katos V, Clarke NL
This discussion paper considers the role of academic and professional qualifications, and identifies that in many contexts they may have a complimentary relationship. However, the current uptake of academic programmes is constrained by a number of factors, such as the lack of standardised programme content. As a result, the industry preference is seen to be towards professional certifications, thus potentially missing the benefits that a more academic programme may have to offer.