Officials: Cooperation Needed to Meet Jobs’ Demands
Kevin James Shay, Gazette.net
Education, government and business leaders must collaborate to take advantage of the region’s standing as a national leader in cyber security job openings, officials said during a meeting in Silver Spring last week.
“It’s not an opportunity, it’s a requirement. We can’t address the significant challenge ahead unless we work together,” said Jason Green, co-founder of SkillSmart, a Germantown-based business that matches job seekers and employers based on skills.
Green is a member of the regional advisory board of Per Scholas, a New York-based nonprofit organization that organized last week’s meeting and provides technology education and job placement. The group has an office in Silver Spring.
The cyber security field is changing quickly, participants said. While a recent security breach at JPMorgan Chase is one of the more publicized threats, there were about 1.5 million cyber attacks monitored in the U.S. last year, according to Per Scholas. Three-fourths of the breaches occur at smaller companies with fewer than 100 employees.
