| |19 September 2020HIGHERReviewAdvanced simulated training methodologies, if deployed amongst Indian educational institutes, can bring about dramatic changes on multiple levelsis a dire need for cybersecurity professionals globally to address this problem.In India itself, there is a need of around 3 million cyber-security professionals according to an IBM report. How-ever, the supply of professionals is well within 1,00,000. This fact stresses the need to make cybersecurity a part of our curriculum, especially considering the fast-paced tech adoption throughout the nation. In this context, we can perhaps take some inspiration from western educational institutes.How Can We Learn from the Western Cybersecurity Curriculum?Sensing the need of the hour, a number of prominent ed-ucational institutes all over the globe are making cyberse-curity an integral part of their curriculum. Not just this, they are also ensuring that they leave no stone unturned to train their students. They are adopting avant-garde meth-odologies to train their students and make them fit for the job market.For instance, Regent University (US) has developed a world-class facility to extend hands-on training to its students. The university banks on training via simulation through Cyber Range, or a software suite that imitates real-time attack scenarios and security breaches. It is cur-rently serving as a training center for everyone from local businesses and governments to military organizations and helping them meet the ultramodern data protection needs. The training facility features executive management work-shops, in-demand commercial cybersecurity certifications, and a large-scale, live-fire, cyber simulation platform. Likewise, Metropolitan State University and the Minne-sota State IT Center of Excellence have also collaborated on similar lines to launch MN Cyber Range. MN Cyber Range envisions to empower cyber defense teams with both knowledge and experience to protect critical information, systems, and operations.Advanced simulated training methodologies, if deployed amongst Indian educational institutes, can bring about dra-matic changes on multiple levels. Primarily, it will help address the skill shortage that the nation's cybersecurity industry is currently facing. Secondly, the approach will improve the job scenario and help in battling the unemploy-ment rate in the country. Thirdly, it will catalyze research and development around cybersecurity and can, perhaps, make our nation the hub of the global cybersecurity market. This can prove to be highly beneficial considering the fact that the digital market is booming at a massive scale on an international level. Lastly, it will add to the market produc-tivity since college graduates will step into the job market fully prepared for the cybersecurity challenges ­making the time and capital invested in their training after recruitment a thing of the past.India is a nation that has the largest pool of global youth. If the nation takes the right steps with a forward-looking approach, it will not only be skilling its youth with ultra-modern abilities that are in demand, it will simultaneously make our nation an epicenter of global cybersecurity devel-opments. The dividends are considerably high and all of it can happen just with a simple reform in education.
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