South Carolina announced last week that it would take an inventory of its “cyber assets” as the first step in optimizing its privacy and cybersecurity policy and economic development programs.
The asset inventory – a catalog of supply and demand for talent in cybersecurity, skills shortages and growth needs – can be used to set up education programs across the state to better meet the needs of economic stability and growth.
“Do we want to find the gaps to find out how you integrate the cyber ecosystem across the state? How do you strengthen capacity and technical capacity? And then how can we compete on cyber assets that become an economic engine for our state? ”Said Bill Kirkland, executive director of the Office of Innovation, Partnerships and Economic Engagement at the University of South Carolina, which is spearheading efforts to develop a strategy.
“The inventory will show us what skills are needed. What’s missing. Look at the real workforce development opportunity going forward. And then, of course, we would say that we have modified our curriculum or created certification programs. ”
South Carolina becomes the last region to invest in cybersecurity capacity as a basis for the growth of its economy. The city of Sacramento, California, for example, used COVID-19 funding to turn the dismissed workers into cyber experts. More recently, the Pensacola metropolitan region launched an advertising and incentive campaign aimed at attracting the biggest cyber talent from Silicon Valley and other major technology centers to the Florida Panhandle.
The South Carolina initiative, however, is a coordinated effort between the state government, several state universities, local industry and critical infrastructure.
South Carolina is forecasting a growth in defense and government contracts after the recent move from the Army Cyber Command to neighboring Augusta, Georgia. The University of South Carolina, Columbia, is the major university closest to the Fort Gordon facility and, in the past, has been a halt in Army information dissemination exercises.
Kirkland believes that the development of a cybersecurity center can attract skilled workers from other states, especially those from Fort Gordon, to further support growth.
But the demand for information security workforce goes beyond security companies.
“If the Commerce Department is recruiting a company, many times now, they ask that question – not only how do you protect it, but there is also a skilled workforce,” he said.
The goal is not to replicate the existing infrastructure. The cybersecurity plan will not exceed existing response plans administered by the police or the state.
Kirkland hopes to present a plan to South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster by the end of the year.