Jumping Bean has been awarded the accolade "Best New Comer Training Partner for 2015 in Africa" by EC-Council, the leader in cyber security certification and training. EC-Council partnered with Jumping Bean in 2015 to deliver its' highly regarded suite of cyber security training courses in South Africa. These courses and certifications include the "Certified Ethical Hacker" and "Certified Security Analyst" certifications.
"The award is in recognition for our stellar performance running the EC-Council's Certified Ethical Hacker training over the last year", said Peter Hlope, Jumping Bean's training manager. "There has been a tremendous amount of interest in our cyber security courses over the last year as the number of cyber attacks and costs to business have escalated", continued Hlope.
The Certified Ethical Hacker, CEH for short, is an ethical hacking and counter measures course that ensures security professionals have the skills necessary to conduct vulnerability assessments of their company's information systems. The course focuses on the techniques and technologies from an offensive perspective.
"Ever since the Snowden revelations in 2013 and the continued revelations about state sponsored cyber espionage we have seen a steady increase in the demand for training. The illusion that the internet was a tool that could only enhanced and increased our freedoms has been ripped away forever. We are now older and wiser and realise it is a tool that can be abused as well.", added Hlope.
Increasing Demand For Cyber Security Training
Hlope explained that students are both existing IT professionals who are pivoting their careers as IT professionals to become IT security professionals and new labour market entrants looking to get a good job with excellent career prospects. "Most of the students have their training sponsored by corporates", said Hlope, "so the demand is both from employers and employee."
IT Security professionals can earn up to 9% more than their other IT professional counterparts such as developers and system administrators so its no surprise that many are now considering it as a career.
Skills Shortfall for Cyber Security Professionals Expect to be One Million in 2016
The rise in demand for skilled IT security professionals has seen a concomitant rise in job postings with the likes of Forbes Magazine claiming one million job openings for cyber security professionals in 2016, with a 74% increase in job posting in the last 5 years alone. Forbes expects revenue growth for the cyber security industry to more than double in the next 5 years from $75 billion in 2015 to $170 billion by 2020.
The massive security breaches at Sony and Target have given many directors and board members pause to consider their company's cyber security readiness and their responsibility to ensure they have the right skill set available to defend against such attacks.
There is the concern about the liability of directories should they not take adequate step to address cyber security and the existential threat that a security breach can pose to a business.
The recent campaign by the hacker group Anonymous to focus awareness on corruption in Africa lead the breach of several government site and the shut-down of over 3000 sites belonging to small and medium enterprises.
"There is an urgent need by the South Africa governments and corporates to ensure adequate defences against cyber attacks and to mitigate the risk to their assets", claimed Hlope," we are happy that Jumping Bean can play a part in making this happen."
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