Warning: Critical shortage of cybercrime experts

Experts warned at a conference on Tuesday of a critical shortage of global specialists trained to confront increasingly malicious cyber security threats.
“Some reports say that we have globally less than 1,000 people who are truly qualified, whereas we need over 30,000 to address the problem,” said Mark Goodwin, of Virginia Tech university in the United States.
“What we’re seeing is cyber espionage and cyber sabotage that warrants that we have increasingly skilled people to address this threat,” said Goodwin, deputy director of a university program that aims to address the shortage. His comments were made at a symposium on command and control and countersecurity organized by King Saud University with the Interior Ministry.
There is “growing complexity” to the maneuvers of cyberattackers, which reflects the need for effective intelligence, Gregoire Germain, director of information technology and security at French company Thales, told the forum.
Prince Bandar bin Abdullah bin Mushari, assistant interior minister for technology, said: “The security of cyber systems is crucial for the safety of our country. So, fighting cybercrime is a prime responsibility of every citizen. This principle of citizen responsibility stems from the famous saying of the late former Interior Minister Prince Naif that the citizen is the first security officer in society.”
He added that technology has dominated our lives as we make it, use it, and benefit from it. “But it has also become a target of suspicious use whether in the field of politics, business or social communication. So, the responsibility for security and safety of our society is on the shoulders of each of us.”
Saleh Ibrahim Al-Motairi, general director of the Kingdom’s National Cybersecurity Center, said: “We need a national framework for capacity building.”
Motairi, whose center will start operations toward the end of this year, added: “Human resources are the most important element and technology is number two.”
The center would try to further knowledge about cybercrime, Motairi said.
The experts’ call comes after an attack on France’s TV5Monde this month showed the growing impact of cybertattacks.