SAN ANTONIO – With companies facing more cybersecurity threats every year, the importance of cybersecurity experts is climbing.
While the need for cybersecurity swells, the industry is facing a workforce shortage.
Ruben Portillo, who oversees issues like cybersecurity for Northeast Independent School District's Safety Department, said the necessity for cybersecurity even expands to the public sector.
"The districts (are) going into a paperless system more and more, so as we do so, we put a lot more stuff online and a lot more information online and it's important we have security," Portillo said.
Portillo joined other security enforcers and local business owners at a video conference Wednesday at Northeast Lakeview College.
Richard Harris, director of Homeland Security's Cyber Infrastructure Resilience Division, led the conference, teaching organizations how to protect their data against cyber threats.
Part of that, he said, has to do with the number of experts helping fight those threats.
"Even though government has a cybersecurity workforce issue itself, it's really important that the critical industry develop their workforce," Harris said.
Government, private and public sectors are all facing an enormous shortage in cybersecurity talent. The subject of cybersecurity is showing up in classrooms all over the nation to fill a worldwide shortage of 1 million openings.
"We don't have a cybersecurity department but I can see it going in that direction," Portillo said about Northeast ISD.
The CEO of the world's largest security software vendor Symantec has said in reports that the demand for the cybersecurity workforce is expected to rise by 6 million professionals globally by 2019, with a projected shortfall of 1.5 million. That will leave companies and information less protected than they should be against hackers.