Partnering to help educate tomorrow’s IT leaders

Most of us remember when hackers hit Target, stealing credit and debit card information from more than 40 million customers; not long after, Home Depot was attacked with 56 million payment cards likely compromised. These were two of the largest reported data breaches against big businesses in recent years -- but just imagine the number of cases not reported on the evening news.

Cyber-attacks are a top concern for enterprise IT administrators.

According to Forbes, the cybersecurity market is expected to grow from $75 billion in 2015 to $170 billion by 2020. The White House is renewing its focus on this important issue, as well: President Obama recently called for a commission to develop comprehensive strategies to protect against cyber hacks and offer citizens ways to shield their personal information.

Recognizing the challenges faced by private industry and governments in addressing cybersecurity, Boston College inaugurated its Master of Science (M.S.) in Cybersecurity Policy & Governance program in January 2016 at its Woods College of Advancing Studies, led by its Program Director, Kevin R. Powers, J.D. With a focus on leadership, critical thinking, analytic problem solving and communication skills, the 10-course degree program teaches professionals how to help organizations protect their data, identify and manage cyber risk and recover from cyber-attacks.

The students enrolled in the Cybersecurity Policy & Governance program range from recent graduates to business professionals to tech developers and software engineers who are already deep in their careers, but plan to start on the cybersecurity management track. In the classroom, there are aspiring chief information security officers, cyber-intelligence analysts, cyber and network security directors and more.

In an effort to build a robust, top-rated program, Boston College is collaborating with industry leaders and experts around the world. HYCU is among the more than 25 leading partner organizations that will provide resources including visiting professors, guest lecturers and internship opportunities. Other industry partners include EMC/RSA, FireEye/Mandiant, IBM Security and Symantec, to name a few.

At HYCU, we specialize in developing monitoring solutions that provide visibility into the IT infrastructure stack, detailing advanced alerts on attacks and comprehensive security attack reporting. We are excited to share product demos with students enrolled in the program so they can experience the leading software solutions designed to put IT administrators on the forefront of data protection by providing deep insights through overall infrastructure monitoring, including mobile environments. We are looking forward to leading discussions with students and sharing real world experiences with them.

Check out our interview with Virtual Strategy Magazine about how new paradigms in IT still face long-standing user experience challenges.