Edith Cowan University joins forces with PSB Academy to build talent reinforcements in cyber security

Home to one of just two Academic Centres of Cyber Security Excellence in Australia, Edith Cowan University (ECU) will launch four degree and certificate programmes with PSB Academy in a bid to close the regional cyber security skills gap.

SINGAPORE - Media OutReach - 19 January 2019 - "Will machines own humans in the future?" That's the question Leonard Kleinman, Chief Cyber Security Advisor for RSA, Asia Pacific & Japan, and ECU alumnus, hoped to tackle ahead of the University's official launch of cyber security programmes in Singapore at PSB Academy today. Post-apocalypse and self-aware machine jokes aside, the topic of cyber-related threats and ingenuity in machine-learning would throw into sharper relief the very real talent gap of 3,400 cybersecurity professional roles that would need to be filled in Singapore by 2020 (Michael Page)--jobs in threat and vulnerability assessment, security management, and incident and crisis management that no AI could hope to solve in the near future without human intervention.

Professor Andrew Woodward, Executive Dean of the School of Science, Edith Cowan University (ECU), and Derrick Chang, CEO, PSB Academy, mark the institutional partnership to launch new ECU cyber security programmes in Singapore in 2019.

For a University that has the longest-established cyber security course in Australia, in a country that currently deals with more cyber-attacks than any other in the Asia Pacific region (Cisco 2018 Asia Pacific Security Capabilities Benchmark Study), ECU has earnest ambitions, and the credentials, to expand its cyber security programme offerings in the region. Also home to the Security Research Institute (SRI) and Academic Centre of Cyber Security Excellence, the University's School of Science hopes the new programmes will train up a next generation of analysts, penetration testers, and IT specialists to lead the crackdown on rising cybercrime rates. Four ECU programmes are planned* to be delivered in Singapore by PSB Academy, with intakes starting from 2019:

1. Bachelor of Science (Cyber Security), which is accredited by the Australian Computer Society (ACS)
2. Graduate Certificate of Cyber Security
3. Graduate Diploma of Cyber Security
4. Master of Cyber Security, which is accredited by the Australian Computer Society (ACS)

The institutions hope to train and certify more than 200 security professionals each year--a pipeline of valuable talent trained in skills from systems analysis and computer forensics, to ethical hacking and defence, understanding wireless security and programming secure software systems.

"Since 2001, more than 1000 cyber security professionals have graduated from ECU's cyber security programmes, armed with not only with the technical know-how, but the ability to innovate solutions that can help predict, prevent, detect, and respond to evolving cyber threats from nation states and individuals. We recognise that PSB Academy share the same values in educating and preparing students for the future, and look forward to helping build resilient teams, companies and economies against digital vulnerabilities that threaten the safety and growth of our countries," says ECU School of Science Acting Executive Dean Associate Professor Paul Haskell-Dowland.

This is not PSB Academy's first foray into the growing niche field of network defence and ethical hacking. In 2018, its School of Engineering and Technology signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the International Council of E-Commerce Consultants (EC-Council), the world's largest cybersecurity technical certification body, to launch skills-based training programmes targeted at enhancing cybersecurity awareness and capabilities among professionals in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector in Singapore.

"We are excited about the role we have to play in building talent that will support the growth of Asia's innovation capitals in an age of unprecedented digital access," says Derrick Chang, CEO, PSB Academy. "Cyber security seems a novel field in the wake of highly publicised attacks in our home ground. However, network and systems security should be the cornerstone for which any institution with online presence must build on for sustainable growth, to maintain the trust that users often take for granted in the services and goods that are offered. We are proud to have partners in ECU, who can not only share their technical expertise in training individuals with hard skills, but also can promote the values and ethics for which these aspiring professionals must have, to build responsible teams for a secure Singapore that people will continue to have confidence in."

*Pending regulatory approval.

About ECU

ECU has more than 30,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students. We also annually welcome close to 6,000 international students, originating from more than 100 countries. Established in 1991, ECU took the opportunity to reshape the way higher education is delivered in a distinctive and inspiring campus environment. ECU courses are developed in consultation with industry, and teaching staff have extensive industry experience and networks. This approach has been rewarded with five-star ratings for teaching quality over the past twelve years, along with consistently high ratings for overall education experience and skills development, as reported in the Good Universities Guide.

About PSB Academy

Once known as Singapore's Productivity and Standards Board, PSB Academy is known today as "The Future Academy", with an approach to education that focuses on what really matters: performance in the New Economy. In 2017, the Academy was conferred "Education Institution of the Year" by APAC Insider and earned 2 consecutive SBR National Business Awards in 2017/18 in the Education category for outstanding work in the region. Today, we host over 12,000 students from over 50 nationalities with our slate of certificate, diploma, degree and postgraduate programmes every year.

More at www.psb-academy.edu.sg