Hogwarts magic spell
Does GCHQ have a motto? If not, then I suggest; Imperium C Imperium V
Somebody can probably better, my brain has only had one cup of tea so far.
The UK's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) has certified six Masters of Cyber Security degrees. The certifications were issued under the UK's Cyber Security Strategy that, among other things, calls for the nation to “Strengthen postgraduate education to expand the pool of experts with in-depth knowledge of cyber.” …
Not far off, I suspect ... I'm doing a PhD at one of the institutions which applied for that status for the MSc course (unsuccessfully it seems, since we're not on this list*), and one of the entrance requirements is a police background check before you can even begin studying it! (In an amusing irony, that requirement only applies to the MSc, not to PhDs.)
* - fingers crossed for the batch later this year, I suppose.
They could do something immediately to rectify the shortfall by allowing security consultants to submit themselves for security clearance rather than having to be sponsored by a list-x company.
If you stop working for aforementioned list-x company, your SC will expire unless you get another job with SC clearance requirements.
As soon as you get off the merry-go-round and your clearance expires, it's next to impossible to get back on it as agencies are always stipulating that you already *have* SC clearance (regardless of what they say about being prepared to go through the process - it takes around 12 weeks iirc).
Also, will they be vetting the students before they take this course, or just do it afterwards if they apply for a position? Coz if they fail the clearance they will just take their skills to someone a bit less choosy who will probably have deeper pockets.
The can be but few in El Reg's readership who are not now eagerly awaiting Ms Stob's analysis.
See, e.g.,
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/09/13/verity_stob_open_university/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/14/verity_stob_further_eduation/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/07/18/verity_stob_pgpdip/
Just to learn how to use nmap and boot up Kali. I doubt they teach enough to do any serious damage...the courses are probably very restricted.
You dont need security clearance to study nuclear physics as far as im aware.
So is having cyber security knowledge officially more dangerous than being able to build a nuke?
Might as well do the same for social workers studying degrees. Using the same logic, if you cant get clearance you must be a paedophile.
Or people studying medicine because everyone is Harold Shipman right?
Or Law...because everyone wants to go into organised crime.
This is one of the reasons there is a "shortage" in cyber security experts. Its not that there are few out there, its because of red tape. Id love to expand my business into pentesting but thanks to insane hurdles in the way of certification I cant get into the business in any meaningful way.
I suspect hackers enjoying free speech and spreading propaganda are more frightening to the powers that be than a nuclear apocalypse.
You dont need clearance to get on one of the courses, they are open to anyone. They are just saying that the Masters are of the right make up for GCHQ to recognise them. Cambridge don't do a specific infosec masters, although they do have a great security group. Lots of university's have GCHQ centre of Excellence stamps etc.