Cybersecurity Workforce Landscape, Education, and Industry Growth Prospects in Southeast Asia

Abstract

Given the chronic lack of qualified professionals in the cybersecurity industry, the present paper seeks to evaluate the current interest in cybersecurity across Southeast Asia nations and then compare it with the available educational offerings of related degrees in each country to identify eventual gaps in the market. The goal is to assess whether there is a need for additional degree programs in cybersecurity and to evaluate the potential for future growth in the industry by providing a solid educational foundation for aspiring professionals. To estimate current interest from prospective students and profesionals in cybersecurity across each country, leaderboards from the popular TryHackMe gamified cybersecurity training platform are referenced. We further discuss issues by considering the related formal education programmes offered by the top universities in each country, identified by their presence in the QS world university rankings. The data are then used to propose two new metrics: the ‘Cybersecurity Education Prospects Index’ (CEPI) and the ‘Cybersecurity Industry Prospects Index’ (CIPI), which show how most of the eleven countries in Southeast Asia do have an unmet demand for cybersecurity education and only a few of them have already developed an educational infrastructure that is ready to support the growing needs of the local and international industry.