Kevin Dawson: Currently, we are facing a national cybersecurity emergency. The rapid adoption of smart technologies in homes, cities, government, and industries, in the face of a significant shortage of adequately trained cybersecurity professionals means we are all very vulnerable.

Jack Pagano: What I’m seeing in today’s industry is the perfect storm when it comes to cybersecurity, made up of three key things. First of all, the threats. The threats are very sophisticated. The threat actors continue to innovate, and they are relentless in their attacks. To top that off, the cybercriminal market is estimated to be worth about six trillion dollars per year; therefore, this problem is not going to go away anytime soon.

Brian Ritledge: Users have access to multiple computing platforms, which are constantly expanding. Mobile IoT, both industrial and consumer, cloud computing including infrastructure application and platform as a service, are all changing the landscape and expanding the opportunity to attack. One of our largest challenges facing the cybersecurity industry today is a lack of skilled personnel and the global talent shortage. Current research indicates that our industry will face more than 1.5 million openings by 2020. 

Ali Dehgantanha: I am Ali Dehgantanha, I am a professor of cybersecurity in the University of Guelph and I am the directing the development of the new master’s program in Cybersecurity and Threat Intelligence in the University. Cybersecurity is among the fastest growing of science and practice out there. With the more expansion of the networks and devices out there, the cybersecurity becomes a major concern these days and many companies are looking for experts in the field. [The] University of Guelph recognized this gap a couple of years ago and since then there are lots of development going on in the campus: developing a new cybersecurity lab, recruiting a lot of world-class researchers and a lot of professors coming to the school, so we can provide a great teaching and learning environment in cybersecurity. Moreover, we have created strong links with many businesses out there, and those businesses will be with the students and supporting the student projects throughout the program. That provides a hands-on, real-world experience to these students which are coming to this program and graduating from this program successfully.

Rozita Dara: My name is Rozita Dara, I am a faculty at the University of Guelph. My focus is on privacy and artificial intelligence. This program at the University of Guelph will enable graduates to gain hands-on experience on the most challenging aspect of cybersecurity, and also enables them to think ethically when they want to address them, considering the social challenges globally. They will also gain experience with core concept of security in [combination] with the artificial intelligence to address those challenges. 

Ali Dehgantanha: This is quite a hands-on, practical master’s program in Cybersecurity and Threat Intelligence. It has a lot of overlap between cybersecurity and AI that make it even more interesting for the students and for the future practitioners to join the program. This program is quite unique because it’s providing kind of a wide coverage of different topics in cybersecurity: penetration testing, digital forensics, threat intelligence, as well as offering a lot of scientific background on all these fields. The good thing is most of these courses are delivered in a full hands-on manner, and even the courses are evaluated in a practical format that totally differentiates this program from other available programs in Canada.