Young Hackers Are The Future Of Cybersecurity Lets Treat Them As Such – Forbes

Kirill Kukhmar/TASS

In February, a poster that featured the Metropolitan Police and National Crime Agency logos, created to warn parents about children and cybercrime, came under scrutiny. It warned parents against various online tools, including Tor Browser and Kali Linux, claiming the presence of such tools was a sign their child "could be a hacker". Both organizations said they had no involvement with the poster and rightly distanced themselves but it points to a worrisome attitude towards tech education in the UK.

If young people are vilified for honing their cyber skills, we risk alienating them from the tech industry. Associating legitimate software such as Kali Linux with cybercrime perpetuates a stereotype of young coders as potential hackers. While its easy to laugh this poster off as ignorance, there is a serious risk to young talent. At the very least they could be disincentivized from pursuing technical skills and at a time when there is a global deficit of cyber experts.

Technical ability is the future of work, which is why the British government has implemented policies such as the National Retraining Scheme. If our economy is to flourish, interest in these programs should be encouraged, not discouraged; we should be welcoming and encouraging hackers. (ISC)2 found that the number of unfilled IT security roles is more than four million and increasing by a million year-on-year. Tapping into the next generation of cyber-curious individuals is integral to plugging the gap.

This security talent deficit is already having an effect on security teams. A recent Marlin Hawk study found that 66% of CISOs are struggling to recruit senior talent because candidates either lack the right level of technical knowledge (34%), dont have the right experience (30%), or are not the right cultural fit (10%). This is especially prevalent in the APAC region, where 91% find it difficult to find the right talent, compared to 61% in the UK and 54% in the US. Encouraging young people to see tech, and especially cybersecurity, as a viable career path is essential. The outside the box thinking required to be a hacker is what cybersecurity firms are desperate for; new threats come in all shapes and sizes, so the industry needs people who can predict and counter such attacks.

There is also a trend of neurodiverse individuals succeeding in cybersecurity, and they are at risk of being put off by posters such as the one that appeared in February, as many of these individuals eschew formal education in favor of developing skills independently. Neurodivergent individuals possess unique insight, so we should encourage them to learn in a way that suits them. This is the exact reason they suit cyber roles: by thinking differently, neurodiverse people can spot things that others might miss and bring different problem-solving approaches which might otherwise be overlooked. This includes desirable skills such as focus, pattern recognition and methodical and logical thinking. It is no coincidence, then, that the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and GCHQ actively seek members of the neurodiverse community when hiring.

The tech community needs to correct the narrative when it comes to young hackers. The term hacker has a natural association with criminality, when, on the most simplistic level, what hackers do is by definition something that others thought impossible. Whether for positive or nefarious ends, being a hacker requires an innovative mindset. By creating an atmosphere of negativity around those involved in hacking from an early age, we risk driving them to the fringes perhaps even criminality. Telling children with strong computer skills that their interest in technology is bad can force them to be secretive about it and result in them being pushed into cybercrime. They need an outlet for their skills.

The employment gap in cybersecurity and many other parts of the tech industry is not going anywhere. The solution to this is staring us in the face: we must encourage, not admonish, those with the technical abilities to transform industries. Whether it be neurodivergent people, the young or indeed the elderly, we need to encourage the tech-savvy among us to be a force for good.

So the next time parents see a poster warning them that their child could be a hacker, we must ensure that both parent and child see it as a badge of honor the mark of someone who could one day be on the frontline, protecting us from the rising tide of cyber threats.