Cybersecurity, in Italy Microsoft launches a training program against the skill gap

"Cybersecurity skilling" the new project of Ambizione Italia aimed at companies, students and professionals to meet the need for specialized professional figures 20 Jun 2022 Veronica Balocco

Microsoft Italy announces today, as part of its plan for the ambitious country Italy, the Alliance for Labor, a new project that sees the company's ecosystem committed to accelerating the growth and competitiveness of the country, through joint training programs aimed at spreading digital skills among students and professionals and reducing the so-called skills mismatch. Specifically, this month an articulated plan of initiatives dedicated to cybersecurity – the Cybersecurity skilling program – starts this month, which is the first of a series of initiatives in the field of it security that sees 30 free online and face-to-face courses in the territory concentrated in just one month. The training courses are aimed at Microsoft companies and partners, established professionals and students to reduce skills mismatch in cyber security and will involve over 1000 people in this first phase. Index of topics • Need for specialized professionals • Companies, students and upskilling • "Facing the future with tastes tools" Need for specialized professionals In recent years, cyber threats around the world have grown at an alarming rate: just think that in 2021, the Microsoft security team blocked over 9.6 billion malware threats and more than 35.7 billion phishing and other malicious emails. Microsoft security actively monitors more than 35 ransomware families and 250 nation-unique players, ransomware, and criminal activity, and Microsoft technology blocks more than 900 brute force attacks for password theft every second. These numbers make the need for specialized professionals clear: if on the one hand the cybersecurity specialist is among the 25 most requested professions in Italy, on the other hand only 40% of workers have received specific training on cyber security. In this scenario, Microsoft Italy starting from this month, together with the ecosystem of partners on the territory members of this new alliance, including Fondazione Mondo Digitale and Pipeline, offers a wide range of initiatives and training courses with the aim of supporting digital development and bridging the cybersecurity skill gap. Companies, students and upskilling For companies, Microsoft provides dedicated training courses, aimed at obtaining globally recognized certifications with the aim of bridging knowledge gaps and implementing knowledge of Microsoft solutions. For students, on the other hand, together with Fondazione Mondo Digitale, ad-hoc training has been developed to promote a general knowledge on the concepts of cloud computing, security and compliance. For the upskilling of professionals, together with Pipeline, advanced paths have been developed to disseminate the skills necessary to implement security controls and identity management solutions based on Microsoft Azure. To complete the training proposal, the initiatives on the Cloud champion platform dedicated to the Microsoft partner ecosystem are also included. "Facing the future with tastes tools" "The growth of risks and threats is now there for all to see. Unfortunately, there is a skill gap between companies on the security front and this can cause a potential delay in the detection time of breaches and consequently a cost of managing the cyber threat on which the longevity of the business can sometimes also depend. Cutting-edge technologies are no longer sufficient, but highly qualified personnel are needed to cope with any critical issue. The talent shortage in this sector is a very urgent challenge: to give an example, just think that in the United States 1 in 3 jobs in security is vacant – almost 2.5 million – with an impact in terms of delay on the detection time of a cyber breach up to 287 days. With the Alliance for Work, which I hope will soon be joined by new members, and the Cybersecurity skilling program, we want to face this challenge with a collaborative spirit by providing companies, students and professionals with a platform to help them face the future with the right tools" commented Silvia Candiani, CEO of Microsoft Italy.