Nick Herman once led a global corporate campaign to trick people into clicking on a fictitious link. He created fake websites and phishing emails in different languages.

Herman is no cyber fraudster — quite the contrary. Interning at a high-technology manufacturer in Charlotte, N.C., during his freshman year at Virginia Tech, he was put in charge of the phishing project to promote cybersecurity mindfulness throughout the company.

“The biggest issue in cybersecurity is the lack of awareness,” said Herman, who was self-employed as an IT consultant in high school. And lack of cyber education and awareness, he said, can lead to phishing attacks, which “are the number one way cyber criminals infiltrate a system.”

Cybersecurity management and analytics at Pamplin

Herman and Soni, both juniors majoring in business information technology in the Pamplin College of Business, leapt at the chance to pursue a new academic option this fall in cybersecurity management and analytics.

“When I saw that Pamplin will start offering cybersecurity, I immediately booked a one-on-one meeting with my advisor to make the switch from the decision support systems option,” said Soni, who has a second major in finance. The cyber option, he said, would equip him with the skills and knowledge “to protect systems from security threats and damages, as threats to systems will never go away.”

To learn more, check out the whole article below.

Digital defenders: meeting the need for talent, bridging the business-technology gap