Words: Ana Carolina Landi, RNP
Information security requires professionals to constantly learn and be able to adapt to new technologies, solve new problems and foresee new risks, having to protect and monitor systems from end to end.
However, there is a gap between the demand for cybersecurity professionals and the qualified training of this workforce. In Brazil alone, according to data from the International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium (ISC²), there are at least 300,000 unfilled vacancies in the cybersecurity area.
In this context, the White Hat Hackers (Hackers do Bem in Portuguese) program was born, working on several fronts to revolutionize the area of security in the country, fostering the ecosystem with creative solutions and connecting professionals ready to work in cybersecurity with opportunities in the most different market niches. The program has the National Education and Research Network (RNP) and Senai São Paulo as executors in Softex’s National Priority Innovation Program, with resources from the ICT Law.
One of Hackers do Bem’s proposals is to reduce the gap between vacancies and trained cybersecurity professionals. The training is open to technical, secondary and higher education students, technology professionals looking for specialization and professionals looking to move into another area. Hackers do Bem aims to develop human resources in cybersecurity, so you don’t need to have any experience to sign up for the course.
Initially, the program was going to offer at least 30,000 students the opportunity to become professionals free of charge. However, around 120,000 students were already enrolled when the course opened on January 22, 2024.
Hackers do Bem has five mapped tracks: the leveling, basic, fundamental, specialized and technological residency courses. The program’s virtual learning platform includes video lessons, quizzes, animations, live classes and theoretical and practical exercises using simulators.
Another front of the initiative is support for innovation projects. The program opens calls for RD&I projects in cybersecurity, so that research laboratories and startups can develop new products and services.
“We’re also going to create a cybersecurity hub to connect trained professionals with companies and their job opportunities. We’re also promoting capture the flags (CTFs), i.e. competitions in the area, as well as hackathons and workshops to bring this topic into the curricula of schools and universities,” says Iara Machado, the director of Research, Development and Innovation of RNP.
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