In response to the growing need for data security worldwide, West Georgia Technical College is stepping up its cybersecurity education.

West Georgia Tech will add a Cybersecurity specialization to its Computer Information Systems degree program this summer. Dr. Gary Perry, who wrote his dissertation on cybersecurity, will serve as instructor.

“I’m looking forward to taking my Ph.D. out for a drive,” Perry said. “If you’ve had a television on in the past year or two, you can tell that cybersecurity is a big topic in today’s society. Job prospects are incredible, and it’s an interesting field that we’ve had a lot of students ask for in the past, so we’re looking forward to offering it at West Georgia Tech this year.”

The cybersecurity program is a series of courses oriented around protecting a user’s information, including personal data and communications such as messages and emails. Perry said classes will include courses on ethical hacking, computer forensics and network security.

Job prospects are promising. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the number of cybersecurity jobs in 2014 was 82,900, with a projected growth of 18 percent per year, which is much faster than average. The median pay for an information security analyst with less than five years’ experience is $90,120.

Babs Russell, dean of the School of Business & Public Services, said West Georgia Tech pursued the program a few years ago, finding there weren’t many employment opportunities in the local area to support it.

“That changed quickly,” Russell said. “Now, from the largest corporation to the smallest company, businesses are taking extra effort to make sure their information is secure. We’ve designed the program to instruct students on how to be proactive and defensive about cybersecurity, to ensure breaches don’t even occur, rather than focusing solely on what to do after a breach has happened.”

Russell said the Cybersecurity program – which will join Networking and Computer Programming in a trio of specializations offered within the Computer Information Systems degree – will offer its foundational courses on all West Georgia Tech campuses, with the higher-level courses being offered at the LaGrange Campus and online.

Perry plans to leverage his more than 30 years of experience as an information technology professional to teach the courses with a hands-on approach.

“Up until about five years ago, security was basically just a part of an IT professional’s job,” Perry said. “There weren’t any specific job titles, except at maybe the very largest corporations. That’s all changed in the past few years, with all of the talk of hacking and leaks that have been in the news. More and more people are realizing that cybersecurity isn’t just an option anymore, and we want to help fill the need that’s out there.”