New S'pore center aims to groom security experts
SINGAPORE--IBM has teamed up with a local education institution to help boost manpower skills in IT security.
Big Blue and Temasek Polytechnic (TP) announced Wednesday the establishment of a new security training center worth S$200,000 (US$139,860) to provide students from the polytechnic's Informatics and IT School with practical experience in planning and implementing security and privacy tools, and best practices.
Students will receive training in various aspects of security, including identity and access management, threat mitigation, transaction and data integrity, privacy and governance. They will also have opportunities to work with IBM's IT security experts on client projects, which the partners said can potentially lead to a ready pool of IT security-trained talent for Singapore and the region.
Boo Kheng Hua, TP's principal and CEO, said: "The [partnership] extends beyond security products and technologies to include the training of our students and staff in project management, leadership methodology and processes, industry standards and business modeling.
"This collaboration will help us to nurture IT security professionals who safeguard the information systems and applications of organizations and add value to them," Boo added.
The TP-IBM IT Security Center is based on the IBM information Security Framework, which includes best practices to help clients evaluate their current security, and formulate an enterprise-wide security strategy.
According to a company statement, IBM will provide consultation and industry insights to help TP develop a curriculum relevant for students enrolled for the diploma course in Cyber and Digital Security course at the Informatics and IT School.
IBM will also host TP students for an internship program supported by industry partners, including the Land Transport Authority (LTA) of Singapore. The students will be attached to the company for a minimum period of three months, covering areas such as IT security audits and controls, incident handling and response, threat monitoring and patch management, vulnerability assessment and handling, security risk assessment and log review and developing security standards and guidelines.
Nearly 400 staff and students are expected to be trained over the next five years under the three-year diploma program, which currently has an intake of 120 students. The pioneer batch of students is due to graduate in March 2009.
Seow Teck Cheong is a freelance writer based in Singapore.