UNAM and Huawei join together to train in cybersecurity, is it enough?

According to the director of the Institute of Applied Sciences and Technology of the UNAM, María Herlinda Montiel Sánchez, this inclination on the part of women to specialize in cybersecurity was evident in one of the most recent programs of the academic body, in conjunction with the company Huawei.

“The interest in specializing in this type of programs on the part of the talent who graduates from engineering is greater, but in gender issues, cybersecurity is one of the specializations that attracts their attention the most. Since the pandemic we have seen that many students are looking for programs focused on these topics and demanding more,” he told Expansión Montiel.

Huawei, for its part, is seeking to collaborate with the academy with these types of programs and thus generate more job opportunities for talent graduating from engineering. Manuel Díaz, director of cybersecurity at Huawei Mexico, pointed out that this type of collaboration allows institutions to stay up to date with the needs that the private industry has, but also helps close the educational gap with recently graduated students.

“What many of these students are looking for is an opportunity in a job field that has grown and will grow. In the end, cybersecurity has become one of the most in-demand careers in recent years and we seek to enable them to specialize in this type of topics to be able to respond to the need for more computer security,” Díaz said in an interview.

Diaz pointed out that one of the main needs to have more cybersecurity specialists is the growth of tools such as artificial intelligence. And one of the trends that exists is that if cybersecurity and AI come together, we can have more optimized security.

A Microsoft report highlights that the use of AI languages ​​in cybersecurity is a testament to the potential of this trend, as these models can analyze large amounts of data to discover patterns and trends in cyber threats, adding valuable context to the threat intelligence.

For example, Microsoft Copilot for Security users have shown a 44% increase in accuracy across all tasks and a 26% faster completion rate. These figures highlight the tangible benefits of integrating AI into cybersecurity practices and the need for updated educational programs.

“What we are doing now is creating programs that contribute to the academy more quickly, without the need to open or change the study plans, that is, they are a complement to what the private industry demands,” Montiel said.

However, one of the great challenges that Brian Green, an academic at Santa Clara University, sees is the departure of many academic specialists in AI, IT and Cybersecurity from universities, since many of them prefer to go to large technology companies to work and Therefore, much of the talent that could be trained is left without available mentors.