- Title
- Towards a Cybersecurity Skills Framework for South Africa
- Creator
- Kruger, M
- Subject
- Computer systems--Security measures
- Subject
- Frameworks (Structures) -- South Africa
- Date Issued
- 2023-04
- Date
- 2023-04
- Type
- Master's theses
- Type
- Thesis
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10948/61200
- Identifier
- vital:69793
- Description
- Cybersecurity is an ever-growing area of concern both globally and in South Africa. The increasing number of cyberattacks daily has had a large effect on individuals, organisations, governments, and society at large. The growing need to combat cybercrime is accompanied by the increased need for skilled IT professionals to assist in protecting against cybercrime. Currently, there is a worldwide cybersecurity skills gap and a lack of IT professionals with the requisite cybersecurity skills. Many countries have developed their own taxonomies and common lexicons for IT and cybersecurity work, specifically for their context. This type of common lexicon is important to help assist in the development of skills. However, South Africa does not yet have its own cybersecurity skills framework to serve as a common lexicon for the South African context. Hence, the problem defined for this study is that, without a common lexicon of the cybersecurity knowledge, skills, abilities, and tasks (KSATs) required of IT professionals as they relate to specific IT job roles in South Africa, the cybersecurity skills gap cannot be sufficiently addressed. Such a lexicon could help drive the development of skills in South Africa and, in so doing assist in alleviating the cybersecurity skills gap. This study therefore presents a common lexicon by collecting job postings over a four-month period from 1 October 2020 to 31 January 2021. These job postings were analysed using a thematic content analysis. The results identified 20 common IT job roles, together with the specific KSATs relating to each job role identified. As a result, these job roles form part of a proposed cybersecurity skills framework for South Africa (CSFwSA) which could help and guide South Africa towards more targeted cybersecurity skills development. The proposed framework could also be useful in guiding tertiary educational facilities in the creation of cybersecurity curricula that represent the real-world expectations. This, in turn, could help South Africa to address the cybersecurity skills gap by better preparing IT professionals and ensuring that they are trained and skilled in cybersecurity.
- Description
- Thesis (MIT) -- Faculty of Engineering, the Built Environment and Technology, School of Information Technology, 2023
- Format
- computer
- Format
- online resource
- Format
- Format
- 1 online resource (xii, 180 pages)
- Publisher
- Nelson Mandela University
- Publisher
- Faculty of Engineering, the Built Environment and Technology
- Language
- English
- Rights
- Nelson Mandela University
- Rights
- All Rights Reserved
- Rights
- Open Access
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- Downloads: 18
Collections
NMU School of Information and Communication Technology
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | Kruger, M.pdf | 4 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |