Tech Education Series #8: What Character or Behavioral Skills are Not Adequately Being Taught

Welcome to the Tech Education Series, where current students and lifelong learners ask questions to industry professionals in search of meaningful insights. What character or behavioral skills are not adequately being taught? Well, I believe an understanding in cyber and privacy ethics is a gaping hole that can have terrible downstream impacts. Graduates often don't benefit from an understanding the role and long-term importance of cyber and privacy ethics have as it relates to transparent reporting, surveillance, data handling, safety, cascading impacts, and regulatory compliance. Cybersecurity, privacy, and GRC—Governance, Risk, and Compliance— often experience situations where an organization which is focused on profit looks at opportunities from a "can we do it" mentality and lack the perspective of "should we do it," and this can be dangerous. Now, cybersecurity leadership should be part of the checks and balances structure, exemplifying and advocating the highest degree of ethics. Trust is the backbone of cybersecurity. We earn it in drips and lose it in buckets. Unethical behaviors as part of the development, deployment, and sustainment of technology products and services is a major threat as the world rushes to embrace and rely on digital solutions. We all should be advocating for digital ethics to academic institutions. Which includes cyber and privacy, for the benefit of their graduates and all the work they contribute to the digital ecosystem that plays a profound role in everyone's lives. Check out all the questions and answers on the Cybersecurity Insights YouTube channel at YouTube/CybersecurityInsights.