Google has just opened a new flagship cybersecurity hub in Malaga, Spain and at the same time, has announced a $10 million cybersecurity skills program in partnership with the European Cyber Conflict Research Incubator.
GSEC Malaga is the third Google cybersecurity hub, the others being in Dublin and Munich and will allow Google teams and experts to come together to develop and scale cutting-edge research and tools to combat increasingly sophisticated threats.
The center features a dedicated training space hosting personalised training workshops for government officials, businesses, jobseekers, NGOs, and local schools. To kick start the training events, Google has also announced a $10 million pledge through Google.org to advance cybersecurity skills training and help local community organisations.
The pledge is in partnership with the European Cyber Conflict Research Incubator (“ECCRI CIC”), and is the first of its kind in Europe, with an aim to advance cybersecurity skills development and training and to help local community organisations build their online protections.
The program also provides universities with a cybersecurity training program and curriculum, allowing them to offer cybersecurity courses to students from diverse backgrounds and with no prior experience in the field.
Google.org are providing eight universities in eight different European countries with up to $1 million in funding, course content and extensive training from the ECCRI CIC to help them bring the Cybersecurity Seminars to life. The curriculum will be translated into eight European languages — including English, Spanish and Ukrainian — and will be available free of charge for all academic institutions to use, along with comprehensive teaching instructions.
Lofty ambitions
Google are expecting to enroll over 1,600 students in the initial program during which universities will be given two years to run a minimum of two cybersecurity seminars each.
Each attending student will be required to put the skills learnt in the classroom into practice: supporting at least two community organisations to boost their cyber protections, reaching at least 3,200 organisations in the first two years of the program alone.
