BAE Systems boosts recruitment to cyber security unit Detica

FTSE 100-listed BAE said yesterday that of the 293 graduates and trainees it had recruited this year, 130 of them or 44 per cent would be assigned to the company's cyber and security division Detica.

In addition to its more traditional defence business, BAE offers services that help companies collect and manage data and manage risk and respond to breaches of cyber security.

According to BAE, the hiring was more for Detica reflecting the UK's growing need for cyber security as also the cost of cyber crime to the UK, which had been estimated to be between £18 billion and £27 billion, according to the National Audit Office.

The UK suffered 44 million cyber attacks in 2011 - the equivalent of 120,000 a day and the NAO had warned that the UK might be vulnerable from cyber attacks for at least two decades as there was an acute lack of computer experts.

It cautioned that the critical infrastructure of the country such as emergency services and transport, was under threat with companies not taking cyber security seriously enough.

According to Martin Sutherland, Detica's managing director, Detica had over 2,600 staff globally, but it was planning on recruiting 600 people this year of whom 130 would be graduates based in the UK.

BAE would be looking at graduates from courses in IT, engineering, maths and physics, and was offering a training programme designed to help them take on significant challenges like cyber attacks and online fraud.

According to security experts this was a wise step by BAE, but would only address a fraction of the problem. They say records showed that cyber security training business had more than doubled in the past year, but even then there was huge scope for further growth in the area as companies started to take action to close the skills gap.

They say a career in cyber security looked set to have a very robust future, and regardless of the tough economy, cyber security was going to grow and grow, and add, there is an ideal opportunity for anyone in IT to retrain and specialise in cyber security and any graduate could also look forward to a long and highly desirable career path.