The modern world is being shaped by extraordinary technological transitions and digital innovation. This remarkable pace of change is being fueled in part through rapid expansion and exponential growth of the digital space.

These changes, according to the World Economic Forum (2016) are fueling what is being called the Fourth Industrial Revolution, where digital technology, the Internet of Things (IoT), and cyber-physical systems will come to impact every facet of life as we know it. Today, already well down the path of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, we stand at an inflection point with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) coupled with developments in computing, modern digital design, and manufacturing, propelling a new IoT, which is globally and instantly interconnected through the internet, the World Wide Web, and beyond. Digital transformation has taken center stage and cannot be evaded.

What has been coined as ‘the cyber world’ surrounds everything we do. It encompasses our work life, our daily living practices, and even our social activities. However, along with its extraordinary advantages comes its anticipated perils, faults, and challenges. How can the world effectively protect its best interests in such a complicated digital/ cyber domain? Compounded with the aforementioned challenges, we have come to realize that we are neither fully equipped to culturally or technically exploit these opportunities, nor are we able to effectively defend ourselves from the threats that come along with it. It is at this point that we are obliged to emphasize on the potential cyber threats of our time, and work on equipping ourselves to fight them. Cybersecurity, which in essence refers to the practice of safeguarding complex critical systems and sensitive data from digital attacks, is an area of expertise that is invaluable nowadays. So why are we still so ill-equipped in the cyber skills domain and where should the focus be placed in to close in on this impending cyber skills gap? The time has come to look towards our education system as a necessary starting point. Ironically, considering everything has already gone digital, global education systems are predominately geared towards the 3 classic Rs (reading, writing, and arithmetic), rather than science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

Unfortunately, we continue to view digital skills as a specialty geared mainly to techsavvy individuals. The skills gap has created a burgeoning industry for cybersecurity, but is struggling to match expansion in vulnerabilities generated from the dynamic and well rewarded digital and software-driven growth. If there is one certainty in this picture, it is that the use of AI and ML by adversaries will exponentially increase the vulnerabilities across the digitally integrated future world, unless there is a fundamental reboot of our educational focus to align it to the world of today by going beyond simply adding courses and training. We need to witness a new shift in the inclusion of foundational skills and aptitudes that we teach to future generations. A failure to focus on, and invest in, secure digital education will create an accelerating and unmanageable risk to the prosperity and security agendas of every state and nation across the globe. Secure software and coding must become a core skill taught from early childhood through high school as a required part of the curriculum alongside the classic subjects of reading, writing, and arithmetic. By embedding awareness, skills, and consequences of online learning, working, and socializing throughout the educational system, innovators and the workforce of the future will create a convergence, rather than a divergence, in digital opportunity and security. The clock is ticking; now is the time to take full action. Across the full spectrum of academia, government, and the private sector, we are seeing movement towards shifting enterprise, regional, and national educational systems and awareness, yet the pace of change is well behind the technological developments needed to protect from the digital world’s most neglected threat: humans.

Leadership in government needs to step up the efforts to change educational paradigms and improve long term outcomes; this will require reimagining the educational system for children, adults, and lifelong learners. Even for individuals that may not directly be involved in the development, administration, or application of advancing digital technologies, this is the only way to counter the weakest link in the system: the human being.