The semiconductor shortage continues to be a concern for most organizations around the world. While investments in new plants have been made to help increase supply, there is still a concern that there might not be sufficient skilled employees in the field.

In fact, the demand for skillsets in semiconductor and its related industries have been increasing, especially with new factories being developed. Despite technology enables most of these plants to be automated, the reality is, semiconductor companies need a physical workforce in areas of research and development and such.

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For example, in the US alone, the semiconductor industry will need to hire between 70,000 and 90,000 additional workers by 2025.  Reports also show that countries like Taiwan, which is currently the global powerhouse of integrated circuit manufacturing, has an average monthly deficit of specialized workers of approximately 27,700 employees.

As such, semiconductor companies have been investing and partnering with universities and learning institutes to develop new talents. In Malaysia, Micron Technology has announced an investment of RM1 million to strengthen collaboration, research and development projects with local universities over the next five years. The funding will go towards grants supporting research in the areas of semiconductor materials, smart manufacturing and artificial intelligence which are key to the advancement of tech manufacturing in the country.

“Micron leads the industry in both NAND and DRAM technology and Malaysia is critical to our global manufacturing footprint. We hope the funding and collaboration with local universities will strengthen the local semiconductor ecosystem, advance R&D and deepen science, technology and engineering skills in the local talent pool,” said Amarjit Singh Sandhu, corporate vice president and country manager of Micron Malaysia.

University Sains Malaysia (USM) will be the first university partner to receive funding from Micron. The partnership is set to create new growth opportunities between various institutors and companies. Further to that, the partnership between Micron and USM is also in line with the focus area of the National Fourth Industrial Revolution’s policy,and supported by national policies such as the 12th Malaysia Plan and Wawasan Kemakmuran Bersama 2030.

Amarjit also pointed out that Micron foresees opportunities to accelerate the next level of growth, given the increasing global market demand for memory and storage products. Hence, Micron has already invested in a 52.6-acre Center of Excellence for solid state drives assembly in Batu Kawan Industrial Park, Penang which is scheduled to begin operations by the end of 2022.

“The RM1 million grant funding to local universities by Micron today further reinforces the company’s commitment to using its leadership, influence and resources to create positive change, on top of its relentless efforts in employee wellbeing, sustainability, and corporate social responsibility,” said Chow Kon Yeow, chief minister of Penang, who witnesses the signing ceremony.

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The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center reported 2084 ransomware complaints from January to July 31, 2021, a staggering 62% increase over the same period in the previous year. Another report showed that ransomware is part of 10% of all breaches and doubled its frequency in 2021.

The reality is though, ransomware will still be a major problem in 2022. For most organizations, it is no longer just about protecting their business, but about having the right type of security solutions and a sufficient security team to manage them as well.

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According to James Forbes May, vice president for the Asia Pacific at Barracuda, despite ransomware still being a problem, governments are now taking it very seriously and collaborating at the nation-state level. The more active actions from these collaborations are slowing down the ransomware attackers’ ability to transfer their assets, which will impact the volume of attacks in 2022.

He believes that there will be a renewed focus on governments prioritizing cybersecurity initiatives, building alliances with vendors, and sharing data with other countries. This level of collaboration will help improve security for everyone. However, ransomware will still dominate the news because that’s the most lucrative way for the bad guys to make money right now.

“In the post-breach era where attackers are ahead of their targets since they have their hands on stolen data, including credentials, these attacks range from extortion on valuable data to penetrating the software supply chain. It has gone beyond disrupting business operations and goes as far as revealing information to discredit a corporation and destroy the trust chain. Figuring out how to slow that down by encouraging collaboration between governments and developing alliances with vendors will be critical in the year ahead,” said James.

James also pointed out that critical infrastructures will continue to face significant security challenges in 2022. This critical infrastructure includes everything from energy and financial services to education and healthcare. For example, there have been numerous stories about how ransomware attacks that hit hospitals affect patient treatment and even lead to deaths. Attacks on critical infrastructure have the most direct impact on people’s lives, so security will be a challenge as cybercriminals continue to focus on these vulnerable areas.

At the same time, James highlighted that the COVID-19 pandemic has shown that cybercriminals are willing to exploit the crisis to attack critical infrastructures like healthcare and the vaccine supply chain. He commented that it will be necessary for hospitals and healthcare organizations to understand the three steps of ransomware protection. They are avoiding credential leaks, securing access to their applications and infrastructure, and backing up their data. This will help companies get through the pandemic with as little impact from cyber-attacks as possible.

Increasing ransomware attacks requires new IT skills

One of the biggest problems in dealing with ransomware attacks in 2021 was a lack of IT skills in handling them. While some processes can be automated or outsourced, the reality is, organizations still needed to have an IT team to manage their systems. While the demand for IT security teams increased, there were simply not many of them available.

James Forbes May, APAC VP at Barracuda. (IMG/Barracuda)

James highlighted the need for IT security executives to develop the ability to understand forensics and incident response. Many IT security organizations — whether they’re large companies or small companies working with a managed service provider — are still struggling with too many tools and not getting the signals to work together.

As such, detection and response will be the keywords to help IT security executives achieve what they need in 2022 and beyond. Improving in this area will require an Open XDR platform or managed XDR solution through a service provider. Those tools will enable IT, security executives, to respond more efficiently than they are now.  Right now, most companies have more tools and more information than they know what to do with.

“For example, we have seen enterprises investing in tools to protect multiple attack surfaces. It will be essential to capture the signals from each tool and correlate the data for actionable insights.  From prevention, detection to response, it will require forensics and security analytics skills to defend against today’s cyberattacks.  And we are all aware of the shortage of cybersecurity skill sets; therefore, utilizing a managed SoC (Security Operations Centre) with XDR capabilities could be the answer for small, medium enterprises,” explained James.

James also pointed out that consolidation on data-driven platforms is one change to see in 2022 as the market moves to more of a service-driven kind of tooling, including XDR and managed detection and response. Detection and response will get more complex, and it’s a skillset many organizations are missing that will need to be addressed.

Many companies, especially SMBs or small-to-medium-sized enterprises, will need some type of managed service to get the assistance they need to respond efficiently and effectively and survive these ransomware attacks without investing so much in building a team in-house. James also mentioned that a lot of that market is going to shift toward managed security service providers. And at an enterprise level, it will mean getting to know what tools they’re using, which signals they’re getting from those tools, and consolidating those signals to make detection and response easier.

“Cybersecurity champion is a new role that we will start to see emerging in the next few years, especially at organizations where they are developing software. Security champions will focus on what’s been dubbed “shifting left” because now it is about the developers, software development, and the software supply chain, which includes Open-Source libraries and other third-party libraries. On the very left of the entire software development lifecycle, getting that level of security attention at the developer level is where those roles will start to add value,” commented James.

Apart from that, James believes the other emerging role in the next few years is a security analyst. To effectively detect and respond to threats, which means forensics and incident response, companies need security analysts who understand the correlation of these different signals and can execute on responding to these threats.

The post Asia Pacific should prepare for more ransomware attacks in 2022 appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

The Technology Young Talent Programme @ OCBC is a curated, year-long internship for final-year students of NP’s Diploma in Information Technology course, fusing IT with financial knowledge and training to serve the growing sector for fintech jobs. 

The co-designed course comes with opportunities for full-time employment with the bank post-graduation as the Bank seeks to improve its technological innovation. 

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The program is double the time of a typical internship and aims to equip IT students with industry-relevant fintech skills and knowledge and work experience for direct preparation for the workplace post-graduation.

According to a statement, OCBC and NP will collaborate to curate each student’s internship plan according to their area of study, which could include Data Visualisation, Machine Learning, Cloud Technologies or Mobile App Development. 

The student’s final-year core curriculum will be incorporated into internship projects and day-to-day work, which ensures that each student’s learning objectives are met. Grades will be jointly determined by both institutions as part of this industry-in-curriculum pathway. 

Specialist training for fintech jobs

An estimated 2,500 to 3,500 technology-related jobs are expected to be created yearly over the medium term in the financial sector. As such, the Technology Young Talent Programme @ OCBC will accelerate the development of a next-generation tech workforce to meet this rising demand. 

Lim Kok Kiang, Principal & CEO, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, said, “At Ngee Ann Polytechnic, we are intentional in keeping industry at the core of our curriculum. We do this by bringing industry into our campus, as well as taking our classroom to the industry. This is critical for the rapidly-evolving technology sector, where the fastest way to pick up the latest skills is for learners to be immersed in industry. 

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With this industry-in-curriculum pathway that we are pioneering with OCBC, students will have an earlier start and a longer runway to deepen their core skills and explore the latest web technologies in real-world settings. Essentially, they will be on the fast track to seize career opportunities in the dynamic technology field.” 

To do so, the Programme will give students hands-on experience with Web 3.0 technologies such as blockchain and artificial intelligence, and they will gain exposure to banking fields like wealth management, trade finance or cash management. Students will also deepen their understanding of regulatory and banking security requirements. 

 OCBC bank will also provide dedicated career guidance in mapping out students’ career paths by matching them to mentors to help them develop their skills and grow their knowledge. 

20 students will begin their internships with the Bank’s Operations and Technology division in March 2022, when the third and final year of their course commences. 

Praveen Raina, Head of Group Operations and Technology, OCBC Bank, said, “As more companies accelerate their digital transformation efforts, the tech talent crunch has become a significant challenge. 

“We deeply value the partnership with Ngee Ann Polytechnic on this very meaningful programme which will contribute significantly towards tackling this issue. 

“Every internship under the programme is customised according to a student’s strengths and area of study – which is time-consuming to do – but we feel that this is worthwhile in order to develop the right tech talent. We look forward to welcoming our first batch of interns next year and hope to subsequently grow the pool of students under the programme.”, he added. 

Most of these students will be selected from a currently ongoing hackathon organised by NP in close partnership with the bank. Incorporated into the core curriculum of Year 2 students in the Information Technology course, the hackathon features problem statements from the Bank, as well as its tech experts on the judging panel, giving students early exposure to industry challenges and insights to potential solutions. 

 The Programme complements OCBC Bank’s existing line-up of technology talent initiatives including the Professional Conversion Programme (PCP), Technology in Finance Programme (TFIP), and the OCBC Graduate Talent Programme.

These are all part of the bank’s digital transformation strategy which will also see the bank ramp up its investments in technology, beef up its workforce capabilities and create more agile and collaborative processes.

The post OCBC’s new industry program preps S’porean students for fintech jobs appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

The rise of financial technology (fintech) in the region has led to a talent crunch, with more than two-thirds (67%) of finance professionals in Southeast Asia saying they are experiencing difficulty finding qualified talent. 

Industry insiders warn that Southeast Asia is on the cusp of a ‘talent tech war’ as financial institutions scramble for tech talent in the region. 

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Cusp of a talent tech war

Global fintech investment surged from $87.1 billion in the second half of 2020 to a record $98 billion in the first half of 2021. Meanwhile, the growth in the fintech market is expected to grow gradually and reach a market value of $US324 billion by 2026.

The growth n in demand for tech talent to support the expansion of this sector leads to this talent war in Southeast Asia, with Singapore emerging as one of the biggest winners and other countries not far behind.

Announcements of new startups related to fintech, especially in Southeast Asia, are commonplace at the moment. Companies and organizations compete with other industries such as e-commerce and digital media. The demand for skilled workers who can contribute to their growth has increased along with the boom of this industry.

In 2021, Southeast Asian startups have raised over US$6 billion from venture investors, and the region is now home to 42 unicorns – companies valued at more than US$10 billion. As Southeast Asia’s startup landscape booms and accelerates to new heights, so are salaries for developers who can help build out fast-growing, innovative businesses. 

Startups in Singapore and Malaysia are now experiencing a talent crunch, with the average salary for software engineers in Singapore is S$5307.

According to data from recruitment agency Michael Page, Southeast Asian unicorns and local startups compete for talent; job switchers can command salary increases of 15% to 20% in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Sought after roles in Singapore and Malaysia

In 2021, the demand for technology candidates will continue at a rapid pace as the Singapore government appears to be a leading global technology hub. The desire to recruit local talent will continue into the coming year, resulting in ample opportunity for Singapore’s best tech talent. In order to fill the skills gap in the market, there is still a strong demand for foreign talent in emerging or niche technologies.

Software developers are highly demanded and are especially notable in banks and insurance companies.

As companies increasingly pursue digital-centric strategies, the risks involved need to be addressed, which is why cybersecurity candidates are critical for businesses.

Once viewed as a niche speciality, fintech is fast becoming a leading model for Malaysian companies, influencing consumer behaviour in many ways. 

Interest in digital banking increased in 2020, with digital payments and loans being adopted by consumers. However, most banks are still in the implementation phase. In 2021, developers will be hired for in-house applications, while legacy systems will be redesigned to provide a more customer-centric experience. 

 User experience and user interface designers with experience in fintech products such as eWallets and KYC will also see above-average increases in salaries.

The post Talent war in Southeast Asia due to fintech boom appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

According to Structure Research, the colocation market for the Asia Pacific will grow at an expected compound annual growth rate of 12.2% from 2018-2024. Much of the demand comes from global cloud providers, social media platforms, media content, and video streaming, e-commerce platforms, and banking.

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With that many data centers, the demand for a skilled workforce would be high and competitive as well. However, the Covid-19 pandemic has spurred employees to rethink their careers, work conditions, and long-term goals. This has led to a phenomenon known as the Great Resignation and in Singapore, this movement is being led by millennial workers.

According to Employment Hero’s report on Employee Movement and Retention which surveyed 1,000 workers around Singapore to discuss their plans for job movement, more than half of Singaporean workers (59%) are planning to look for a new job within the next 12 months, and it is younger workers who are leading the employee exodus, with 71% of millennial employees aged 25-34 signaling they will be looking for a new role in the coming year.

As such, an increasing number of APAC data centers will be migrating to the cloud or relying more heavily on managed services by 2025, as a shortage of skilled workers impacts the sector’s ability to build new on-premises capacity to meet post-pandemic demand.

Research carried out by ABB Electrification in partnership with Data Center Dynamics (DCD), reveals that the current 50/50 split between data center equipment housed on-premises versus co-location or cloud-based solutions is set for a shakeup over the next four years, with more than two-thirds of senior industry experts indicating that this will shift to just 25% on-premises and 75% to the cloud model in the near future.

For Kent Chow, ABB’s Data Center Segment Leader for the Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa Region, “Our research shows that the data center industry in the APAC region is trying to expand and respond to growing data demand but being held back by a shortage of suitably skilled people. This is an issue the industry has been facing for many years and it can have big consequences for operators, from extra costs to delays in project delivery times.”

An industry shift for APAC data centers

(Source – ABB Electrification)

Interestingly, 42% of data center operators believe there’s not enough skilled labor to deliver increased capacity requirements across the APAC region. And it is not surprising why they feel that way.

With tech adoption accelerating in APAC, skilled tech professionals are always on the move, looking for better options. Several big tech companies like Google, Dell, AWS, IBM, etc have already invested and pledged to work with local education institutes and governments to train and produce more skilled workers.

However, most of these workers would often move out of Asia or look for better opportunities outside their country. Also, three out of four respondents agreed that business transformation in APAC needed hyperscale to progress, but the research revealed that these growth plans are being hampered by several issues which have been created, or made worse, by the pandemic.

The skills shortage issue in the Asia Pacific region mirrors trends in Europe, where 42% of data center operators believe there’s not enough skilled labor to deliver increased capacity requirements across the continent. Over 80% of European companies say they have been affected by labor gaps and more than seven out of ten believe the pandemic has made the industry’s skills shortages worse.

“The continued high demand for data centers combined with the lack of specialist sub-contractors and trades is driving many data center operators to increase their offsite construction. To support data center operators ABB has developed several solutions that limit site work – both commissioning and construction – which can significantly improve speed to deployment,” added Kent.

These include plug-and-play prefabricated or packaged solutions that can reduce deployment time by up to 50% as they are quicker and easier to place and commission on site. eHouses for example are prefabricated and pretested before being transported to the site. As these solutions are fully integrated and debugged before shipment, fewer workers are required on-site, and installation and commissioning time are reduced significantly.

While these solutions may help address some problems in data centers, the reality is, there is a global shortage of skilled workers and it does not seem to be solved anytime soon as well. With the new year approaching, many skilled workers may continue to look for new job opportunities. The only hope now is they consider remaining in the data center industry and more skilled workers be produced in the near future to meet the growing demand.

The post APAC data centers plagued by skills shortage appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

As such, in 2020, Kaspersky developed a Cyber Capacity Building Progam which is designed to help companies, government, organizations, and academia to develop practical tools and knowledge for security assessments. The program allowed not only allows organizations to identify cybersecurity risks but also discover how they can manage and mitigate them.

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In the Asia Pacific, cyber resilience is slowly becoming the framework companies are looking at. However, when it comes to cyber capacity building, education, and awareness, how can businesses and even governments in APAC ensure the goals are met?

Speakers at the Kaspersky APAC Online Policy Forum discussed how a nation’s cyber-resilience abilities are often limited by the know-how of its human resources and the quality of cross-border collaboration between the region’s private and public organizations.

“In the Cyber Age, as we experience an accelerated digital transformation, we’re facing security challenges that put a strain on cybersecurity resources. Investing in cyber talent and promoting security awareness and digital education for users are the keys to success in building cyber-resilient digital societies and economies,” said Chris Connell, Managing Director for the Asia Pacific at Kaspersky.

(Photo by Roslan Rahman / AFP)

Reducing the skills gap

There is no denying that APAC is facing a huge shortage of skilled workers.

In the tech industry, a shortage of skilled security professionals is one of the many reasons why companies have also not fully invested in cyber resilience.

For Craig Jones, Cybercrime Director at Interpol, there have been numerous studies and research over the years that highlight a big global cybersecurity skills gap, particularly in APAC.

As countries accelerated their digitalization efforts and embraced emerging technologies, many did not consider the implications that can arise from the shortage of a skilled cybersecurity workforce.

“One of the key challenges that Interpol identified are the gaps in law enforcement cyber capabilities and capacity, nationally, regionally, and globally. Whilst these remain criminal networks can expand their infrastructure and activities.

Building cyber resilience requires strategy

To overcome this challenge, law enforcement must be a trusted partner beyond national borders and sectors. Being collaborative, inclusive, and open will help us reduce the gaps, bridging the divides in capabilities and capacity,” explained Jones.

Echoing Jones was Professor Li Yuxiao, Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Cyberspace Studies. Li specified that cyber capacity building in APAC should “focus on network infrastructure, be alert to the challenges brought by cyber security, and strengthen the development of personnel training system” as the region continues to harness the power of Industry 4.0.

For Professor Seungjoo Kim, a member of South Korea’s Presidential Committee on the 4th Industrial Revolution, as the importance of cybersecurity spreads across all areas, security experts are forced to have more in-depth domain knowledge than ever before. He added that it’s time for everyone to think about a more effective workforce development program to train security experts specialized in each industrial sector.

To ensure cyber resilience is achieved, more organizations are now looking to build on their security teams. This includes ensuring educational training for all employees as well as increasing their headcount for skilled cybersecurity professionals.

Tech giants have also started ensuring more is done to solve the problem. Some of the big tech companies are already working with universities and organizations to reduce the skills gap. Kaspersky themselves have expanded its SafeBoard internship program in APAC, whereby local candidates can from a variety of technical and non-technical positions and be exposed to the growing industry of cybersecurity.

The post Why is the Asia Pacific struggling with cyber resilience? appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

As industries scrambled to remain productive amidst movement restrictions, many have turned to cloud and online services to connect their teams remotely so business goes on as usual.

Digital skills gap at crisis levels globally

The demand for workers who are IT and digitally skilled isn’t something new and has been preached by analysts, researchers, and experts for years as nations move towards growing their digital economies. 

The sudden pace with which challenges appeared for tech-reliant businesses has exacerbated the issue of a dearth of ICT and digitally-savvy talent, especially in cybersecurity, the latter of which is highly important to protecting remote workforces.

According to McKinsey, over 90% of executives across the world are facing digital skills gaps in their workforces. This is a particular blight of the APAC region, where a majority of workforces are employed by SMEs. These SMEs have tended to put off digitalization efforts in past years, perhaps due to a misconception that such a shift would entail high costs.

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According to Randstad Malaysia, the need for workers with digital skills is rising, even in “traditional” functions such as accounting & finance, human resources, sales & marketing, and risk & compliance. Furthermore, rising future tech such as quantum computing will need talent too.

This is in part due to the growth of industries such as e-commerce, fintech, logistics & supply chain, manufacturing, R&D, MedTech, and biotech. The global recruitment agency estimates that these industries in particular will continue to see solid growth in 2021.

Governments addressing the digital skills gap

Singapore, seen as a tech darling and emerging tech powerhouse of the SEA region, is facing a severe tech talent shortage across all verticals. Aside from promoting upskilling of citizens through the SkillsFuture initiative, one other way the government has addressed this longstanding issue is to make the island nation more attractive to skilled foreign knowledge workers.

However, such a move has not sat well with critics, who allege that FTAs such as CECA (Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement) would allow foreigners “unfettered access” to jobs in the country of almost six million. 

Unsurprisingly, the influx of foreigners has been unpopular with a seemingly monolithic citizenry at risk of normalized xenophobia who believe these foreigners are there to “steal their jobs”. 

Irate citizens aside, the city-state has to address the digital skills shortage as quickly as possible. As reported by Reuters, “A boom in technology jobs across all sectors in Singapore and a shortage of tech workers means the country will have to rely on foreigners to fill the gap,” said Ravi Menon, the managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore said in May.

Over in Australia, one in six businesses faces skill deficiency problems. Some 64,000 businesses lack skilled finance professionals; 55,000, marketing professionals, and 45,000 businesses lack IT professionals.

Chief executive of the Australian Institute of Public Accountants (IPA) Andrew Conway, has called on both state and federal governments to reform the education system in order to “increase the stock of knowledge-based workers available for employment”.

The IPA urged governments to consider implementing enterprise training and STEM subjects at all levels of the education system, together with appropriate levels of promotion and financial support. 

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Over in the fast-rising ASEAN digital economy Malaysia, the central government has approached the urgent digital skills gap by increasing the talent development of citizens through partnering with multiple tech giants. 

In July, the HRDF (Human Resource Development Fund) launched a one-stop portal called HCF (HRDF Placement Center) that matches employers from a wide range of industries and sectors to the right candidates.

According to the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia Malaysia (MCMC), the HPC aims to fill immediate vacancies and offer training and development opportunities. Additionally, it would connect workers with an expansive list of coaches and trainers for career counseling and advice.

Addressing the skills shortage: not just a governmental effort

The private sector, including foreign tech giants, will find that it is a prime opportunity to step up to the challenge of skills training and development for local workforces.

Recently, Malaysian telco Celcom Axiata inked a “Digital Leadership MoU” with tech giant Huawei Technologies Malaysia. The Digital Leadership initiative will launch a set of talent development programs that aims to nurture aspiring ICT professionals from within Celcom’s existing workforce, equipping them with skills related to the latest technological developments.

These tech skills, according to a release by Celcom, include Big Data, Cloud computing, the Internet of Things (IoT), 5G technology, and other “pervasive technologies”.

Whilst Celcom’s initiative seems self-serving, independent efforts like these still go towards improving the technological and digital capabilities of workers, even if it is for a particular company.

Collaborations between local businesses and tech giants result in sharing best practices and knowledge transference from global leaders in tech without needing to wait for governmental action. This is especially valuable for nations where governments and associated bodies tend to work in silos separated by layers of red tape, and which are marred by a lack of operational efficiencies and improper communications.

Overall, governments can only do so much — filling up vast numbers of vacancies with foreign talent is but a short-term solution. Upskilling or training native citizens with digital skills should still be a priority for most nations, alongside stop-gap solutions such as bringing in foreign talent.

It is imperative for workforces to be able to “future-proof” themselves in terms of employment opportunities and be well-positioned to drive economies of the future for the long term. After all, foreign talents are not likely to remain in the workforce for long, as long as better opportunities exist elsewhere.

The post What will it take to bridge the digital skills gap in APAC? appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.