Cybersecurity offers jobs, high wages — if enough people can be trained

Sonya Swink
Sioux Falls Argus Leader
Madison Cyber Labs at Dakota State University help students study and work through data.

As people consider careers or new options in work, high-paying jobs in traditional fields like health may come to mind, but one industry is prospering off of protecting the data of others.

Cybersecurity, the protection of computer systems and networks, is emerging as a promising industry in South Dakota with more than enough jobs. The issue? There aren't enough faculty to train people to fill that work.

From 100% job placement for some graduates to millions in funding for local cybersecurity startups, there’s a small local network that reaches thousands of clients popping up in South Dakota — and graduates who are in high demand.

But the industry is small now and has an unsure future ahead if it can't keep up. Right now Dakota State University's acceptance rate is 21% for its PhD programs including that in cybersecurity, on par with a public Ivy league for 2021.

Fall 2016 to Fall 2021 did see student enrollment in the The Beacom College of Computer and Cyber Sciences from 1,005 to 1,239. But there's still more demand than supply of teachers.

“There’s not a single industry that exists that doesn’t need cybersecurity,” said Ashley Podhradsky, the vice president for research and economic development at Dakota State University. “So whether you’re looking at law or healthcare, the defense industry or retail, every single industry has a cyber component.”

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Dr. Ashley Podhradsky, the associate dean of the Beacom College of Computer and Cyber Sciences at Dakota State University has seen demand for cybersecurity degrees "explode" in recent years.

DSU offers degrees in cyber security, from the certificate to doctorate level, and has seen applications double in the last few years for its programs. Still small, cybersecurity isn’t quite at full steam in South Dakota.

“We’re just seeing so much demand, so many students want in,” Podhradsky said. ”They see five or six job offers right out the gate for jobs.”

And though growing, cybersecurity isn’t the biggest sector by a long shot. The jobs with the most openings over the next several years are in trucking and nursing, according to data and projections from the South Dakota Department of Labor and Regulation (SDDLR).

Still, Podhradsky believes the collaboration between government, universities, startups and businesses to protect websites and politicians and important financial data in South Dakota is one of its strengths, and one that will help set it apart from larger states.

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New startups are hiring

The Paulson Center at Dakota State University is part of the school's vision to help birth startups in cybersecurity and other technical fields out of its programs.

Schools like South Dakota State University and DSU partner with startups, such as Query.AI. The business recently raised startup funding of $15 million and plans to double its headcount in the next year or more. 

“We are very actively, very aggressively looking for talent. And we’re looking here,” Dhiraj Sharan, the founder of Query.AI said. After spending most of his career in the Bay Area, Sharan joined his wife in South Dakota recently after she was offered a teaching role at a university.

Then, Sharan decided to get started on his fourth startup right from home and saw his local university and business network grow quickly. 

Dakota State University's Cybersecurity programs have doubled in applications to its bachelor's to doctorate programs in recent years.

“A lot of our angel investors, seed investors, were from South Dakota tapping their network,” Sharan said. “So we have that support and it’s nice to have here from everyone.”

Query.AI went from a few local companies using its product, which acts like an all-in-one tool to access all the security features a company may have and view them in one place, to a business with quick revenue goals and nearly $20 million in fundraising in three years.

With "very, very aggressive revenue projections" for the next year, Query.AI is posting jobs for several positions, from helping develop its system to sales.

Then there’s companies like Infotech, SBS Cybersecurity and more all based out of programs started in local universities that grew into dozens or more employees.

“When you look at Infotech and you look at SBS cybersecurity. We're going to see more like that, we're going to see more development of resources and tools in automation within cyber security coming out of DSU,” Podhradsky said.

From helping automate the process of protecting lakes full of data, to helping offer training programs for businesses and their analysts and beyond, local startups are offering careers in cybersecurity. What’s next is finding enough people to help work them or innovate to offer a new product within the field.