FOX CITIES, Wis. (NBC 26) -- As more people and businesses find their computer systems compromised by hackers, some local educators who teach cybersecurity courses say, job placement in the IT profession continues to rise.
Across Wisconsin, educators are tapping into a growing field in IT, a profession that focuses on keeping business' data protected.
"We taught our very first cybersecurity class in the spring. We'll have another new one this fall, and another new one next spring," says Michael Patton a professor at UWO's College of Business and Information Systems.
Patton says his programs are designed in part to protect businesses' most important data. And it turns out just about everyone is a candidate when it comes to who could be compromised.
"They can attack just about anyone. Whether it's an individual, a small business, a large business, or a government entity," adds Patton.
Patton says in just the last 12 months over 300 cybersecurity jobs were created in the Fox Cities alone. It's an effort on behalf of businesses to help ensure all the information within their systems is safe.
"Data is gold. It's the new gold. If somebody can get your data, especially social security numbers, or even just personal information, all of that stuff can be sold on the dark web," says Joe Wetzel the IT Instruction Department's Chairman at Fox Valley Technical College.
Wetzel says his cybersecurity programs are gaining in popularity as more and more businesses realize, how vulnerable they are without an employee to be on the lookout for threats.
"Right now, really everybody is starting to see that security is something that's needed. And people in this profession have been screaming this for the past ten years. I mean you need to have someone on staff that knows security," adds Wetzel.
And with a growing number of people working remotely nowadays continues to remain high, and the number of folks staying connected is steadily increasing, computer science experts say computer hacking is becoming an issue that should be on everyone's radar.
"All you need is one person to do something wrong and then everything inside that network is vulnerable," says Wetzel.
"They may not think, given what their business is that they are a target, I'm telling you you're a target," adds Patton.
