Employers say IT graduates lack security know-how

IT undergraduates are not learning enough about security training during their university studies, it has been claimed.

According to new research from the Cyber Security Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN), only 20% of IT graduates have a meaningful understanding of security.

Chair of the Cyber Security KTN Special Interest Group in Secure Software Development, John Harrison, told IT Week: 'We're not expecting to turn out graduates who are experts in secure software development, but 80% are hardly even being told about it.'

KTN studied software developer courses at 75 UK universities and discovered that 80% of students receive less than five hours of training a week.

Hadrian James from Compuware added that while there is a lot of focus on object design in undergraduate courses, security should receive more attention.

Meanwhile, there have been several calls recently for careers in IT to be promoted to more youngsters, with Jan Peters of the British Computer Society urging female IT professionals to become role models for the industry.