(NORTHFIELD) Northfield Councilwoman Susan M. Korngut, candidate for Atlantic County Executive, today proposed her plan to bring cybersecurity training and jobs to Atlantic County.

“Experts are predicting that there will be 3.5 million cybersecurity job openings by 2021,” said Korngut.^[1] “Cybercrimes will triple the number of job openings in the next five years according to the same report. We have an opportunity to make Atlantic County the hub for the training for those job openings and home for the businesses offering those jobs. We already have interest from the aviation field and the defense industry. We have one shot to change the economic paradigm of Atlantic County or we can continue to remain stuck in the status quo.”

Korngut notes that Atlantic County is the leader in the State for sex trafficking according to the New Jersey Attorney General’s office.

“Combatting these crimes requires a comprehensive, coordinated effort. At the core of that effort is staying one step ahead of these criminals who often lure their victims online. Hidden chats, the ability to make online conversations disappear and the ease with which our kids communicate with strangers these days all help the predator. Having the most advanced training to be able to go online and stop these predators in their tracks will make every child safer,” said Korngut.

The second part of Korngut’s plan includes attracting private capital to form a public-private partnership while making Atlantic County the East Coast version of Silicon Valley, or as Korngut describes it, “Silicon Shore.”

“We will provide for schools to include more coding, HTML, JavaScript etc. so that our graduates have a base of knowledge to qualify them for these jobs on the day they receive their diploma,” said Korngut. “We will also reshape the landscape of Atlantic City to make it friendly for tech companies, tech startups and cybersecurity firms to come to our area. We will offer incentives for these companies to purchase buildings which formerly housed casinos and retrofit them with clean energy initiatives such as solar panels to add energy to the grid. When we offer incentives for a business to come here, we need to ensure that they are required to stay long after the incentives expire and that we require them to hire local. With the right person at the helm, with the right leadership and vision, we can use the infrastructure of the past to build a more sustainable future for Atlantic City and, thus, all of Atlantic County.”

To learn more about Councilwoman Korngut’s candidacy for County Executive, please go to korngut4countyexecutive.com