The 13 best universities in the UK if you want a job in cyber security

Queen's University Belfast

This Irish uni has great ties to big name companies in cyber

For the last half decade, the UK government and security industry has been warning we are in the middle of a massive cyber skills gap.

The lack of skilled defenders means many companies are woefully vulnerable to attacks, a trend that has been showcased by the sweep of mega data breaches to afflict big name companies, including Target, JP Morgan, and Wal-Mart.

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On the plus side, it means that companies are now willing to pay big bucks for cyber professionals. According to Robert Half Technology's Salary Guide, security professionals salaries are the fastest growing in the country.

But with many roles requiring some pretty hefty training, and the letters MSc or Phd before an applicant's name, most will need to study at a post grad level to break into the industry.

Here to help, we've made a list of the the only 13 universities in the UK to have received the government's hallowed Academic Centres of Excellence in Cyber Security Research (ACEs-CSR) accreditation - which means they turn out top-knotch research - and then ranked them according to their computer science ranking on the Complete University Guide.